Did you ground your DIY COB frame? Is it necessary? How do you do this anyway?

So, first thank you to the community for sharing the love and the information. I've learned so much from all of you, especially @Growmau5 (You rock man!)

I posted this in another thread in grow room setup, so forgive me if you've seen this already. I just figured if I relocate the discussion here, more people might have the same question.

I'm a total newb when I comes to LED and to DIY fixtures. I'm getting ready to build my first DIY COB setup. I've researched the following question and can't find the answer. Here's the question...

1. Is "grounding" the frame necessary?
2. If "grounding" is necessary, exactly how do I do this?
I'm planning on building a frame out of Aluminum angle to hold the heatsinks and COBs. I want to do whatever I can to minimize electrical shock.

I've also googled "how to ground computer case", "how to ground fixture", "how to ground frame" and also can't seem to find a straightforward answer that is applicable to a DIY COB light fixture.

I understand that grounding is necessary when working with electrical appliances to minimize shock. I also understand that by "grounding" the appliance, risk of shock is mitigated by directing the electrical current to the ground, i.e. "EARTH" instead of your body.

I'm guessing that the answer/solution is so easy it's almost common sense which is why I can't find a step by step guide on how to do it. I don't necessarily want to be spoon fed the information, but when people say, "just connect the fixture to the ground" and it makes no sense to me, I'm sure it makes no sense to some others as well.

So to all the electrical nerds out there, is this necessary? If so, how do we do it so we can all minimize risks in our spaces? Can someone please post step by step instructions that an electrical luddite could understand? Pictures would be awesome.

I'm not asking how to connect LEDs to the driver, nor am I asking how to mount the heatsinks to the frame. I specifically want to know if grounding the actual aluminum frame is necessary for safety and if so, exactly how would you explain to someone with minimal electrical knowledge and of electrical terms how to accomplish that?

This is my guess if someone can verify...
on the power cord, that plugs into the wall, there is a positive, negative and a ground. When I connect the plug to the LED driver, I connect each wire on the driver to the corresponding wire on the plug. Is it as easy as attaching a wire via screw directly to the frame and connecting it to the ground wire on the plug/power cord?

In the attached picture, you'll see the frame made of aluminum angle holding the heatsinks. Do you just drill a hole in the aluminum angle, connect a wire to it, then connect that wire to the ground wire coming off the wall plug attached to the AC input on the driver?...Forgive me if what I just proposed is the dumbest thing you've ever heard, but that's my guess. For all I know that will expose me to more risk, which is why I pose the question here.

Please answer this question electrical gods! I beg of thee! (or any nerds out there that know the answer, thats cool too...)

You got it.

Pardon me kind people. Might someone have a inexpensive source for sst140 heatsinks??

I want to build the one chromex has in the picture

I've seen them at northern grow lights. Jerry at KingBrite has them too

Jerry didn't have the 140 they keep push the 150

chromex said:

So, first thank you to the community for sharing the love and the information. I've learned so much from all of you, especially @Growmau5 (You rock man!)

I posted this in another thread in grow room setup, so forgive me if you've seen this already. I just figured if I relocate the discussion here, more people might have the same question.

I'm a total newb when I comes to LED and to DIY fixtures. I'm getting ready to build my first DIY COB setup. I've researched the following question and can't find the answer. Here's the question...

1. Is "grounding" the frame necessary?
2. If "grounding" is necessary, exactly how do I do this?
I'm planning on building a frame out of Aluminum angle to hold the heatsinks and COBs. I want to do whatever I can to minimize electrical shock.

I've also googled "how to ground computer case", "how to ground fixture", "how to ground frame" and also can't seem to find a straightforward answer that is applicable to a DIY COB light fixture.

I understand that grounding is necessary when working with electrical appliances to minimize shock. I also understand that by "grounding" the appliance, risk of shock is mitigated by directing the electrical current to the ground, i.e. "EARTH" instead of your body.

I'm guessing that the answer/solution is so easy it's almost common sense which is why I can't find a step by step guide on how to do it. I don't necessarily want to be spoon fed the information, but when people say, "just connect the fixture to the ground" and it makes no sense to me, I'm sure it makes no sense to some others as well.

So to all the electrical nerds out there, is this necessary? If so, how do we do it so we can all minimize risks in our spaces? Can someone please post step by step instructions that an electrical luddite could understand? Pictures would be awesome.

I'm not asking how to connect LEDs to the driver, nor am I asking how to mount the heatsinks to the frame. I specifically want to know if grounding the actual aluminum frame is necessary for safety and if so, exactly how would you explain to someone with minimal electrical knowledge and of electrical terms how to accomplish that?

