Yet another Grounding Question-Separate 'Earth'


I emailed this question to Nsgarch since he gave advice on another thread respecting the separate grounding of a dedicated subpanel, but at the risk of making some of you read yet another grounding question, I decided to post it as well. Here goes:


My electrician has installed a separate subpanel for the audio system which is 'upstream' even of the main breaker panel in the house.
It will have several dedicated lines, each with a 20 amp breaker (Square D) running separate grounds to Hubbell Hospital Grade Outlets. I was concerned about the potential 'difference' among these separate lines- one will support mid-hi-freq. amps, others, the subwoofer amps, and a third, the lower powered front-end equipment (preamp, phono stage and TT- no digital). I do have one of those Granite Audio thingies which permits me to 'star ground' everything to a single point in the system, FWIW.
But, and here's the really critical question- my electrician has proposed a pair of separate ground rods about 10' from the main ground for the rest of the house electrical system, and in his view, the audio system subpanel would be grounded just to these new ground rods, not connected, by ground or anything else, to the rest of the house. In one of Nsgarch's postings on this subject, he indicated that there could be a differential in the two different panel groundings which could put current to the 'neutral' and create a shock risk. As I understood the advice, it was to make sure that the audio subpanel shares the same 'earth' ground as the rest of the house.
Could you comment?

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128x128whart

Showing 1 response by jeffreybehr

ADDITIONAL, not separate, grounds are a fine idea. IOW, adding ground stakes and attaching them to the new panel is fine as long as the new ground wire also runs to the old panel and adds to its grounding. My 1958-model house has an added 4g. ground wire running throughout the attic. It was attached to a waterpipe at the front of the house and the input panel at the side of the house. When I added 3 dedicated lines last year, the electrician added 2 ground stakes below the panel and grounded the already-grounded ground buss to these stakes. Yours should do the same. BTW I now water the bed of earth containing the new groundstakes about weekly, as I'm in the desert.
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