Removing Electromagnetic Noise from Audio Systems with Isolated-ground Receptacles
In the modern home you will likely find an isolated-ground receptacle as they are proven to protect many power sensitive devices. You will usually see an isolated-ground receptacle being used to prove power to electronic devices such as computers in order to protect their circuit feeds. If you are using high end audio systems you will find that electromagnetic noise because a huge problem with a regular ground wired system. This problem is transmitted through the audio systems speakers resulting in low quality sounds. This problem has been known to also effect the picture quality on television screens.
The process of wiring an isolated-ground receptacle isn’t a very challenging one. All you will really need is a three wire NM cable that also contains a ground wire. Black wire connect to the brass-colored terminal, white wire connects to the silver terminal, ground wire connect to the screw inside the box for groundings, and the red wire connects to the ground screw of the isolated-ground receptacle itself. This particular ground screw is quite different than what you will find on other receptacles. This screw is not physically connected to a grounding plate, it is only connected to the rounded ground holes of the receptacle slots.
If you have finished this process thus far you should also remember to put some green phasing tape on each end of the red wire in order to show that it is indeed a ground wire for future fixes. Color coding your wiring jobs is an extremely important one. It allows anyone in the future who works on your circuitry to immediately understand what you have done with the circuit and allow them to properly fix it. In this particular instance it will show that even though it is a red wire it is in fact being used as a ground, instantly signalling that something special is added onto the current circuit.
An isolated-ground receptacle is a vivid orange-color and sport special markings on the face. If you look closely at it you will see that there is a green triangle pasted on the face. This green triangle is a symbol that indicates an isolated ground inside of this particular receptacle.
Inside this electrical panel you will find that the usual bare copper ground wire and the now green-taped red wire are both connected to the installed ground buss. In some cases you will find that there will only be what is called a neutral buss, however this particular buss is bonded to the inside of the case of the electrical panel. This will allow the neutral and ground connecting to be at the same exact potential. In the end it makes the entire connection a neutral/ground connection. Although it is advised that if you are able to do so you should just simply connect a ground wire directly to the grounding buss and connected to a grounding rod. This particular ground connection between the isolated-ground receptacle’s ground connection and the included neutral buss provides a dedicated path for electricity to flow without creating an electromagnetic interference.