All Do you use an earth spike, if so how did you do it?

Basically you hammer a gr8 big copper/silver spike into your garden, seperate out your hifi earth circuit and wire it to the spike.
Check out how easy it is to "drive" into the soil of your garden 1st in order to estimate the length of the spike [as all girls kno, longer and thicker the better] to use,some guys[it can only be "a guy thing"] water the spike and the surrounding soil regularly to maintain good continuity.
Got my two section spike from ScrewfixDirect but it's been languishing unused in my workshop for 9yrs

I recently had my electrical service upgraded, and I watched the electricians put 3 8-foot rods in the ground, wire them in series, and attach the wire from the breaker box to one of them. A hammer drill sank the rods in about 10 seconds each.

I sked for a separate spike for the hifi's separate spur, but they never got around to it. Wanks.

I put an earth spike in about 2 years ago.

As well as the earth wire in my 6mm t@e to the house earth I also ran a length of 6mm earth wire from every socket to the spike.

The improvements were a substantially quieter background and it also felt like more bass power.

Well worth the effort for the small amount it costs.

I have and it made a huge improvement.

I ran a seperate 10mm2 earth wire from my (single) separate spur, and connected it directly to the meter Earth input (as provided by the electicity Supply).

I then connected a 16mm2 earth wire from this connection to a new 4 foor copper earth spike hammered into the ground a couple of feet from the electric meter.

This is the safest way of doing it however if you are 100% confident that your new earth is good you can run a wire directly from your separate spur to your new earth spike (avoiding the Electricity supply earth). However you need to test the quality before you do this (an electrician can do this)

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Originally posted by greeny:
I ran a seperate 10mm2 earth wire from my (single) separate spur, and connected it directly to the meter Earth input (as provided by the electicity Supply).

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If I understand this, you bypassed the earth wire that alreeady went back to the fuse box, and replaced it with a separate wire than went back to slightly before the fuse box? I'm not sure there's much point in this. It sounds like you have a minor safety issue for minimal audio benefits.

At least you don't seem to have disconnected the mains earth (which could be incredibbly dangerous). Unless you have an RCD on your fuse box, then this would be stupidly risky (as opposed to just v. stupid).

FWIW, I have a 12 foot (3x4 foot) spike in the garden, and the system sounds much better with it disconnected, rather than providing a star earth from the fuse box.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

This is one area where the words "I am afraid I don't know much about ..." should be answered by - "then get someone in who does."
While you may receive advice from a qualified electrician I would be VERY wary of acting on any advice given here - unless you possess the ability to judge its accuracy. Wrong earth arrangements will kill. Sorry WRONG EARTH ARRANGEMENTS WILL KILL.

[This message was edited by Adam Meredith on Thu 04 November 2004 at 20:58.]

What you all seem to be missing is it's the equipment signal earths which need to be seperated star wired to an earth spike. Messing with the power earth is very dangerous as its bonded to Negative.

John,

Naim source components connect signal earth to mains earth.

If you provide a separate signal earth (perhaps at the binding post on the back of the amp), then under fault conditions, large currents @ 240V could flow **through** CDP & preamp and into your earth spike. Well, only for about 1/2 a second, until everything starts to melt.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

quote:

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If I understand this, you bypassed the earth wire that alreeady went back to the fuse box, and replaced it with a separate wire than went back to slightly before the fuse box? I'm not sure there's much point in this. It sounds like you have a minor safety issue for minimal audio benefits.

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I guess you understand what I have done, but I fail to see where the saftey issue is? The normal earth wire in a T&E cable is maybe 2-4mm2 (it's always significantly lower guage than the power/neutral) I've replaced this with a 10mm2 wire. And added an earth spike. The spike may not help your system Martin but it does mine.

Some little while ago I put together a little webpage on earthing for hifi. Hope it gives pointers on where to go. I am not an electrician, so take care and seek specialist advice if in any doubt.

Bear in mind also that a new Building Regulation - Approved Document Part P - comes into effect from 1st Jan 2005, which will effectively require that all domestic electric works - with a few exception, like replacement of damagd sockets - will be 'notifiable' (to Building Control) and /or required to be signed-off by a 'competent' (ie qualified) person.

[This message was edited by Martin Clark on Thu 04 November 2004 at 19:39.]

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Originally posted by greeny:
I fail to see where the saftey issue is?

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Greeny,

I may well be wrong about this, but I thought that the regulations specify that the earth wire should be within the same bundle as the live & neutral.

I suspect the danger is that the separate earth wire could be damaged, and then not provide protection when you need it. When the earth is buried inside the T&E bundle, any damage to the earth wire would almost certainly damage at least one of the other wires, too. Quite a remote possibility, but you have to bear in mind that stuff like this could end up sitting hidden within your walls for decades.

"Minor", as I said.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.