Hi, I'm new and took long time reading questions and answers but I didn't found answer to my question.

I have noise in any outlet in my house and I suspect this is coming from a faulty earth ground since everything seem OK in all outlet and main breaker box.

Exemple: If I connect an amplifier for an electric guitar I get a ripple noise that sound like 60hz Bzzzzzzzz and this in any house outlet. If I go elsewhere the same amp is dead quiet.

Do I'm correct to think the house earth ground is faulty and should be checked?

Thanks

Yes , it is definitely worth checking all circuit and system ground connections, along with all connections for both live and neutral wiring terminals also.

Some of these connections may not be easy for you to access, in the panel, meter, or even the utility connections.

I have verified all outlet with a tool to check phase, neutral and ground everything seem OK. I made the same for all switch and ceiling light, all OK.

I suspect no ground to the earth, system the way it look in my main box seem to take all ground to the neutral from the electricity provider.

Is that possible?

The building was build in 1940.

Sure can be possible, or more even if one does exists, that the connection(s) is poor due to being loose or corroded. The system should be grounded twice, once at the utility pole or transformer with a ground rod, and at the meter or main panel with a rod and/or a connection to the water system.

I suspect more likely there is a loose connection in either live line or the neutral. Do yo get any lights blinking , flickering, or get bright briefly?

No it's very stable and varies between 118v to 120v depending how much electricity is pumped.

I may be off base. There can be other various reasons for the noise. That however can be a bit beyond me. There are a couple of good electronic techs here that may see this, and hopefully join in with any other causes of your issue.

Assuming you are using same cords, and other possible causes(guitar ground, ground loop). And problem is your only in your house. I would turn off all circuits except the one the amp is plugged in, and try, still noise? try another circuit. Then switch circuits on one by one to see offending circuit(s). Good Luck

I will try and be back with the results

Dobs,

I'm pretty sure what you are getting is a 60 Hz "Hum". Its usually associated with a component AC transformer starting to fail.

It can occur intermittently and then get worse.

Do you get the hum with any other device, such as a radio, plugged into the same outlet?

Also, sometimes, rarely in fact, you can pick up transmitted "White Noise" which will drive a sane person wacky, trying to isolate the source?

I'm fairly certain what he's hearing is 60 cycles. Buzz comes from a ground issue or picking up some other interference such as a dimmer switch. Hum can be caused by electrolytic caps failing. The only way a transformer failing could cause buzz or hum is if it was starting to generate leakage current and that was being picked up. That's still silent if it's properly grounded.

The question is why he's getting it on only one location. The obvious reasons were addressed above, either a poor or missing ground on that outlet, or something else on the circuit(s) interfering. If you've checked the ground, shut down every other light, appliance, etc and see if the buzz changes.

Have you confirmed that it is all outlets in your house and not just some?

Common sources of buzz: fluorescent lights, dimmer switches, ceiling fans with variable controls, neon signs, other types of non-incandescent lighting, older TVs and microwaves, a large transformer nearby, etc.

Floating ground or ground loop. Hot wire lying in parallel to ground. I remember a weird one I chased for awhile.

Do you remember the old style radio/intercom systems? The place we had in Kentucky, had one of those systems. When it died, the owner, at the time, just clipped the leads going into the receiver, ripped it off the wall and I swear, put a picture over the hole.

However, the transformer itself was left hot with the two tap leads sticking out of the transformer. The transformer was just dropped between the studs.

That little tinker toy put out just enough noise to be picked up on a scope I was using to make sure a land was noise free. What a night. I originally thought there was a light ballast behind a wall that was either lonely or suicidal.

What sort of light ballast would be behind a wall? I'd be more inclined to look for a doorbell transformer.

Some of the stuff we come across.. . I have devices I've pulled out of buildings I STILL don't know what they are.

CFR,

That's what I mean. There was zero reason for anything to be behind the wall and hot.

The problem was that I spent an ungodly amount of hours going over the design drawings and the individual circuit I had been tasked with working on trying to find a noise that I could see it on the scope but not locate on the device.

And finally found the source when I moved my kitchen tabletop lab to another room because I was appearantly getting to loud with my thinking. :)

Ah, young and dumb!

Ok finally problem solved, I have rooted a new wire to install a dedicated ground outlet.

Next step will be the installation of a proper earth ground for the whole house as it really look to be the problem.

Thanks so much for all the super fast answers :D

Dobs,

Would mind describing exactly how you installed the "Dedicated ground" for the outlet?

Not to long ago there was a thread about that topic, but the actual,"How to" got lost in the exchange of verbiage from hither, thither and yon

Sure,

For testing purpose I took a 14/3 cable with a dedicated ground outlet (orange one with the triangle logo on it) the Phase and neutral was connected to a new breaker in the main box, the third wire (ground) unlike other ground was not connected in the main box but directly on the water pipe main inlet nearest as possible of the basement.

Now I saw this corrected the problem, I will install ground rods instead of connecting to the water pipe wich was for test.

An Isolated Ground cannot connect to it's own grounding electrode, it needs to connect to the system neutral at the single point of grounding, in other words, at the point the neutral is connected to it's grounding electrode, or the same grounding electrode.

I can tell you if you do what you plan by bypassing the system ground and connect to the water, or another ground rod, there will be a ground loop created.

Ground rods will be connected like they should be so they will be connected to the neutral in the main box don't worry. I don't plan to bypass anything.

Thanks again