My house was built to what I imagine is code. Cable box for house right next to power meter and they are grounded together. The problem with this is I also have that 2'x4' big cable distributor in my back yard. It is on the opposite end of yard, goes to the cable box, and then back the opposite way to the room that has the internet router which is really close to the cable distributor.

Long story short, My cable comes into my house using a 200' line, goes into the box on the side of my house, then goes 150' back to my computer room with the internet modem in it. I want to remove the cable box from the side of my house and relocate it by the computer room. This will cut out 300' of travel my internet signal has to take which I think in turn will greatly increase my speed. Not to mention both spans going to and from the box and the thinner cable not recommended to go above 75'.

I am planning on doing this myself. I am not concerned if code requires me to have it by the power meter or not. I am wanting to know if it is okay to have a second ground, solely for the cable box entering my house. It would be on the opposite end of my house and would be a minimum of 8' deep.

I am typing this on my phone right now but if I need to get onto paint and draw up or take pictures of what I am talking about for anyone that needs clarification I will.
Thank you all in advance.
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Not having the cable bonded to the service entrance has bad consequences for lightning/surge protection. An independent, 2nd ground rod will make this worse.
I would consider running larger coax; are you already using RG6? RG11 is lower loss, but is not normally required at a residence.

https://www.multicominc.com/wp-conte...ttenuation.pdf

 

Thank you for the reply telecom guy, it is all RG6, both spans.

Forgive my ignorance but how will I have bad consequences for lightning/surge protection with two ground rods? I can't understand this which is why I am on this forum in the first place asking. I would think that double the protection would be better in the end, especially since this coax would technically be on its own ground now?

 

Non bonded, multiple ground rods open up the very real likelyhood of hundreds of amps of surge current from one "ground system" to the other. Those hundreds of amps would be internal house wiring, the RG6 itself and other, bad avenues.
Not saying here that multiple grounds rods are a bad idea, they just need to be part of the same, bonded, system.

I had 5 ground rods at my last house.
btw, I did take a direct lightning hit in the house, and the damage, not severe, but did include the cable modem, and the distribution box upstream a block away. But, no damage to actual house, TV's, whole house genset or telcom wiring. My RG6 coax carried the damaging currents towards the street feed. This is a consequence of the entire house ground system raising many thousands of volts. Enough to blow out some drywall mud about a foot away from a receptacle.

 

Multiple ground rods at any one building must be interconnected (bonded) using #6 copper run along the exterior of the building as much as possible.

It is preferable to run a ground wire (can be #12) from the location
with the cable/internet equipment and no ground rod over to the ground rod near the electrical panel and tie that to the #6 ground wire for the ground rod. This method is common enough that they make a little bracket with multiple grounding terminals for phone, cable TV coax, roof antenna, internet connection etc. to make the latter tie ins with.

Many times two ground rods are needed. They will usually be installed just over the minimum separation of 6 feet apart as opposed to one at the electrical panel and the other at your TV antenna and/or internet service entrance.

There are no practical methods that will protect your home and equipment from a direct lightning hit completely. But the standard and customary methods of grounding using ground rods, etc. will offer protection from a variety of lightning events that would cause damage to a home and its equipment had such grounding methods not been there.

 

As others have mentioned, multiple ground rods aren't a problem, but all the grounds need to be bonded/connected together. Even outside the threat of lightning, just with a storm in the area, it's easy for the 'ground' of the cable system to be a few volts above what the 'ground' of the electrical system is.
Those few volts (maybe only 10-30v) then find their way through your computer or TV received and zap whatever components are in the way. You also don't want a person to be the 'jumper' between that voltage difference either. A lot of people figure out there's a bonding problem in their house when they touch their kitchen sink and the toaster at the same time and get a zap. Or touch the TV and cable receiver at the same time.

 

Then you surely have an intersystem bonding bridge near the electric service entrance where all systems are bonded to the electric service ground. You need to continue using this system.

 

Thanks for the replies, I guess I will have to either run RG11 or a 150 foot long ground wire to tie it into the main ground location.

EDIT: Probably a dumb question but what if I just ran the wire directly into my house without grounding it? Like what if I got one of those surge protectors that have COAX input and output and basically went from the mailbox outside, then into the surge protector, then into the modem then into the computer. If a strike happened it would only have the main ground to go to since the 2nd ground wouldn't exist and if the surge went into the COAX the surge protector with the COAX protection would take the blow right?

 

The cable that is coming from the distribution box in the yard to your house is not yours, it is the cable companies. The box that is connected to the house should not be relocated as it is also the cable companies.

Reducing the cable length 300' around your house will not significantly increase your internet speed as that signal is traveling hundreds, if not thousands of miles through copper and fiber lines.

If you want to increase your speed upgrade your internet service or see if fiber is available.

 

negative; The most frequent lightning mode is a hit to the electrical utility. This, in turn, will cause a large ground voltage increase to anything connected to your ac wiring, including that computer, you alluded to. Your computer will rise to a thousand volts above distant ground, and large currents will now start flowing towards the cable modem system. Why? because that cable is grounded some distance away at the distribution box down the block. This, then, means that your computer is now in-line with this large ground current, putting it at risk.
This is why ALL local electrical items should share the same grounding system. It reduces these kinds of high current paths through equipment you care about.

 

telecom guy, that makes sense. I guess I will just go the route of upgrading the line from RG6 to RG11 since that looks like it will be my only option to do this safely. Thank you and AllanJ and Zorfdt for all the great information and helping me out!