How to repair ungrounded three-prong outlets
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- Ungrounded three-prong outlets are a very common defect found on home inspections of old houses. Thankfully, repairing this issue is not a huge deal, and today, I'll walk through the different repair options.
Of course the safest option, also the most expensive, is to run a new length of NM cable from the panel to wherever the ungrounded outlet dilemma is. For two main reasons. First is surge protection, a surge protector such as that 6 outlet strip behind the entertainment center, requires a true ground to shunt the surges away from the items plugged into it. And second, on some pieces of equipment the manufacturer's instructions indicate that it must be connected to a properly grounded circuit; if this is the case than article 110.3 (b) of the NEC applies, which states that equipment shall be installed and used in accordance with any instructions included in the listing, labeling or identification.
A whole home surge arrestor can and should be installed at the panel as part of the upgrade.
It's also possible to add a conductor to ground the box.
I own an older home. Ran a wire to iron pipe plumping then drove a grounding rod out side and connected then wired a wire to the rod.
That used to be common practice and was to code a number of years ago. However has not been allowed for a number of years.
Two reasons. First plumbers don't like getting shocked. The other reason is that metallic pipe often gets replaced during repairs and upgrades.
is gfci protection switch at the panel any safer than a gfci outlet ? I would think the outlet option is alot easier to install and a lot easier to test. If the switch option is no more safer than the outlet option; then outlet for the win right?
No safer, but a GFCI circuit breaker adds protection for the entire circuit; not just one receptacle.
@@StructureTech1 At the panel you have a ground reference. A remote outlet may have both the hot and neutral floating, with unbalanced return currents from other receptacles making the GFI receptacle unreliable for protection unless you have a local ground there. ( I've seen green grounding conductors within EMT that had induced voltages, discovered when a comm tech tried to use one as a signal ground. )
@@psdaengr911A GFCI receptacle works exactly like GFCI breaker. It compares the current following through the hot conductor to that falling back through the neutral conductor. If there is a difference of more than a few milliamps then it will trip. It does not matter where or why there is a difference. Just that there's a difference.