What is a Ground Loop? (Electronics/Electrical)
In: 1
Ground is important for safety in electrical circuits
Ground is important in electronic circuits as a drain for “noise” (spurious signals)
Both types of systems should share a single ground point. When one or more ground points are introduced to the circuit they may have different potentials. Current will begin to flow between the multiple grounds creating a ground loop.
Ground loops create noise/interface in electronics (to the point of damage in some cases); and ground loops in electrical circuits can be dangerous
Everything powered by electricity is done so through a loop. Power comes out of the wall, travels through your appliance which gives it power, and exits out back into the wall. **Electricity always wants to return back to its source**.
Ground wires provide a fail-safe in the case something goes wrong with the normal loop and the electricity cannot complete its intended circuit. **It provides a very low resistance way for electricity to get back into the wall in the event it cannot travel through its intended loop.**
Say you have a metal oven and something goes wrong with the electricity loop. If you have a ground wire, no problem! The electricity will just change its path to flow through the ground loop and back into the wall. No harm no foul. However, if you don’t have a ground loop and something goes wrong, now it’s a real problem. Electricity is being pumped into your oven but it has no real way of getting back out. This can lead to electricity jumping out of its intended circuit and flowing through the actual metal of the oven for example, as it desperately looks for a way to return back to its source. Guess what happens when you walk up and touch the oven? You then become the easiest way for the electricity to escape so it jumps from the oven, through your body, out your feet and into the floor.
Ground loops solve this problem by ensuring there is always a way for the electricity to get back to its source which avoids the problem of your oven itself becoming electrified and then shocking you when you touch it.
Latest Answers