Grounding Metal Outlet Boxes and Isolated Ground Receptacles


Just installed six really nice separate dedicated 20 amp lines (with 6 awg) for my new dedicated listening room.  Decided to use heavy metal outlet boxes so that I could make my six Furutech Receptacles as strong and sturdy as possible.  I also had my electrician run 4-wire 6 agw to the boxes so that we could have one ground wire to the metal receptacle box and then a separate ground wire to the isolated ground screw on the Furutech.

I sent some photos of the setup to a friend of mine (who just happens to be an electrical engineer) and he raised an the issue that since my Furutech Receptacles are metal and they will be screwed into the metal box with metal screws, then we have effectively now tied the two separate grounds together!  Help!  Is that a bad idea?   Is having the box and receptacle setup in this way going to cause issues once my gear is in place; ground loop hums, etc?






stickman451

Showing 4 responses by bimmer528

Always follow code first. The use of plastic boxes are not legal in many areas. Nor is armored cable and romex 
Given what you posted I’m assuming 1900 4 by 4 deep boxes were used and emt is the conduit. Running a separate ground is pointless. The screws and or outlet mount fins is what grounds it. The reason there is a seperate ground screw on the outlet is because there has to be. Grounding screw on all outlets. It’s there for when metal is not used as the transmission. I.e... using a plastic box

#6 is overkill. Amplifiers draw between 2 and 4 amps max

depending on what your running I would have ran two dedicated 20 amp on min #10 wire on a shared neutral.

the outlets you bought are good but so is just about any hospital grade. I’d be surprised if a furutech accepts #6 wire.

verify the panel is grounded correct. Tap after your main water shut off and jump to before the shut off valve

cheers
Addressed well Jim ;)

i am in Chicago, very strict here on what can and can't be acccepted. 
Manditory with the conjunction of any gfci outlet. Your talking in newer builds money adding each of those to a panel. All must have dedicated neutral and cannot be shared. I've seen debate there but it's my understanding the faults won't work correctly unless dedicated. 

any remodel on older work must also incoperate same or your grandfathered in.

all interior raceways must be emt or rigid. Why run rigid when yiu can use emt. 

You can can whip up to 5 feet only for lighting. Some inspectors will require a ground with that use. 

As as far as I know all exterior work must be rigid only. 

also depends on the inspector and what that one thing they look for... you know how it is. 

Chicago is lunicy and just plain overkill. 


I was asked by my local inspector or should I say forced to add Afci to all my gfci dedicated runs.  Nevermind bedrooms/living areas as they are normally intended for where homes do not have smoke carbon detects ran in series..  

you asked if it was maditory. It was for me but would depend on the inspector from what I've seen.  What cannot be ignored unfortunately is basically the amount of labor required to complete jobs satisfactory. 

Cheers ;)