Why do you think there are any health benefits to grounding yourself?

You are kidding, right?

The claim is that standing barefooted on the earth improves your health?
Seriously, seriously doubt it, but that's not a question for All About Circuits. Maybe I'll drop that one to Web MD.

But here's a good question for All About Circuits:
Does standing on the $90 pad I've detailed here in multiple posts ground you just the same (just as well/just as effectively) as standing on the earth barefooted?

If it can't do the latter, then by the pad company's own hype, it can't do the former.

 

If you stood on the shop floor barefooted you would be sent home pronto.

 

It is a device that is supposed to ground you just as well/effectively as standing barefooted on the ground.

Okay. I have a device that meets this specification perfectly! It is called ... wait for it ... NOTHING!

You do not need anything to ground you just as well as standing on the ground. You can do that without any device you buy. And any device which does that (this one does not, by the way,) would be just as dangerous as "standing on the ground", and have all of the benefits of "standing on the ground".

Reading an ad like you have found and evaluating it is what is called critical thinking. And, if I might say so, this one requires only the first introductory lesson in critical thinking to dismiss.

Bob

 

One other electrical engineering question. One company selling grounding pads for your bed advertises that the benefit is the "continuous flow of anti-inflammatory, health restoring electrons" for 6 to 8 hours while you sleep.
I'm not an expert on electricity and circuits, but doesn't the flow of electrons from earth stop once the body equalizes/neutralizes after receiving the electrons it needs to achieve a balance with earth?
How can your body keep on receiving a continuous flow of electrons all night? Would that not builld up a tremendous negative charge in you?
Is it a case of the electrons flowing from earth return via the same path back to earth, andyour body part of a circuit all night? I don't get it.

 

"Continuous flow of anti-inflammatory, health restoring electrons" is another term meaning "snake oil."

In other words, it's pseudo-scientific gobbledegook concocted to sell these worthless "grounding pads" by appealing to ignorance and superstition.

I'm not an expert on electricity and circuits, but doesn't the flow of electrons from earth stop once the body equalizes/neutralizes after receiving the electrons it needs to achieve a balance with earth?

Yup. Once you are at the same potential as the ground, electron flow stops. Obviously.

Good grief. Stop taking this crap seriously, or you're going to be an easy mark for every con artist that comes down the pike.

 

"Continuous flow of anti-inflammatory, health restoring electrons" is another term meaning "snake oil."

In other words, it's pseudo-scientific gobbledegook concocted to sell these worthless "grounding pads" by appealing to ignorance and superstition.


Yup. Once you are at the same potential as the ground, electron flow stops. Obviously.

Good grief. Stop taking this crap seriously, or you're going to be an easy mark for every con artist that comes down the pike.

Only thing I took seriously was if my daughter watching TV with her feet on a conductive pad connected via a ground pin plugged into a non GFI outlet was in danger in the event of a ground fault.

Like I said, testing with a meter revealed a 100K resister in the wire from ground to the pad, so even with my limited knowledge of circuits I was reasonably sure she couldn't get fried.

That said, just to be sure, if a resistor fries, nothing can flow through it, correct? It can't arc from one leg to the other, right? The resistor appears to be embedded in the plastic housing of the male pin end of the cord that plugs into the outlet side.

Also, are resistors polarized? Do they resist from either direction?

 

Do you always believe in all manufacturer's claims and everything you read in ads or see on TV?

 

Do you always believe in all manufacturer's claims and everything you read in ads or see on TV?

Am I in the Twilight Zone here?
I've done nothing here if not establish that I think these devices are snake oil, BS and a ripoff and even noted that I would like to convince my friend to return it for a refund.

My reason for posting here is to bolster my argument that even if he believes grounding is good for his health, this device isn't needed to do the job of equalizing your body with earth/ground. Geeeezzz, Louise. Please read my posts before commenting!

 

I checked market prices for an anti-static floor mat. Depending on the size, $100 is not unreasonable to pay for such a mat.
It does what it is designed to do, i.e. dissipate unwanted static charge buildup.
If the specs says that it is good for your health then that is hogwash.

btw, I am starting to feel that you are trolling here on AAC.

 

My reason for posting here is to bolster my argument that even if he believes grounding is good for his health, this device isn't needed to do the job of equalizing your body with earth/ground.

That's not the impression you have been making. In any case, any contact with a ground, even if the impedance to that ground in up to 10 megs or more, will bleed off any accumulated charge. Anti-static shoes, anti-static mats are common in industry. At home, just avoid rubber souls, and keep the house humidity at a reasonable level. If you are not getting a shock when you touch a metal object, you are not accumulating a charge.

