Should I earth my supply ground?

If by earth ground you mean the 3 prong on the ac power plug, then the answer is yes.

If you mean an 8 foot copper rod driven into the flowerbed outside your window, no, not unless you are running a shortwave transmitter.

Luhan (formerly K9WUZ)

See 'protective grounding / earthing'.

Graham

And what is the reason...? in short..

Theory: "Ground" is an infinite capacitor without any resistance or inductance and can accept currents of any size and frequency without building a voltage difference. So supposedly it is a reference point and any grounded equipment, working OR faulty does NOT built voltages that can be fatal to people. (Have you ever got a static shock from body of car, then you know what I mean) In practice every part of equipment is connected (sometimes) to ground with a wire and the electrical properties of the connection will determine the quality of "grounding".

HTH "in general"

Stanislaw Slack user from Ulladulla

You meant "conductor" instead of "infinite capacitor."

IOW, ground is ideally an equipotential volume, as large as needed by our system, to be used as a potential reference.

Best,

This tends to prevent slight voltage potential differences between electrical devices. It is also a safety condideration: if something shorts internally to the frame, the frame being grounded will blow a fuse instead of frying someone who touches it.

Luhan

To comply with safety standards is the legal reason.

Graham

Conducting where?

Stanislaw Slack user from Ulladulla.

To ground / earth of course ! ;~)

Graham

Conducting from any point of its volume to any other point of its volume.

Best,

In practice, most grounding electrodes are pretty crappy. Most have pretty high impedances relative to the fault currents they will carry in the event of a short to true ground.

What is very important is the bonding between the premises ground bus and other conductive parts of the structure (like water pipes). I don't care so much if the potential of everything in my house jumps 50 or 100 volts relative to some ideal ground. I just want all the objects in my house to remain at the same potential WRT each other.

MEHNEER MONG MONG MING MENEER NUHHH NUHHH BURGH NAHHH NEEERRRRR