What is Circuit Grounding and Why is it Important? – 8500993
Why is Circuit Grounding Important?
This whitepaper is Part 1 of a three-part Grounding Electrical Equipment Best Practices series that looks at grounding and its role in protecting personnel, equipment, and ensuring the integrity of electrical signals. In this part, we will review circuit grounding and its importance to you, as well as the US AC power system and its use of earth ground.
Topics include the following electrical ground rules principals:
- What is Ground?
- The Importance of Ground
- AC Powered Systems
- The Ground Loop
Firstly, the two principal purposes of connecting your system to earth ground:
- Stabilize the voltage to earth during normal operation (think of earth like an anchor to the system voltage)
- Limit the voltage rise created by lightning, line surges, and unintentional contact with higher voltages
Secondly, the three main purposes for correctly applying ground:
- Safety: connect to ground to provide an alternative path for fault current to flow
- Limit Voltage and its Variation: connect signals to ground to stabilize them & keep them from floating
- Limit the Induced Voltage Magnitude: connect to ground to limit the voltage-rise induced on powered circuits
To this, another very important side-benefit to providing a good connection to earth ground: grounding our circuits to gain electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) benefits that result in lower noise and radiated emissions.
You can find the other whitepapers in this three part series in the links below:
- Part 2: How Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters Work & Protect Us from Shock
- reviews the use of ground as a means of protection from ground faults
- also looks at how ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) devices operate to protect us from severe shock
- Part 3: Ground as a Voltage Stabilizer & Transient Limiter
- reviews ground and its role as a voltage stabilizer and transient limiter
- offers tips on what you can do to improve your connection to ground to realize benefits to safety and signal integrity
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