How to connect the washing machine to electricity if there is no ground

Connecting large household appliances to the power grid should be done correctly. Powerful energy consumers, which include washing machines, are connected to electrical communications that have grounding. However, in most apartments, not to mention private houses, grounding is completely absent, or poorly executed. We will figure out how to connect the washing machine to electricity in accordance with all the rules and regulations?

Why is this needed?

When buying and further connecting the washing machine, you must take care of the safe operation of the unit. If the machine is not installed correctly, it is likely to get an electric shock even with a light touch to the body. Also, inclusion in the mains without grounding can lead to failure of the SMA electronics, which will be difficult to repair.

What you should pay attention to? Modern automatic machines are designed to be connected to a three-wire electrical network, which has not only a phase and neutral wire, but also a grounding contact. In old houses, two-wire wiring, including only zero and phase.

Washing machines are equipped with a surge protector, its purpose is to eliminate unwanted surges of electric current exceeding 50 Hz. This filter is directly connected to the washer housing. If you connect the machine to the network in an apartment with two-phase wiring, then on the walls of the machine with a surge protector, a residual current of 110 volts will occur. And when you consider that the machines are usually installed in the bathroom or the bathroom, that is, in rooms with high humidity, the probability of getting an electric shock only increases.

It is due to these circumstances that grounding is simply necessary. We will figure out how to organize it, thereby ensuring the safety of using the washer.

We are looking for a connection option

In old houses equipped with non-modern electrical communications, there are several ways to organize the grounding of an automatic machine. So, the main options to ground the unit:

• preparation of a separate electrical point connected to an electrical panel with grounding;
• RCD connection;
• connection of the machine body with house utilities or heating radiators;
• organization of a potential equalization system for household appliances;
• development of a personal ground loop (relevant for private homes).

A method that proposes to bring the ground wire to a water or sewer pipe is very effective, but it has several significant drawbacks. Firstly, this can lead to rapid wear of the pipe, emergency leakage, and as a result, flooding of the neighbors from below. The same fate awaits the radiators. Secondly, this method is prohibited by electrical safety rules, so it is better to abandon its use in practice.

We are connected to the mains correctly

An excellent option would be to connect to the electrical panel, available in each apartment building. If there is no grounding, the withdrawal of a separate three-wire wire from the switchboard specifically for the washing machine will be an excellent solution. It is necessary to conduct the cable carefully and correctly, connecting the wires to the corresponding buses, because if you mix the contacts, you can provoke a short circuit. Another, lighter, but less safe and aesthetic way is to remove the copper cable from the ground conductor and mount it to the washer housing.

The next correct way to organize grounding when connecting an automatic machine is to install a residual current device. The principle of operation of the RCD is to detect current leakage and quick activation of the difavtomat.Thanks to the operation of the RCD, the user will be protected from electric shock in the event of an emergency. In other words, the protective device reads the voltage changes in the phase and neutral wires and automatically shuts off the section of the protected electrical network.

Connecting an RCD and a difavtomat is the most effective and reliable method of all proposed, fully meeting the requirements of electrical safety.

The action of the created potential equalization system will be as follows: all home appliances having a metal case are combined with conductive devices. This leads to an even distribution of potential between the devices and minimizes the risk of electric shock to users. Such a scheme is primitive, so you can build it on your own.

It will be a little more difficult to install a washing machine in a private house equipped with two-wire wiring without grounding. Here you need to ground both the washing machine and the entire structure. To do this, you will have to build your own circuit, connect a grounding cable to it and throw it to the distribution switchboard. How to do it?

Near the wall of the house, it is necessary to dig a recess in the form of a triangle having identical sides of at least 3 meters long and about 0.5 m deep. One vertex must look directly into the wall of the building. Three rods three meters high are driven into the ground at all three vertices of the triangle. The pins are combined with a metal wire. From the formed circuit, dig a small ditch under the grounding cable and connect the wire to the electrical panel. After that, the structure is filled with soil. It is in this way that it is best to organize grounding in a private house.