Inexpensive Earthing / Grounding setups - Tried and true solutions

[Jexx]

I would like this thread to be a place where we can share our inexpensive earthing solutions, which have proven to be effective.

Please feel free to post details of any earthing kit or setups that you have tried and found to be good.

I have put together and tested many different styles of earthing setup and will be posting the details of some the best ones in this thread over the next few weeks.

Some of the D.I.Y earthing setups I will be posting soon are:



Anti static wrist strap setups (fast cheap and easy)
Earthing connections to pipes and main sockets
Earthing with silver conductive socks (great to sleep in)
D.I.Y earthing socks using silver conductive thread (great to sleep in)
Earthing carpet squares (good under desks and for meditation)
D.I.Y earthing sheets using silver conductive thread
Creating soft wrist bands and leg bands using socks and conductive silver thread

[Jexx]

Anti static wrist straps

Earthing wrist straps have been used for decades in the electronics industry. They are very cheap and work extremely well. (Also commonly known as anti-static wrist straps)

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Most of them come with an optional alligator clip which gets pushed on to the end of the cable connector. This alligator clip allows the wrist strap to be clipped to a wide variety of earthed metal items.

When the alligator clip is removed, the banana connector at the end of the cable can be inserted into standard earthing sockets.

The first earthing kit I ever tried was an "off the shelf" wrist band connected to a standard earthing mains bonding plug (see below), and I had the best night sleep I had experienced in years. I find this type of earthing setup is most convenient when sitting at the computer or watching TV (there are much better options for being earthed when sleeping at night).

Mains Earth Bonding Plug

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There are a wide variety of "off the shelf" mains earth bonding plugs, which are mostly designed for use with earthing wrist straps and anti-static mats. These can be purchased from any large electronics supplier and via many online websites.

Many people have also created a “do it yourself” mains bonding plug using a mains plug with only the earth pin present (as seen in at the right of the above picture). Please don’t attempt this unless you are very sure of exactly what you are doing.


Using copper water pipes for earthing connections

A safe and effective earthing bonding option is to attach an earthing clamp/strap to a copper water pipe. Proper earthing straps/clamps can be picked up from many electrical suppliers for less than one dollar.

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Before fitting the earthing clamp to a water pipe, it is a good idea to gently polish the copper pipe with steel wool or fine sand paper to until it is shiny. This helps to make a really good electrical connection. Then put the strap around the pipe and back through the main assembly, pull the strap tight and turn the screw to lock the strap in place. Wires can be connected to the screw terminal that sticks out of the side of the head assembly. Alligator clips will also attach to the connector fairly readily.

[Jexx]

Earthing with silver conductive socks

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An excellent method of earthing during sleep is to use a silver conductive sock which is connected to earth (see image above). Many of these socks are created to be used with TENS machines for pain relief purposes, and thus are designed to make excellent conductive contact with the skin (perfect for earthing the body).

These conductive socks are usually woven with a blend of silver and cotton or synthetic fibres. The highly conductive fabric used is surprisingly soft and comfortable. Making it ideal for use when sleeping.

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The conductive socks used with TENS machines come with a convenient popper connector which attaches the sock to a wire. This wire is often quite short and terminates in a standard 2mm TENS style socket. A longer cable can be purchased, or the existing wire can be extended using any wire with any 2mm pin connector on the end of it (even a 2mm diameter nail soldered to a wire would work at a push).

[Jexx]

D.I.Y earthing socks using silver conductive thread

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Any sock can be turned into an earthing sock by sewing soft silver conductive thread into the sock and then connecting the thread to an earth wire via a popper connector. Any pattern can be sewed into the sock and the more silver thread contacting the skin the better the earthing connection will be. One important tip is to make the thread quite loose between stitches so that the sock can stretch without the thread pulling tight.

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A clothes popper can be sewed onto the other side of the sock using the same silver thread and used to connect the thread to an earth wire. There are many sizes of clothes poppers available and the size that best fits the earth wire connector should be selected.

Sections of silver conductive thread can be tied together to form longer strands or more complex patterns.

The sock can be also be cut in half if an ankle band is preferred instead of a full sock.

[MartaB]

I have some dumb questions, sorry. I want to try these techniques but I don't know how to begin understanding them.

What is a popper connector?

What is an earth wire?

What do you do with an earth bonding plug?

How do you know if a metal item is earthed?

What is an earthing socket?

Thank you.

[Jexx]

Hi MartaB,

I will do my best to answer your questions, please see below:

(Q) What is a popper connector?
A popper connector is a metal connector which makes electrical connections using a press stud. These are virtually identical to the clothes poppers that can be found on some jackets and trousers (used in place of clothes buttons). You should be able to see several images with popper connectors in previous posts (you have to be logged in to see the images). I sometimes buy cheap ECG or EKG cables from Ebay which have the popper connectors already attached to a length of wire.


(Q) What is an earth wire?
An earth wire is any wire used to connect to earth. When earthing ourselves, we can use any type of wire at all. I often use a super flexible speaker wire, but only because it soft, flexible and easy to work with.


