Why is grounding important

The third wire and prong provide the ground link between the metal frame of the appliance and the grounding of the wiring system. The best thing you can do to create a safe electrical system is to ensure the whole system is grounded and the ground circuit is electrically continuous. Grounding your electrical system is a smart and easy way to make it a whole lot safer, as well as to protect against the very real possibility of having to deal with fluctuations in power supply.

If you want to safeguard all of your important assets, whether at home or at the office, as well as look out for the health and safety of everyone around you, find out if your electrical system is grounded — and if it is not, contact Platinum Electricians today on Platinum Platinum Electricians is rated 9.

Need a Plumber? Check out our business JetBlack Plumbers. Join Platinum Employment Opportunities. Platinum Electricians. About Platinum. Client Testimonials. It is this polarized charge than effectively constitutes the flow of electrical current, and it arrives at your home through a vast network of high-tension service wires, substations, and transformers that blanket the landscape. The negative half of the charge is the "hot" current.

In your home's wiring system, the hot current is normally carried by black wires, while the neutral wires, which are white, carry the positive charge. Both sets of wires enter your home through the utility's main service wires, run through your electrical service panel, and run side-by-side through every circuit in your home.

The physics of electrical flow are more complicated than most simple explanations can convey, but essentially, electricity seeks to return its electrons to "ground"—that is, to discharge its negative energy and return to equilibrium. Normally, the current returns to ground through the neutral wires in the electrical system. But should some breakdown of the pathway occur, the hot current may instead flow through other materials, such as metal or wood framing, metal pipes, or flammable materials in your home.

This is what may happen in a short circuit situation , where most electrical fires and shocks originate. A short circuit is when electricity strays outside the wires it is supposed to flow through—in other words, when it takes a shorter path to ground.

To prevent this danger, your home's electrical system includes a backup plan—a system of grounding wires that runs parallel to the hot and neutral wires. It provides an alternate pathway for electrical current to follow should there be a breakdown in the system of hot and neutral wires that normally carry the current.

If a wire connection becomes loose, for example, or a rodent gnaws through a wire, the grounding system channels the stray current back to ground by this alternate pathway before it can cause a fire or shock. The grounding pathway is generally formed by a system of bare copper wires that connect to every device and every metal electrical box in your home. In standard sheathed NM cable, this bare copper wire is included along with the insulated conducting wires inside the cable.

The bare copper grounding wires terminate in a grounding bar in your main service panel, and that grounding bar is in turn connected to a grounding rod driven deep into the earth outside your home. This grounding system provides a path of least resistance for electricity to follow back to ground should a break in the wiring system allow electricity to "leak" out of the preferred system of black and white circuit wires. In most home wiring systems , evidence of the grounding system can be seen at each outlet receptacle, where the third round slot in the face of the receptacle represents the grounding connection.

When a grounded appliance plugs into such a receptacle, its round grounding prong is now directly connected to the system of bare copper grounding wires inside the house circuits. Not all homes have this elaborate and complete grounding system formed by a network of bare copper wires.

While such a grounding system is standard in homes with circuit breakers that are wired with sheathed NM cable, older wiring systems installed before may be grounded through metal conduit or metal cable, not bare copper grounding wires. It can be difficult to know if your home is properly grounded without a circuit tester or professional inspection.

There are a couple of things to look for that will give you an idea, however. First of all: do your outlets have two prongs or three? The lower, third prong of an outlet connects to the ground wire. Even if each of your outlets has three prongs, you may still not have effective grounding. Sometimes, homes that were once grounded now have ineffective grounding because of damage or wiring mistakes.

Homes built in the 50s and 60s often have no grounding or ineffective grounding, even if they have three-prong outlets. If you want to know if your home is grounded for sure, invest in a home circuit tester or schedule an inspection. Your best option would be to call an electrician to install grounding immediately. These outlets automatically interrupt the flow of electricity when they sense a shock, fire, or damage hazard. Download Chrome. Grounding your electrical systems is critical to protect both building occupants and equipment from the danger of high voltage.

When a conductive surface, like metal, is not grounded and becomes electrically energized, it can carry sufficient voltage to administer a fatal shock. Imagine that an electrical issue occurs, like a lightning strike or a power surge, where no grounding exists.