Electricians: Opinions/advice please!

[Ichinisan]

I suspect that my cable television feed is not grounded because I can feel an uncomfortable amount of "juice" flowing through me when I touch the fitting on the coaxial cable. Knowing that the drop line comes from a tap in the ground (rather than from a utility pole), I don't understand how it can be not grounded. If I run the line through a surge protector, the signal is no longer strong enough to be usable for my cable modem. Also, I suspect that it would exhaust the protection quickly. If I can feel the juice, it can't be good to have that connected to the tuner in my media center computer!

I work for the cable company (as an Internet installer, not a cable technician) and have many useful things, like a ground-block/surge-protector and a roll of insulated copper grounding wire.

The apartment has only two outlets, so there's only a two-way splitter behind a wall plate in the washroom...right next to the breaker box. There's also a standard AC outlet on the other side of the washroom. It would be unsightly to run a wire from the wall plate over to the AC outlet for grounding.

I'm not an electrician, and I know it's dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I do, however, know a qualified electrician. I'm sure that some of you here are qualified, so I'll ask for your opinion before I ask my friend to do it for me.

If it was your decision, would you open up the breaker box to ground the splitwork, or would you run an unsightly wire around the room and occupy the only available AC outlet?

 

[Ichinisan]

Pics:
breaker panel and wall plate/coax splitwork
ground block 1
ground block 2

 

[Ichinisan]

^

 

[grohl]

a little over my head, but I would cut the power to the breaker box and figure out where to ground it there - it seems to be relatively close.

If there's a stud in the way you could go up and over I guess.

 

[Greenman]

Look where the cable enters the building, there should be a small service box at that point, thats where the ground should be. Often they will just run a wire on the exterior of the building and ground to the service panel. (Not to the ground buss in the panel, but to the box itself). You can also ground to a water pipe if it's copper or steel and the system is bonded to the service ground.
If you ground at the sub panel, don't use the ground buss in the panel, just attach the ground to the box. (The box is grounded).

 

[Ichinisan]

I used to access the exterior box when I installed Internet service for other residents in the apartment complex. The box is secured with a padlock and, no, there are no ground blocks. Only a dozen or more couplers for each feed to different apartment units. Because I'm now in Tech Support (*shudder), I no longer have access to the exterior box or the tap columns outside.

 

[Greenman]

Then take the easy way out, tell the cable company you got a shock from the cable connector, let them deal with it.

 

[Ichinisan]

The cable techs already don't like me because I'm the one who creates all the service orders

 

[Greenman]

I'd say you're SOL.

 

[mobobuff]

So if you just touch the stinger on the end of the connector and NOTHING ELSE it gives you a shock?

 

[Ichinisan]

Actually, I feel it when I touch the outer part of the fitting. Unless my mind is playing tricks on me, I do believe that I can feel it even when I'm not touching anything else. I've checked the cables and there's no shielding touching the stinger anywhere. I've checked behind the wall plate also. The "shock" is more noticeable if I'm also touching something that's properly grounded (like the back of my PC).

 

[mchammer]

Tell them to fix it. You should not fix it like you are saying, you could put your wiring at risk.

 

[tjaisv]

Well speaking as a former cable tech for Comcast i'd definitely recommend you call your cable company and let them know if you suspect your apt building isn't grounded. Cable systems have strict grounding codes that must be followed and it's the cable provider's responsibility to do it. They're in violation if they don't.

 

[Praetor]

Originally posted by: Ichinisan
I used to access the exterior box when I installed Internet service for other residents in the apartment complex. The box is secured with a padlock and, no, there are no ground blocks. Only a dozen or more couplers for each feed to different apartment units. Because I'm now in Tech Support (*shudder), I no longer have access to the exterior box or the tap columns outside.

NEC says that the tap should be grounded at the demarc, ie the lockbox. There should be a ground wire in there that you could co-bond your drop to. Jumper, groundblock, drop. Or it could be that the tap is energized and outputing voltage directly because of that.

Since you don't have access to said demarc anymore, do what tjaisv recommended and

Well speaking as a former cable tech for Comcast i'd definitely recommend you call your cable company and let them know if you suspect your apt building isn't grounded. Cable systems have strict grounding codes that must be followed and it's the cable provider's responsibility to do it. They're in violation if they don't.

