Antenna Lightning Protection-Yet another think too much safety thread!

[Super Hans]

I thought the codes had recently changed. Don't all newly constructed buildings need have properly grounded circuits?

[Dog's_Breakfast]

That's because that third prong serves no purpose here. The building codes in the west, that say that the house had to be grounded, don't apply here. All the plugs have to meet the grounding regs, but here it doesn't matter because nothing is grounded anyway. Your building is likely not grounded at all.

Not exactly correct. The wall outlets are mostly two-prong, but the buildings are grounded, even very old ones. They might not have been grounded when originally constructed, but Taipower has gone around and grounded everything up to the service entrance. I'm emphasizing "up to the service entrance" because Taipower doesn't mess with what's inside your house. I have a fair bit of dealing with Taipower and have seen their work up close, and it's generally very good. I know that a lot of people here on Forumosa have a lot of criticism about Taipower, but I think it's unjustified. They are better than my old power company in the USA. Just last week, in fact, they came around and inspected the electrical installation on our old farmhouse, and attached a sticker to the circuit breaker box certifying it was up to code - they do this every three years.

As for what the electricians and plumbers do when they wire a building, that's another story entirely. I've seen plenty of shoddy work, even three-prong outlets where no ground wire was connected.

Anyway, if you need a grounded outlet, you can add one. It's recommended especially for computers, other electronics, and washing machines (because water-and-electricity are a dangerous combination). It doesn't do much good to attach the ground wire to plumbing since the pipes are plastic, but if the outlet has a metal box (usually does) you can connect it to one of the screws that holds on the outlet cover. For grounding to be any uses, you also need the hot wire and neutral on the correct prong - in Taiwan, it's often reversed. The hot wire should be the short prong, the long prong is neutral. You can check that with a voltage tester. You can then use a volt meter to see if you've got voltage between the hot wire and ground.

Even better would be a ground tester, but they are hard to buy in Taiwan. Even the electricians don't have them. I made a post not long ago explaining how I managed to buy 12 ground testers from the factory in Taichung (where they make them, but for export only). I kept two and handed out the other 10 to electricians here in Taidong.

I thought the codes had recently changed. Don't all newly constructed buildings need have properly grounded circuits?

You are correct, the electrical code was recently changed. All new construction is required to use grounded 3-prong outlets. But there is no requirement to retrofit existing homes. Another big problem with old houses is that they have 1.6mm wire, but nothing less than 2.0mm is acceptable for heavy appliances (ovens, washing machines, etc) - the new electric code in Taiwan now requires the heavier wire.

[Northcoast Surfer]

Actually, I think you can buy these in Taiwan. It does help to know the Chinese name:

surge-protector/lightening-arrestor (all kinds) 避雷器 bìléiqì
co-axial lightening arrestor 同軸避雷器 tóngzhóu bìléiqì

I did a search on pchome.com.tw and came up with a number of hits. Huge price variations between different models - the expensive ones seem to be imported from Japan. I have no idea how much one needs to spend for a good one. Anyway, check out these links:

Japanese made:
http://www.pcstore.com.tw/16535228/M05906281.htm
http://www.pcstore.com.tw/eradio/M06556420.htm
http://www.pcstore.com.tw/eradio/M06556420.htm

Taiwanese (actually manufactured in China):
http://www.pcstore.com.tw/rfcastle/M01403234.htm

I used the 避雷器 and added that it was for television coaxial cable and showed them a picture on my Iphone. Next time I'll use the 同軸避雷器, instead! Thanks for the correct word. I went to every store in 光華商場to look for them. None of the shops had them, none of them had seen them before and they couldn't tell me where I could go to buy any. I never thought to check out PCHome because I never buy anything online! Duh! Thanks for the links. However, I think I'll wait until I get back to the States and buy a bunch for much cheaper than PCHome lists them.

[Taiwan_Student]

I used the 避雷器 and added that it was for television coaxial cable and showed them a picture on my Iphone. Next time I'll use the 同軸避雷器, instead! Thanks for the correct word. I went to every store in 光華商場to look for them. None of the shops had them, none of them had seen them before and they couldn't tell me where I could go to buy any. I never thought to check out PCHome because I never buy anything online! Duh! Thanks for the links. However, I think I'll wait until I get back to the States and buy a bunch for much cheaper than PCHome lists them.

I like them surge protectors! But, don't they still need to be connected to some sort of ground to give the excess voltage and current a place to go? As far as I know. The only place with the ground is the electrical box. All my three pronged outlets are dummies. What is your ground situation at your house?

Also.. you said that you have coax going into your computers because you get streamed tv from the states? Do you distribute the video signal to the rest of your house using RF, on the existing CTV wires? I'd think you'd stream it via lan or wifi.

[Northcoast Surfer]

I used the 避雷器 and added that it was for television coaxial cable and showed them a picture on my Iphone. Next time I'll use the 同軸避雷器, instead! Thanks for the correct word. I went to every store in 光華商場to look for them. None of the shops had them, none of them had seen them before and they couldn't tell me where I could go to buy any. I never thought to check out PCHome because I never buy anything online! Duh! Thanks for the links. However, I think I'll wait until I get back to the States and buy a bunch for much cheaper than PCHome lists them.

I like them surge protectors! But, don't they still need to be connected to some sort of ground to give the excess voltage and current a place to go? As far as I know. The only place with the ground is the electrical box. All my three pronged outlets are dummies. What is your ground situation at your house?

When we had our house built, we made sure that the entire house was grounded properly like in the US. Every single power outlet in our house is set up with the standard three pronged outlets, however all of ours work the way they are supposed to. The difficult thing is finding appliances which have three pronged plugs. As you know, most appliances in Taiwan have two pronged plugs with a silly green ground wire screwed into the base of the appliance!

Also.. you said that you have coax going into your computers because you get streamed tv from the states? Do you distribute the video signal to the rest of your house using RF, on the existing CTV wires? I'd think you'd stream it via lan or wifi.

I distribute the video signal through the rest my house and TVs using the coaxial cable TV wires. Why? Because I have 3 floors in my house and it's all thick concrete and bricks, so wireless suffers greatly. I just haven't decided weather or not I'm going to put ethernet hookups throughout my house as it would be quite a time consuming undertaking. Doing it in Taiwan is not as simple as working with American style homes with drywall. I should have had the ethernet cables put into my house at the time it was built, but back then ethernet, home networks, and especially wireless networks weren't so popular.

So, the lightning hit the power transformer on the main road near my home. The electricity went into the cable TV coaxial cable and traveled all the way from the street to my house and throughout the coaxial cable in my house and fried everything that was hooked into it. TWICE in two years! Major bummer. All my appliances that weren't hooked into the coaxial cable was fine because of proper grounding of the house and I also have surge protectors through the electrical outlets. Guess I should have grounded the cable TV, too.