Often times, I get ideas for articles like these from actual customers. I figure if one person has a question and called us to find the answer, chances are a lot of other people do too. This article is based on a conversation I had with a customer not long ago.
I was talking to someone who hadn’t bought from us before. This guy says he wants to know the right ground strap for a chimney cap. The question went to me because the person who took it initially didn’t know what a chimney cap was.
For those who live in wetter parts of the nation, a chimney cap is a metal cover used on the top of a chimney that stops embers from leaving the chimney. You tend not to see them in wetter, northerly climates because snow can accumulate on it, and because it’s not needed. It’s required by code in drier climates to reduce the risk of fire. After all, it seems like our desert southwest has about all the fire it can tolerate lately.
Now I’m all about grounding. We all know that grounding is important, and your chimney cap should be grounded if it’s the tallest part of the house. More grounding is always better, and that’s one of the reasons I mention it so often. Just simply running a ground wire to a cold water pipe or something attached to a whole house ground is an easy way to stay safe.
But the question was, why was this person calling Solid Signal for this part? It turns out that he had this idea to turn his chimney cap into an antenna. It’s metal, he figured, and it’s up pretty high, so it should work. I asked him how many channels he was getting from this setup. He told me he wasn’t getting that many, and he figured that the reason was that the chimney cap wasn’t grounded.
I did advise him to ground his chimney cap and helped him find the grounding supplies he needed. After all, as I said, it was the tallest piece of metal on his roof and we all want to make sure that we stay safe. And then, I advised him to get an actual antenna.
Folks, don’t do this. A chimney cap makes a really poor antenna. It’s made of iron, which isn’t as good at pulling in signals as aluminum. It’s going to get covered in soot so that’s going to make it even worse at pulling in a signal. If you tried to use a chimney cap as an antenna, and it worked, all that means is that you’re so close to the broadcast towers that virtually anything would receive signals. It’s likely that putting a coat hanger up on the roof would work too. You could probably do just as well with old-fashioned rabbit ears on top of the TV.
Bottom line, folks: DO keep your chimney cap grounded. DON’T try to use it as an antenna. If you need advice on grounding or antennas or anything else to live your best digital life, call Solid Signal at 888-233-7563. We’re here for you during East Coast business hours. If it’s after hours, no problem! Fill out the form below and we’ll get right back to you.
The post DON’T DO THIS: Use a chimney cap as an antenna appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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Here’s how it went down
I was talking to someone who hadn’t bought from us before. This guy says he wants to know the right ground strap for a chimney cap. The question went to me because the person who took it initially didn’t know what a chimney cap was.
For those who live in wetter parts of the nation, a chimney cap is a metal cover used on the top of a chimney that stops embers from leaving the chimney. You tend not to see them in wetter, northerly climates because snow can accumulate on it, and because it’s not needed. It’s required by code in drier climates to reduce the risk of fire. After all, it seems like our desert southwest has about all the fire it can tolerate lately.
But… ground a chimney cap?
Now I’m all about grounding. We all know that grounding is important, and your chimney cap should be grounded if it’s the tallest part of the house. More grounding is always better, and that’s one of the reasons I mention it so often. Just simply running a ground wire to a cold water pipe or something attached to a whole house ground is an easy way to stay safe.
But the question was, why was this person calling Solid Signal for this part? It turns out that he had this idea to turn his chimney cap into an antenna. It’s metal, he figured, and it’s up pretty high, so it should work. I asked him how many channels he was getting from this setup. He told me he wasn’t getting that many, and he figured that the reason was that the chimney cap wasn’t grounded.
I did advise him to ground his chimney cap and helped him find the grounding supplies he needed. After all, as I said, it was the tallest piece of metal on his roof and we all want to make sure that we stay safe. And then, I advised him to get an actual antenna.
Seriously, a chimney cap isn’t an antenna
Folks, don’t do this. A chimney cap makes a really poor antenna. It’s made of iron, which isn’t as good at pulling in signals as aluminum. It’s going to get covered in soot so that’s going to make it even worse at pulling in a signal. If you tried to use a chimney cap as an antenna, and it worked, all that means is that you’re so close to the broadcast towers that virtually anything would receive signals. It’s likely that putting a coat hanger up on the roof would work too. You could probably do just as well with old-fashioned rabbit ears on top of the TV.
Bottom line, folks: DO keep your chimney cap grounded. DON’T try to use it as an antenna. If you need advice on grounding or antennas or anything else to live your best digital life, call Solid Signal at 888-233-7563. We’re here for you during East Coast business hours. If it’s after hours, no problem! Fill out the form below and we’ll get right back to you.
The post DON’T DO THIS: Use a chimney cap as an antenna appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
