Ground dish to existing electrical ground wire?

[fareal]

Is it okay to ground a satellite dish to the ground wire that is grounding some electrical wires in my attic? I have to run the wires from the satellite dish through a vent in my attic, so in my attic this is the only ground source that I can find. The electrical wires to the bathroom exhaust fan are easily accessible, so can I just ground the dish to the ground wire for this fan?

 

[sksatellite]

I would not do this type of so called grounding, second, I do not think any electrical techs will ground any of the appliances, equipments to your attic, third, an outside antenna coming into the house should grounded it before enter the building, fourth, for your safety, make sure you ground the system the rightway.

 

[red hazard]

Proper Grounding

Is it okay to ground a satellite dish to the ground wire that is grounding some electrical wires in my attic? I have to run the wires from the satellite dish through a vent in my attic, so in my attic this is the only ground source that I can find. The electrical wires to the bathroom exhaust fan are easily accessible, so can I just ground the dish to the ground wire for this fan?

No, you absolutely should not ground your dish assembly that way. Most likely that ground wire to the vent is 12 or 14 gauge and you should be using 8 gauge which is substantially larger. Secondly, the dish should be grounded by a direct separate connection to your electrical service panel ground. Most likely the easiest way to do this is to connect the 8 gauge using a split bolt to the 4 gauge wire going to the grounding rod. Also to keep the installation in accordance with the NEC, you additionally need to connect coax grounding block(s) to the service panel ground. By grounding the way you are/were contemplating can actually cause lightning damage from nearby strikes due to the tremendous voltage drops incurred on your inside wiring. It won't be easy but your safety is at stake here. Don't feel to bad though, my neighbor just got DISH Network and the "PROFESSIONAL" installer did not ground anything and the dish is on the front corner roof (UGLY) and my pine trees should be blocking view of the satellites in a couple of years. Good luck.

 

[fareal]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I'm not sure where I can ground the dish. I'm in a condo, 2nd floor unit. I didn't see anything 20 feet from the dish outside of the house that it could be ground to.

 

[red hazard]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I'm not sure where I can ground the dish. I'm in a condo, 2nd floor unit. I didn't see anything 20 feet from the dish outside of the house that it could be ground to.

You still need to ground the dish assembly and coax cables to protect the LNAs from static build up generally caused by wind and for maximum systeml performance. Suggest sticking with 8 ga (it's available at Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) and using a pipe grounding clamp to a cold water pipe. If your plumbing is plastic, then I don't have any recommendations.

 

[fareal]

I couldn't find any plumbing in the attic. Since we are on the 2nd floor it seems that the plumbing is below us I assume so it can be shared with the downstairs neighbors.

There are about 70 units in our condo complex with maybe half of them with satellite. I assume that many of them are not grounded properly. We're in southern california.. do installers in different areas of the country have different attitudes about grounding? Since lightening may be less likely here than in other parts of the country could installers here care slightly less about grounding properly?