Been lurking here for a while. I got an HDTV for Christmas, and
almost got sucked into the false security of point of use surge
protectors. Anyway, I need someone to explain something to me.
I have been doing alot of research on surge protection. My plan was
to improve my earth ground (my house is 35 years old), and then get a
whole house surge protector installed. Luckily, my CATV, Phone, and
Power all come in right next to each other. There is a small pipe that
comes straight down out of the meter box that contains a bare ground
wire. I assumed that this wire went from the meter box to a cold water
pipe underneath the house. My plan was to replace the wires coming from
the cable grounding block, and the telco box with bare 6 gauge copper
wire (which I did), and disconnect the ground wire from the cold water
pipe, and attach everything to a new 8' copper grounding rod. Turns
out that the wire coming from the meter went underneath the house to
the switchbox. There was about 2 feet of slack buried in the ground
with a rusted out grounding rod clamp attached to it. There was also a
grounding rod there that I hadn't seen before. I'm guessing that at one
point the wire was attached to the grounding rod.

Anyway, my question is, is this a typical setup? I know a good bit
about "post switchbox" wiring, but not alot about what happens before
there. This may very well be the way it's supposed to be, but for some
reason, I was thinking there would be two grounding wires.

Since there was no way to slide on a grounding rod clamp, I went back
to Lowe's and bought a cold water pipe clamp, and clamped all three
wires to the existing ground rod. With ALL that being said, what is the
best way to improve my earth ground system? Is this enough? I REALLY
want to protect my new electroinics.

One more thing.... The breaker that controls the outlet that the TV is
plugged into is not in the main switchbox. For some reason, it is in a
smaller switchbox along with the downstairs A/C, outside. I don't know
if this affects anything. Thanks in advance!!!!!

- Mike