This is my guess if someone can verify...
on the power cord, that plugs into the wall, there is a positive, negative and a ground. When I connect the plug to the LED driver, I connect each wire on the driver to the corresponding wire on the plug. Is it as easy as attaching a wire via screw directly to the frame and connecting it to the ground wire on the plug/power cord?

In the attached picture, you'll see the frame made of aluminum angle holding the heatsinks. Do you just drill a hole in the aluminum angle, connect a wire to it, then connect that wire to the ground wire coming off the wall plug attached to the AC input on the driver?...Forgive me if what I just proposed is the dumbest thing you've ever heard, but that's my guess. For all I know that will expose me to more risk, which is why I pose the question here.

Please answer this question electrical gods! I beg of thee! (or any nerds out there that know the answer, thats cool too...)

Click to expand...

Your build look like built from metal only so grounding is easy!
Simple choose a 3way Wago connector, add the ground wire coming from your wallplug to the wago, add the groundwire from the driver and add a third groundwire and mount it to the frame. That's it!

CoB's run dc, there is no such thing as a 'ground' as such, on vehicle systems the reference to a ground is purely for cheapness they use the entire metal body of the car as the negative 'bus' and simply take the neg supply for each accessory using a short wire bolted to the nearest bit of bodywork. if your cobs are wired directly then you have no need to earth/ground your heat sinks, in fact if you have a modern mains fuse box a simple single wire short to the grounded heatsink may flip the fuses despite being entirely harmless to the led functionality providing the other wire does not short onto the same place. We have a slightly different mains in the Uk with both 'live' terminals in the wall socket actually carrying current where US standards only uses one wire and the other is effectively a groundwire anyway, I cannot see this altering my previous assertion that a dc circuit would not benefit from grounding the chassis.

chromex said:

This is my guess if someone can verify...
on the power cord, that plugs into the wall, there is a positive, negative and a ground. When I connect the plug to the LED driver, I connect each wire on the driver to the corresponding wire on the plug. Is it as easy as attaching a wire via screw directly to the frame and connecting it to the ground wire on the plug/power cord?

Click to expand...

Yes, it's exactly that simple. You nailed it.

Thank you all so much for making this clear. All of us afraid to ask this question and myself most of all thank you!

chromex said:

Thank you all so much for making this clear. All of us afraid to ask this question and myself most of all thank you!

Click to expand...

It was a great question imo. Very good question for DIY builds.

Does your led driver have a ground wire?

chromex said:

Thank you all so much for making this clear. All of us afraid to ask this question and myself most of all thank you!

Click to expand...

Having thought about this question some more, I can see no possible advantage to grounding an led chassis, regardless of if the driver is grounded. More to the point, I can see real potential problems if you DO ground it, including tripping fuses for no good reason and potentially worse as US 110 ac mains uses the negative post in the wall socket going to ground, i can see some possibility of really nasty outcomes from a mis-wired plug or any number of short circuit blue flashes. I'd say ground your drivers if they have an installed ground lead, if they do not, they will be 'double insulated' and there will not be any meaningful grounding point worth using. As I stated, ground wires are a necessity of ac power and are entirely unnecessary for dc circuits other than for radio interference screening.

freemanjack said:

if they do not, they will be 'double insulated' and there will not be any meaningful grounding point worth using.

Click to expand...

hello,
this is not 100% correct, you have to check datasheet from driver too. To see if it is really 'double insulated' driver.
A meanwell ELG driver has no ground wire but you still have to connect a ground wire to led driver chassis according to PDF of driver

Malocan said:

hello,
this is not 100% correct, you have to check datasheet from driver too. To see if it is really 'double insulated' driver.
A meanwell ELG driver has no ground wire but you still have to connect a ground wire to led driver chassis according to PDF of driver

Click to expand...

agreed, but the chassis is not the driver as per the op question

freemanjack said:

Having thought about this question some more, I can see no possible advantage to grounding an led chassis, regardless of if the driver is grounded. More to the point, I can see real potential problems if you DO ground it

Click to expand...

I think I disagree with this response. Many, many people (in the US) on the forum are running frames connected to the ground without problems.

What if you mount the driver onto the frame, does this ground it, assuming the driver has a ground wire and is connected to the ground on the power socket that you attach to the driver?

rhygin77 said:

I think I disagree with this response. Many, many people (in the US) on the forum are running frames connected to the ground without problems.

Click to expand...

yet!

freemanjack said:

yet!

Click to expand...

Agreed. But the combined tens of thousands of hours of operation without problems imply that it shouldn't be a big concern. I'm more worried crossing the street than that my ground is a problem.