Star ground - have I understood correctly?

[its_miked]

Hi

Can you somebody check my crude diagram below.

If I read the forum posts correctly, I believe that I need to wire each plug to earth. If I have 4 plugs I need 4 cables to run to earth. The earth needs to be a rod of copper 1.5m long and about 1.5cm diameter.

I then run the live and neutral to their own fuse box or phase - just used for anything that connects to a sound device (including my music computer)

All lights etc need their own path to neutral and to their own fuse box/phase.

Is this OK. I am in Viet Nam and the concept of an earth is rather foreign to many!

If this is the case what gauge of wire should I be using and do you think that 4 plugs is enough. I do have an 8 socket voltage stabilizer that I will use on one socket.

wiring.gif

Thanks

Mike

[Speedskater]

Stop Mike, that's not the way to wire the room. The Hot, Return (I won;t call it Neutral) and Safety Ground (EGC) wires should have a one to one to one relationship all the way back to the building AC Power Service Entrance. These wires should also be in close proximity from the main breaker panel to the outlets. All ground rods and other connections to Mother Earth need to be connected together near the Service Entrance & the main breaker panel.

[its_miked]

Ok,

Thanks. I obviously haven't a clue about wiring a building!

The problem I have is that when I see the electrician today, I can guarantee that he wont know what a star ground is either and probably hasn't grounded a building in a long time if ever. It is simply not done here. I thought the idea was that each socket had its own path to earth? And this earth is a copper rod stuck into the ground. I will just have to see and hope that the electrician has some idea of grounding.

Mike

[Speedskater]

These papers have everything to know about AC Power and Audio/Video systems:

The Jim Brown of Audio Systems Group white paper:
with a section on International Power systems
"Power and Grounding for Audio and Audio/Video Systems"
http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/SurgeXPowerGround.pdf

The Bill Whitlock of Jensen Transformers Seminar paper:
http://www.jensen-transformers.com/an/g ... eminar.pdf

"The TRUTH" from ExactPower of Middle Atlantic Products
http://www.exactpower.com/elite/wpapers.aspx

or a different version of the same paper

"Power White Paper" from Middle Atlantic.com
http://www.middleatlantic.com/power.htm

[its_miked]

Thanks, I appreciate your help. Fantastic references. I have a much better understanding now.

I met the electrician and showed him the SAE article on star grounding (link from this forum). He said he understood.

Looks like even though few houses are built with an earth, the electricians at least know what should be done. He said he was going to put down 4 x 3.5m rods for earth and one on the roof for lightning. There will be one "technical" circuit for sound and maybe the music PC - (one 15A socket for my power conditioner which has 8 sockets for the sound equipment (After reading the paper from Mid Atlantic, I believe this wasn't a great buy!) .One socket for PC and monitor which will be connected via a UPS. The computer is only attached to the sound equipment by a LAN cable and a firewire cable) If there is noise from this I will try and power the PC from the standard lighting circuit. If this doesnt work I will look into the Furman products as described in this forum

Mike