Hi,
We have a 2m by 2m room totally clad in alu sheet for our Conducted EMC testing of offline SMPS <100W.

Would it be a good idea for us to drive an earth rod into the floor of the lab and earth the alu sheets to that?...or would it be better to just earth the alu sheets to the earth wire in the lab's mains supply that supplies the Spec An and LISN etc?

 

Why did you choose aluminium and not a ferrous magnetic material?

 

sheets

I think connecting the sheets together (low resistance) is more important than "earthing".

 

Aluminium was cheaper? The Earth port of the LISN must be hard-shorted to the earth plane, as such, the metal sheeting should be earthed?

 

I would suspect a standard copper clad GND rod driven in and connected at 2 diag corners would do it!?

 

Thanks, though i actually mostly believe that the ground rod wouldnt make much difference......it is just important that the alu sheeting is earthed to the earth wire in the supply that supplies the LISN. Though if that earth wire has already snaked its way say 100m through a building full of electrically noisy things, and then come to the conducted lab, then i wonder how that puts it?

 

Thanks, though i actually mostly believe that the ground rod wouldnt make much difference......it is just important that the alu sheeting is earthed to the earth wire in the supply that supplies the LISN. Though if that earth wire has already snaked its way say 100m through a building full of electrically noisy things, and then come to the conducted lab, then i wonder how that puts it?

Substandard IMO.
Better to setup a dedicated Earth/ground.