[sdiy] Home Wiring question?

[jeff brown]

You should NOT be getting a shock if it's only bad earth grounding. You 
don't want current that you can feel going through audio gear!

Try testing both outlets with one of those little plug-in testers ($10 at 
Home Depot). That'll tell you if there's anything really wrong. I found a 
lot of incorrectly wired outlets in my house this way. Or call an 
electrician.

The 2 outlets may be on diferent phases (if they are on 2 different 
circuits) or one of them has hot & neutral swapped. Either one is bad.

If your house has metal outlet boxes (which should be connected to ground), 
installing 3 prong outlets should serve you pretty well if your wiring is up 
to code. The fuse box is usually grounded to the water pipes or through a 
copper (or copper clad) grounding rod.

Electricity should be your friend.

I have also found that running all of my audio gear off of one circuit 
pretty much eliminates AC hum problems.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Curtis" <sexsymbol at execpc.com>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 1:18 AM
Subject: [sdiy] Home Wiring question?


> Hi Everyone -
>
> I'm moving a new console into my home studio and I've found a problem.
>
> I live in an old, rented farmhouse.  The studio is woefully inadequate, 
> power wise, with only 2 outlets in the room.
> I noticed that if I plug, say, the console into one outlet and a synth 
> into the other and go to connect them with a patchcable, I get a decent 
> shock off the cable.  Turns out that although they are both 3 prong 
> outlets, neither outlet is grounded.  Checking around, this is the case 
> with all the outlets on the first floor.
>
> Is it just as easy as connecting a ground wire to the box, or is there 
> something else that I have to take into account.  Of course I want to try 
> to keep things up to code.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
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