(Q) What do you do with an earth bonding plug?
The earth bonding plug is used to connect anti static wrist straps and mats to the mains electrical earth connection.
An earth bonding plug is a special type of plug made to plug into a domestic mains electrical outlets. This earth bonding plug then has connectors on the back of it which allow things to connect to the mains earth pin via a resistor. These earth bonding plugs are used in computer and electronics companies to connect people to earth so static can't damage the computer chips they are working with. Anti static wrist straps (shown in my second post above) are often connected to the mains earth via an earth bonding plug (yellow earth bonding plugs shown in third post).



(Q) How do you know if a metal item is earthed?
If you have metal or copper water pipes in your home, then these are sure to have excellent connections to earth, as the metal pipes go deep into the ground and connect to the streets main water supply. This is also true for metal kitchen sinks connected to copper/metal water pipes. You can also use an off the shelf earthing meter or even a standard multimeter to check to see if a mental pipe is making a good connection to earth. There are many great YouTube videos out there on how to use a multi-meter to check your electrical flow to earthed metal objects. A metal rod driven in the ground also makes a pretty sure fire earth connection, some people prefer this approach.

(Q) What is an earthing socket?
An earthing socket is usually a 4 millimeter diameter banana socket (electrical connection socket). These are often found on yellow mains earth bonding plugs. Anti-static wrist bands plug right into them. They are the socket style connections used to plug anti static mats and wrist bands into (hope this makes sense).

Best Wishes

Jexx

[Jexx]

I have recently had a lot of success with stick on copper tape which is connected to a strong earth. I have used this around my bed, along walls and even across my bedroom doorway. This seems to do a good job with stopping negs taking certain paths, and has gone a long way to stopping night time neg attacks while I am sleeping.

[Eonnn]

These all sound like excellent idea's but when you say connect to earth, how do you do that? for example the wrist straps, I have a metal bed frame would I just connected it to the metal and that's it? and the socks do these have to be mains powered or can you just connect it to metal?

How do you know if something is earthed?

[CFTraveler]

Have it touch the ground, 'earth' doesn't have to be the electrical negative. It might even be dangerous. Instead, connect it to anything that is connected to the actuall physical earth, like a lightning strap to a metal rod dug into the ground.

[Jexx]

These all sound like excellent idea's but when you say connect to earth, how do you do that? for example the wrist straps, I have a metal bed frame would I just connected it to the metal and that's it? and the socks do these have to be mains powered or can you just connect it to metal?

How do you know if something is earthed?


You must connect the wrist straps and other earthing items to a strong electrical earth source. Some people use a metal rod which is driven into the ground (earth), but metal water supply pipes also work really well, as they travel deep in the ground by their very design.

Sometimes the earth pin on an electrical mains power socket can be used (via an adaptor), but to use this as an earth source, you must be sure it connected to a safe earth and the earthing device or plug adaptor must have a resistor fitted inline.

The most ideal earth connection sources are metal water pipes or a dedicated metal/copper rod driven into the ground.

Hope this helps

Jexx

[Eonnn]

You must connect the wrist straps and other earthing items to a strong electrical earth source. Some people use a metal rod which is driven into the ground (earth), but metal water supply pipes also work really well, as they travel deep in the ground by their very design.

Sometimes the earth pin on an electrical mains power socket can be used (via an adaptor), but to use this as an earth source, you must be sure it connected to a safe earth and the earthing device or plug adaptor must have a resistor fitted inline.

The most ideal earth connection sources are metal water pipes or a dedicated metal/copper rod driven into the ground.

Hope this helps

Jexx

It does but what do computer techs normally hook up their wrist bands to? don't they just latch it somewhere on the metal frame of the computer?

I am on the top floor of an apartment building so driving a metal earth stake into the ground in my bedroom isn't much of an option, there are also no copper pipes in my bedroom. I also don't like the idea of hooking up to mains power I don't want to do something stupid and electrocute myself. What can I latch an anti-static wrist band to in my bedroom? the closest thing I have right now is a metal handle on the drawer for the bedside table. The aligator clip is too small to latch onto anything else.

[Jexx]

Hi Eonn,

Computer Techs and Electronics Techs (of which I am both by profession), do indeed connect their ESD wrist bands and ESD mats to a variety of different earthing sources (there are many options available). You definitely cant just connect it to a random metal object, as it wont work unless that object is earthed.

Using the metal case of a computer will work, but only because the metal case of a computer is connected to the mains earth pin (must be law in most countries). This does make a handy earth source when working on computers. I have often earthed myself via the case of a computer, especially when replacing sensitive components in the computer. Clipping an ESD wrist band to the case of a computer is fairly safe despite it using the mains electrical earth. ESD wrist bands have a built in resistor that protects the wearer in the event of a mains electrical fault (extremely rare event that pretty much never happens).

Given the lack of other options for your room, it looks like you best approach would be the metal case of a computer, or a store purchased professional mains earth bonding plug (see images in previous postings on this thread).

The only other option that I can think of is a wall mounted radiator. If you have a wall mounted radiator for heating, they are almost always earthed.

Best Wishes

Jexx

[Eonnn]

Thanks Jexx.

My computer is in my bedroom right next to my bed and I leave it turned on most the time so I will just connect it to the metal case.

Thanks for your help!

[CFTraveler]

When I worked on equipment when I was an electronics technician, my wrist strap was connected to metal on the bench that was connected to earth ground. Such a long time ago...