Speaking as a current field tech (video/phone/hsi) for Cox.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Originally posted by: Ichinisan
I suspect that my cable television feed is not grounded because I can feel an uncomfortable amount of "juice" flowing through me when I touch the fitting on the coaxial cable. Knowing that the drop line comes from a tap in the ground (rather than from a utility pole), I don't understand how it can be not grounded. If I run the line through a surge protector, the signal is no longer strong enough to be usable for my cable modem. Also, I suspect that it would exhaust the protection quickly. If I can feel the juice, it can't be good to have that connected to the tuner in my media center computer!

I work for the cable company (as an Internet installer, not a cable technician) and have many useful things, like a ground-block/surge-protector and a roll of insulated copper grounding wire.

The apartment has only two outlets, so there's only a two-way splitter behind a wall plate in the washroom...right next to the breaker box. There's also a standard AC outlet on the other side of the washroom. It would be unsightly to run a wire from the wall plate over to the AC outlet for grounding.

I'm not an electrician, and I know it's dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I do, however, know a qualified electrician. I'm sure that some of you here are qualified, so I'll ask for your opinion before I ask my friend to do it for me.

If it was your decision, would you open up the breaker box to ground the splitwork, or would you run an unsightly wire around the room and occupy the only available AC outlet?

I'm fixing some issues in the house I just bought. Similar problems to crap like this exist. (not to mention some idiot put 14/2 and 12/2 throughout the house ion what looks like random placement and put 20 amp breakers in)

Put a GFI outlet in and tie hte ground to neutral. Should wok fine. You can only do this once per branch (usually it goes athte first plug in a libne of plugs (branch)). You should be able to add one at you TV outlet and it should work fine. Only use one though.

INFO: THis is a trick used by electricians to convert old two prong outlets that have wiring with no ground into three prong outlets that work fine. The ground and neutral get tied together at the breaker box anyways.

 

[Kelemvor]

of course thee ghetto solution would be to pop the front off your break box and see where the ground wires from there go. Then grab some sire and run it from the cable splitter to that grounding area. At least until the cable company comes to fix the problem.

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004

Originally posted by: Ichinisan
I suspect that my cable television feed is not grounded because I can feel an uncomfortable amount of "juice" flowing through me when I touch the fitting on the coaxial cable. Knowing that the drop line comes from a tap in the ground (rather than from a utility pole), I don't understand how it can be not grounded. If I run the line through a surge protector, the signal is no longer strong enough to be usable for my cable modem. Also, I suspect that it would exhaust the protection quickly. If I can feel the juice, it can't be good to have that connected to the tuner in my media center computer!

I work for the cable company (as an Internet installer, not a cable technician) and have many useful things, like a ground-block/surge-protector and a roll of insulated copper grounding wire.

The apartment has only two outlets, so there's only a two-way splitter behind a wall plate in the washroom...right next to the breaker box. There's also a standard AC outlet on the other side of the washroom. It would be unsightly to run a wire from the wall plate over to the AC outlet for grounding.

I'm not an electrician, and I know it's dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I do, however, know a qualified electrician. I'm sure that some of you here are qualified, so I'll ask for your opinion before I ask my friend to do it for me.

If it was your decision, would you open up the breaker box to ground the splitwork, or would you run an unsightly wire around the room and occupy the only available AC outlet?

I'm fixing some issues in the house I just bought. Similar problems to crap like this exist. (not to mention some idiot put 14/2 and 12/2 throughout the house ion what looks like random placement and put 20 amp breakers in)

Put a GFI outlet in and tie hte ground to neutral. Should wok fine. You can only do this once per branch (usually it goes athte first plug in a libne of plugs (branch)). You should be able to add one at you TV outlet and it should work fine. Only use one though.

INFO: THis is a trick used by electricians to convert old two prong outlets that have wiring with no ground into three prong outlets that work fine. The ground and neutral get tied together at the breaker box anyways.

Very bad advice. The ground and neutral should be bonded at the main service panel and nowhere else. No profesional electrician would do what you suggest. Also, I don't see how a gfi solves his cable problem.