 

We're talking her about 100K resistors. In circuits I worked with, fingerprints left on the PCB would change the circuit. Sharp points on wires can lead to pre-mature failures. Wires needed to be taped down because the fan moved the wires which generated measurable currents. I had a wierd carear.

 

I am starting to feel that you are trolling here on AAC.

I give him/her the benefit of the doubt ... this is a good chance to educate a noobie (albeit an extremely basic one) on things as elemental as this.

this device isn't needed to do the job of equalizing your body with earth/ground

You don't need a device to do that ... just walk barefooted, or you could use conductive footwear (there is such a thing, which is sold for the electronics manufacturing industry) and that will work just as well.

That being said, I have to agree that there's absolutely no health benefit of "keeping one's potential equal to ground" ... think of the millions of years of sustained evolution under "electrically unbalanced" circumstances, and of all the organisms that have been zapped by electrostatic discharges because of diverse causes in nature ... heck, I even think that getting zapped every once in a while might even be beneficial, if only for stimulus sake... such as by your car as you climb down, or by a door's metal frame as you touch it after walking through a rug, etc... although it makes me angry as hell every time that happens...

 

That's not the impression you have been making.

Look, let's back up to my post #4, where I answered your question about what the device I was describing is.

I answered that it is claimed to be a health device based on the belief by some that standing barefoot on the ground is good for your health. They call it Earthing in new-age health and medicine circles.

In that same post, I called those health claims "questionable" and "woo-woo" science, but in addition to my skepticism about it being beneficial to your health, I questioned if the company's claim that using it inside the home will grounds you to earth just the same as being barefooted outside would—which, by the way, is why I was quite surprised when you asked me why I believe the pad has health benefits. I was equally baffled by MrChips when he asked, "Do you always believe in all manufacturer's claims and everything you read in ads or see on TV?" (I had the thought he was trolling me, maybe, since everything I wrote suggested the exact opposite).

So for clarity's sake the key question is, once again, please for a newbie:

Never mind the health claims, that's for another forum. Does standing barefooted on a conductive pad attached to the ground of a household outlet via a wire with a 100K resistor in it, equal standing on the earth barefooted (IN EVERY WAY, IN EVERY RESPECT, JUST AS THE COMPANY CLAIMS IT DOES?)

Please, don't answer that both will discharge static electricity equally well. You and I both know this thing is just an anti static mat, but the company that makes it makes no claims about its anti static properties and my friend didn't buy it for its anti static properties. He bought it to stand on in the house because he believes standing on the earth barefooted keeps him healthy, and he believes standing on one of these pads inside the house is the same as standing barefooted on the earth.

thanks

 

I answered that it is claimed to be a health device based on the belief by some that standing barefoot on the ground is good for your health

hi 88,
If you had been to some of the countries I have seen, where people walk bare foot on the ground, mainly due to local poverty, they suffer from all types of parasitic foot infections and injuries.

You would soon realise that the so called new-age health and medicine benefits regarding being bare foot on the ground, is a load of Hog Wash.!
E

 

Never mind the health claims, that's for another forum. Does standing barefooted on a conductive pad attached to the ground of a household outlet via a wire with a 100K resistor in it, equal standing on the earth barefooted (IN EVERY WAY, IN EVERY RESPECT, JUST AS THE COMPANY CLAIMS IT DOES?)

No.

Also, are resistors polarized? Do they resist from either direction?

They are non-polarized.

 

Stop taking this crap seriously

No the OP isn't. He is just ranting in any direction. Damn, I wasted my time in this ridiculous thread!

 

No.

Thank you very much. Why isn't it the same? For instance, if I were to add a 100k resistor to the cable running to the ground spike that grounds my house, what would the effect of the efficacy/efficiency/integrity of that house ground?

No the OP isn't. He is just ranting in any direction. Damn, I wasted my time in this ridiculous thread!

Sorry, but this all became convoluted when it got into the health claims (which is why I didn't explain what the device is in my original post).
It was then pointed out that the device appears to be an anti static mat, and that it would indeed discharge static.

Oh boy, great to know, but the question wasn't how good of an anti static mat this thing is, but does it do what the manufacturer claims - ground you to earth precisely the same as standing barefooted on the ground would. I came here because that claim sounded suspicious and hoped someone here could clear it up for me.

My reasoning was that there isn't a 100k resistor between your bare feet and the ground, nor one on the ground from my electrical panel to earth, so how can grounding something with a 100k resistor in line "precisely" be the same or as effective? It would seem while adding it provided safety, adding it also would make it a less effective ground path.

