Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

"God's only ground is in the basement of Bell Labs, in New Jersey" - Phil Dillion, Reliance
Electric (my old boss).

One more thing to lose sleep over:

If your house has old, 2-prong plugs, OR if you replaced the 2-prong with 3-prong, but didn't
have a 'hard ground' for the plug (i.e. 3 conductor ROMEX with green to a water pipe, or in older
crappy houses the BX cable which has a solid 'jacket' that carried ground, which is steel, which
likes to rust) YOU ARE SCREWED.

The reason is you need 'common mode' MOVs: line to ground, neutral to ground. If you don't have a
ground, these aren't connected!

And, if all you have is 1 MOV strips (across line-neutral), ask Stooge Larry (KOAAC) to tell war
stories about 'ground lift'. God help you in an apartment complex :(

Paul S.
in studio, has 1.5 inch wide, copper braid to a water pipe which is buried 50" in the ground.

"No matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd." - Phil Dillon