Electronic – ESD Mat and wrist strap grounding – Ground hole not available in the country

esdgrounding

I'm building my new lab and I'm not sure where to ground since I live in the Netherlands; we only have hot and neutral available, I don't see a third a hole.

I understand I should get an ESD mat and wrist strap that includes the 1Mohm resistor. And ground these 2 with a common-point ground as shown here http://documents.desco.com/pdf/tb-2000.pdf

The ESD mat should also include a 1Mohm resistor in order to soft-ground it as well, but I'm a bit confused as to why wouldn't the non-conductive top surface be considered a soft-ground for the bottom-conductive layer.

However, my question is about how should I ground the the common-point ground. Should I unscrew the third hole on my wall socket a bit and tie it there? I'm a bit lost how to continue, all the tutorials I see on the internet always include a dummy plug with ground connection to a hot-neutral-ground wall socket, which I don't have.

Wall outlet

Any help is appreciated!

EDIT:

I've got 3 cables in the inside of the receptacle I showed above:
Removed outlet outer plastic

Is the top right cable (kinda grey-ish) the ground that I need? If so, then can I just replace with the other outlets containing a ground prong?

Best Answer

You can't. All you can do is follow Tom's advice of the equipotential.

I'd highly recommend to pull a ground wire trough the pipes to somewhere it is available. (eg: bathroom, kitchen) And replace it for one of these: enter image description here

This is a bit of work, I know. But worth it! Since aside from ESD there are other problems of not having a earthed lab. Such as leakage currents in smps (all your gear) but most important is personal protection.

While your at it, check if you have an RCD in your distribution panel (meterkast). You'll recognize it by a breaker switch that has a test button. Press it, see if it works.


The worst advice given is to connect ground of your lab to the copper pipes of the heating system. This may work for you, and this used to be a normal thing, until plastic piping became available.
Besides plastic piping, the plumber won't expect pipes being used for ground and could get shocked when he cuts a pipe.