| General > General Technical Chat |
| Do you guys use an isolation transformer for your lab/workbench? |
| (1/12) > >> |
| bigfoot22:
deleted |
| tooki:
Let’s put it this way: if you don’t thoroughly understand why and when you’d want an isolation transformer, and what it does and doesn’t protect you from, then you shouldn’t work on mains-powered stuff yet, specifically, things with a live chassis. If you get one, make sure you don’t let it lull you into a sense of false security, such that you actually let your guard down around mains voltages. As for the specific question of using one to isolate all of your test equipment: an emphatic no!!!! If you want to add safety to your bench, install a sensitive GFCI (more sensitive than the one your home may already have installed). |
| bdunham7:
--- Quote from: bigfoot22 on February 01, 2023, 06:31:13 pm ---Just asking because I'm fitting out my workbench and wondered if I shouldn't isolate all of the equipment from the mains with the aid of an isolation transformer then do noise filtering on it. Why no grounding on isolation transformers? --- End quote --- There's probably not a good reason to do so and most test equipment will isolate their innards from the mains anyway via the power supply transformer or whatever. Y-cap leakage can still be an issue in some cases though. Isolation transformers typically pass through the ground connection but that is a separate issue. You typically would not want to break that ground, certainly not by default. |
| AVGresponding:
--- Quote from: tooki on February 01, 2023, 06:46:35 pm ---Let’s put it this way: if you don’t thoroughly understand why and when you’d want an isolation transformer, and what it does and doesn’t protect you from, then you shouldn’t work on mains-powered stuff yet, specifically, things with a live chassis. If you get one, make sure you don’t let it lull you into a sense of false security, such that you actually let your guard down around mains voltages. As for the specific question of using one to isolate all of your test equipment: an emphatic no!!!! If you want to add safety to your bench, install a sensitive GFCI (more sensitive than the one your home may already have installed). --- End quote --- This ^ 100% Simple quotepost because it bears repeating. |
| AVGresponding:
I don't know how things go in the US, but here in the UK, that would NOT MEET electrical safety standards, and would be technically be illegal to sell. @bigfoot22 sorry, forgot you're an Aussie. I can't imagine it would pass safety regs there either. |
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