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It looks like the previous owner to my home took a black copper wire from a tv splitter of some kind and then connected it to a copper pipe a few feet away.

I’m trying to remove all of this tv wiring. What is the point of this current setup, and more importantly is it safe for me to remove it from the tv splitter and the pipe?

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isherwood
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Zach Smith
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    It's a ground wire. Not sure why this splitter needs a ground wire, but if it does, this is a way to do it. (Not sure if a legal or approved way) – user253751 Aug 31 '23 at 21:34
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    in addition to rfi/emi/shielding, it can guide indirect lighting strikes to a ground, so if you still have an aerial, it might not be bad to leave in-place. – dandavis Aug 31 '23 at 21:37
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    That's not a splitter. There might be a splitter at the other end of those two wires. What is at the other end? It looks a little like the cable company's termination. There wouldn't usually be two of those but OTOH it would be unusual for a homeowner to install their own cable grounding. You should not remove this ground wire unless these cables are removed all the way back to the pole. As the answers say, you can remove grounding for cables that no longer exist... But not for ones that still run outside. – jay613 Sep 01 '23 at 00:34
  • @dandavis Likely a silly question, but if a lightning strike grounds out to that copper pipe, can the water someone's using give them a zap? – Mathemats Sep 01 '23 at 03:00
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    @Mathemats: not silly. In a shower the drain and those copper supply pipes are both grounded, which provides a better (lower resistance) path for the electricity than a human body. At a faucet, there's really nowhere for the current to flow from your body to ground from the source. I can't think of a scenario where you could insert yourself in series, other than the moment where you're holding it while disconnecting the wire and lightning strikes, that would suck. There's ways to get a mains shock from pipes, (bad wiring job) but, afaik, not w/lighting. – dandavis Sep 01 '23 at 04:36
  • ground bar https://duckduckgo.com/?q=coax+ground+bar&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images ... lightning arrestor https://duckduckgo.com/?q=coax+lightning+arrestor&iax=images&ia=images – jsotola Sep 01 '23 at 06:17
  • @user253751 Because it’s not a splitter, it’s a coupler, and the cables should be matching ground potential with the rest of the building to ensure good EMI protection. It also helps protect against the grounded shield of one of the cables being shorted to some power source (or the cable being struck by lightning outside), which could easily destroy equipment on the other end or possibly even start a fire. – Austin Hemmelgarn Sep 01 '23 at 13:59
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    There is great pleasure in throwing out 4 miles of coiled up coax that used to sully every baseboard and door frame in your entire house. The pleasure ends when you realize how much painting you now have to do! – jay613 Sep 01 '23 at 14:15

3 Answers3

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It is a ground wire. If you are removing the TV wires then you can remove the ground wire as well.

There is a larger ground wire from your main breaker panel to a ground rod (or two) and/or to water pipes. That wire is critical to safe operation of your electrical system. This wire is not.

manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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    As long as the cable feed is still hanging off a pole and attached to the house, it should be grounded. Possibly also as long as internal cable is routed externally, as is often the practice, the system should still be grounded. The ground strap should be the last thing to go. – jay613 Sep 01 '23 at 00:42
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    @jay613 is correct. This ground wire is partly there to ensure the grounding for the cables is still good, but it’s also there as insurance against lightning striking the exterior cables or something causing the shielding of one of the cables to be shorted to a power source, and therefore removing it while leaving the cables connected _technically_ is a fire risk. – Austin Hemmelgarn Sep 01 '23 at 14:00
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To answer your question as to why, all signal cable digital or otherwise are susceptible to electrical interference. For this reason the majority of signal cables, coax included, are screened with an interference barrier. For this barrier to work correctly it needs to be grounded.

isherwood
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Johnliverpool
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8

That wire is being used to ground the tv wires.

If removing all the wires it will not be needed anymore, no wires no need for grounding air.

crip659
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