Those who think that using the balcony railing as a functional ground is hazardous need to think just a little harder.

Hint :-

a. What part of the building structure is the railing welded to inside the concrete?

b. What part of the building structure is inside the concrete upon which you are standing?

c. What is the connection between a. and b. ?

d. What is necessary for one to receive a shock (think birds sat on the 25kV supply)?

It's by no means ideal, but when combined with an RCD it is much, much better than nothing.

On a ground floor I would of course run the copper rod into the earth and connect the WM separately

​The only thing that this would achieve is to stop any tingles occurring because your 'ground' voltage has risen above real ground voltage.

If you do not have an RCD, and or MEN connection, your will be in for one big shock when a 'real' fault has occurred on your WM, as your MCBs will NOT open in the time specified, or Not at all.

I just see this post after sending a message, I will read and hope to find an easy solution

 

 

On 3/26/2015 at 6:08 AM, crazygreg44 said:

Many of the above suggestions - those that call for the use of a 3- pinned plug or Schuko plug - are totally useless in case the power socket where you plug in your washing machine does not have an earthing wire part - despite your photo showing a three-hole socket !! Better make sure that the ground hole is connected at all ! I bet a bottle of Jack's that when you open the socket front cover, you will find only two wires!

Your washing machine will have a grounding screw fitting on the backside. Go get a fat (2mm dia.) electric wire and a copper plated grounding rod. Drill a hole into the floor next to the washing machine and hammer the ground rod down by three fourths of its lenght, connect the wire and bingo.

Too ensure being even more safe, wear rubber sole shoes when removing wet clothes from the machine. The shock you caught came from the chromed metal drum inside the machine. The housings of most machines will be laquered and do not carry electric current, only blank metal parts do. After grounding, the problem should be gone. I did the same with our washing machine, it works.

In our condo in the 8th floor of a building, the Thai staff of the Store we bought our washing machine from, hammered a nail into the adjacent wall and connected the ground wire to the nail. They said that this is sufficient. I gave them my thumbs up and said bye bye, I was still laughing like a madman whilst I accompanied them to the exit !! Ok, and after this, I removed the nail and connected the ground wire to our balcony metal rail ! It worked because it was a large rail and well connected to the condo walls, never received a shock from the washing machine as it was properly grounded now.

 

so i should connect the wire to te ground ? thanks.