Since this has gone round and round a bit, I'll simply answer my own question and you all can tell me if I answered it correctly.

"No sir, nickit88. It is not the same. There is a difference in a ground with a resistor in line and one without. The ground without a 100K resistor is the more effective and sure ground. This is so because current always wants to go to earth and in a ground fault on the outlet your device is plugged into, current would be shunted to the ground rod in the earth outside because it is the path of least resistance. Current would not choose the to seek earth through your device or by a ground that includes a 100k resistor because it is not the path of least resistance, due to the impedance created by the 100k resistor."

 

Thank you very much. Why isn't it the same?

This is what you asked:

Does standing barefooted on a conductive pad attached to the ground of a household outlet via a wire with a 100K resistor in it, equal standing on the earth barefooted (IN EVERY WAY, IN EVERY RESPECT, JUST AS THE COMPANY CLAIMS IT DOES?)

And I answered, "no."

Obviously (at least I think it should be obvious), the resistance between your body and the earth when you stand barefoot on the earth is going to be highly dependent on the nature of the soil you're standing on. If you were standing on the top of a sand dune in the Sahara and reached out and grabbed onto a bare wire carrying 220V you would probably not feel anything; whereas if you were standing knee-deep in a salt marsh and did that, you would instantly be electrocuted.

And neither of these things is the same as standing barefoot on a conductive pad grounded through a 100 kΩ resistor.

Please note that you DID NOT ask in that post about the effect of inserting a 100 kΩ resistor in series with your house's grounding system:

For instance, if I were to add a 100k resistor to the cable running to the ground spike that grounds my house, what would the effect of the efficacy/efficiency/integrity of that house ground?

Pose that question to a licensed electrician and see what he says. LOL!!!!

 

"No sir, nickit88. It is not the same. There is a difference in a ground with a resistor in line and one without. The ground without a 100K resistor is the more effective and sure ground. This is so because current always wants to go to earth and in a ground fault on the outlet your device is plugged into, current would be shunted to the ground rod in the earth outside because it is the path of least resistance. Current would not choose the to seek earth through your device or by a ground that includes a 100k resistor because it is not the path of least resistance, due to the impedance created by the 100k resistor."

This is where your logic is flawed.

The resistance across the calloused layers of skin in the bottom of your foot exceeds 1MΩ. Adding 100kΩ of resistance will make very little difference in dissipating static charge buildup.

 

Static is one thing. A low impeadance path to ground is another. let's look at this problem another way:
1. A reference
2. Protective ground (earth)
3. Shield (non current carrying) - helps prevent RFI

Your house has a ground rod driven into the Earth which becomes the 0V reference for the house.

AC outlets should really have two grounds, but they don;t because of cost. There is such an animal as an Isolated ground receptacle. See: https://www.ecmweb.com/content/article/20890911/the-basics-of-isolated-grounding-receptacles

Back to the house. You want your plumbing and external metal parts of equipment to be earthed. If an electrical fault occurs the equipment, the fuse can blow. Not great, but it's worked for a long time.

Because people run extension cords under rugs and defeat protections and electronucs have gotten cheaper, we have AFCI's and GFCI's. The AFCI looks for an arc signature and will trip. The GFCI looks for the difference of current flowing in the neutral and hot. It's around 10mA or the amount of current that does some damage if it goes through the heart muscle.

Now, we have more of what we need: 1) protection from getting shocked and 2) A reference.

In a set of grounds that are daisy-chained, if you have a fault at the end, the ground potentials change along that chain. This isn't good. You don;t generally have feeds in the same room from multiple breakers, so better.

e.f you don;t plug in a parallel printer in the basement and connect it to a computer in the attic on serparate circuits. That used communication that was referenced to ground and 5.5V was the max it could tolerate.

Your cable TV also shares the same reference.

When you add sub-panels, they share the main panel reference as well because the ground and neutral are separated.

When you put a sub-panel in a "detached" structure, you have to install another ground rod at that structure.

I know of a computing installation that was compromised because over 200 feet, the ground potential changed. They had to make some connections fiber.

The static mat thing: Static can semi-permanently change the behavior of a circuit. A "bike computer" dragged acroos a nylon rug in a car caused the computer to fail. the fix, believe it or not, was short the battery terminals with no battery in it. I've fixed numerous devices this way.

When working on sensitive electronics "daily", you might wear a "wrist band". If you installed RAM every 5 years or so, discharge yourself to the case first and don't rub your feet on the nylon carpet.

The "damage" might actually fix itself in a year or so.