Electrical Ground to Water Pipe, No Earth Ground


I live in a house built in 1965 that has an older electrical panel, the with the spring-loaded breakers. I had an electrician to come out and do an inspection of my home's electrical system yesterday. When he checked out the panel, he noticed there is no earth ground to the panel. There is a ground wire going to the main water pipe, however. The electrician told me that the system is electrically safe with a ground only to the water pipe, but if a car were to hit a nearby utility pole we could end up without electricity to our home. He said that if we had an earth ground, if a car were to knock out a nearby utility pole we would still have power.

I want to get an earth ground installed and plan to do this. My question:

Does not having an earth ground to my panel all these years cause a negative effect on the various audio systems I've had? Does this affect things like bass weight, or solidity of the image etc?
Thanks.
foster_9

Showing 3 responses by foster_9

Jea48, thank you for the time it took for your detailed post! Yes, the panel is a Pushmatic. Looking at the water meter, I see one wire going to it and that wire goes to the inside of the meter housing. I also see another short metal wire that goes through a couple screws at the metal bottom of the meter. I may have an electrician look at the water meter to verify if there is an earth ground there since I'm not sure if the electrician that was here before looked there or not. But, Jea48 the electrician pulled the panel cover and said he did not see a place (I can't remember the term he used it was something like "tag" or something), for an earth ground wire and did not see an earth ground wire. He only saw a wire he said was going to the main water pipe and pointed over to the left of the panel box near the ceiling of the basement. The water meter is on the other side of the basement.
Do you know for sure if the incoming domestic water line, pipe, is metallic, example copper, water piping at least 10' long buried in the earth outside your house?
I do not know.

Just curious, the electrician that inspected the electrical service that told you it was not grounded, connected to earth, did he tell you then what would be required for him to ground the electrical service to meet electrical code for your area?
Yes, I would have to get the city to allow a shut off through the power company without a required panel replacement and upgrade to 200 service unless I was just going to put in a new panel. It is more than I want to spend for me to put in a new panel now. I'm willing to pay the cost to have an electrician install an earth ground if the city will allow this without requiring a full electrical upgrade.
Jea48, I will eventually hire a different electrician and hopefully get a different take on whether I have an earth ground or not, and what it will take to get one installed if I don't have one. The electrician I just used came with A-rated feedback via AngiesList members, but I'm questioning if he was correct in his assessment of my system and the process for adding an earth ground if needed.