Re: [TCML] Grounding Coil to Water Pipe

[David Dean <deano@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Brandon

In this day and age grounding anything to a water pipe is a bad idea.

1) plastic pipe started coming into widespread usage in the 1960's and is the norm today.

2) even if your plumbing is all copper, there is no guarantee that the copper is connected to ground 
as it may be fed from a plastic pipe coming out of the ground

3) NEC requires the plumbing system to be bonded to the electrical service ground at the water 
heater, and if your place is code compliant, then any RF you put on the plumbing system will get to 
the "green ground wire" anyway

Always best to use a dedicated RF ground for a Tesla coil 

later
deano

> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I got DirecTV the other day and notice that the installer grounded the
> satellite dish to the protruding water pipe leading up to my garden hose.
> I'd never thought to ground there before! But I've got a few things I'd
> like to run by you all before I try it there;
> 
> 1. The running water shouldn't be affected by the coil due to the 'skin
> effect' factor. It should limit the current only to the surface of the
> pipe, right? 2. The satellite ground should be disconnected before
> powering on the coil, right? Seems like a bad idea to pump thousands of
> volts into a satellite dish ;P 3. The pipe should provide sufficient RF
> ground, yeah?
> 
> I've searched the list, but I didn't see anything particularly definitive
> on the subject...
> 
> Thanks everybody!
> Brandon
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