Electronic – Wire the green ac earth wire in wooden chassis

acearthgroundpower supplyvoltage

My own power supply is just about finished. Since i live in Europe the voltage here is 230v, from that it goes into my step down transformer that steps down the voltage to around 20 V AC and then into the power supply, etc.

If I check in a normal PC switching power supply the AC ground/earth is connected to the chassis of the power supply. Since i have a wooden chassis for my power supply how do i connect the earth wire to be "safe"? I understand all the risks of working with AC voltages and i try to be as careful as I can. Can I just put some "metal piece" inside of my wooden chassi and connect earth to that?

And just to clarify the AC wire I have contains of 3 wires, One live wire, one ground wire. and one green earth wire. Looks like this:

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I have the exact same colors of my wires as the pic.

Pictures of the transformer I'm using:
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Best Answer

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

Figure 1. Suggested earthing point.

As this isn't a commercial project your primary concern is to keep the system safe for you and other occupants of the house. Dry wood is normally a good insulator but if it gets wet the situation changes. You also need to consider any other possible electrical paths out of the enclosure: for example, is the transformer bolted to the chassis and can the bolts be touched from the outside?

You could consider earthing the transformer frame as a safety precaution. This will

  • blow the fuse or trip your RDC (ground-fault detector) should the transformer frame ever go live.
  • earth any transformer bolts protruding though the case.
  • trip your RCD should the case get wet.