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Newbie needs help

C

Craftish

Gawd
Joined
Jul 24, 2002
Messages
675
I live in an old apartment with two-pronged outlets from which I have to use an adapter to get it to the standard configuration with the ground plug in order to run any modern electronics. Obviously this isn't good since I don't really have any ground protection, and so I want to fix this and was wondering what the best way of doing this was. Should I just install a completely new outlet? Do I already have a ground line in the old one that just isn't connected to the non-existent ground plug (meaning I could just buy a normal outlet and hook everything up)? I know I can check that myself but I'm assuming most old houses with these sort of plugs do have ground wires, is this correct? Can anyone point me to a good link or tutorial on how to do this? I googled it but came up with some things that weren't quite what I was looking for and I'm worried if one were to give me less than excellent advice I wouldn't know it. Thanks!
 
Well you need to know what kind of wiring the house has if you have old knob and tube your screwed on grounding you would have to put in a new breaker box and breakers and run new wiring. Or maybe tap into the old box and put a smaller box in with 1 or 2 breakers in it and the run new wires to the outlets. Long story short your looking at rewiring.
 
Had the same issue with an older house I owned in New Hampshire. It used recirculating hot water for heat, so as a temporary fix I used a 3 to 2 prong adapter, and hooked the green tab on the adapter to a wire clamped on the pipe for the hot water heating system.

A steam (radiator type) heating system would work too.

Closed system are hooked through a manually operated valve, to a cold water feed pipe which comes in from underground somewhere. Long as that valve isn't PVC, which is unlikely in an older house, it's a very good ground path.

Just DON'T do like the idiot that owned the house before me and hook your grounds to the GAS PIPE!!!
 
HTPC Rookie said:
Had the same issue with an older house I owned in New Hampshire. It used recirculating hot water for heat, so as a temporary fix I used a 3 to 2 prong adapter, and hooked the green tab on the adapter to a wire clamped on the pipe for the hot water heating system.

A steam (radiator type) heating system would work too.

Closed system are hooked through a manually operated valve, to a cold water feed pipe which comes in from underground somewhere. Long as that valve isn't PVC, which is unlikely in an older house, it's a very good ground path.

Just DON'T do like the idiot that owned the house before me and hook your grounds to the GAS PIPE!!!
Click to expand...
Ok, great, so is just regular insulated copper wire suitable for this? We have radiators so I'm sure that will work. Also the outlet I'm currently using is rather far away from the radiator, so is it ok if I just run like 10 feet of wire across the room to it?
 
Regular insulated copper should be fine. Uninsulated will work fine too, since it's not supposed to ever be a current carrying wire. Just try and keep it as thick as the wiring inside your house...e.g if the house uses 12GA, use at least 12GA. In the event of a short you don't want that ground wire to melt before the breaker or fuse trips.

10 feet should be no issue. Go much longer and I'd use the next gauge wire, 10GA. And if you want to be sort-of code aware, use green.

Oh, and don't put it where you or anyone else will trip over it. :)
 
The type of wire you should use is based on the building codes of your city/state. In NYC, all indoor wiring has to be BX. BX wire is a metal sleeve that surrounds the conductors. This sleeve is the actual ground conductor. In other locales, the ground conductor must be UNinsulated. In others, any conductor would do. I would HIGHLY recommend having a professional take a look at your wiring. If you rent, any electrical fire can be blamed on your "improvements." Thus, you are responsible for repairs. If you own, the value of your home will greatly increase with a "modern" wiring layout. In my mind, this is a no brainer.
 
joecool234 said:
The type of wire you should use is based on the building codes of your city/state. In NYC, all indoor wiring has to be BX. BX wire is a metal sleeve that surrounds the conductors. This sleeve is the actual ground conductor. In other locales, the ground conductor must be UNinsulated. In others, any conductor would do. I would HIGHLY recommend having a professional take a look at your wiring. If you rent, any electrical fire can be blamed on your "improvements." Thus, you are responsible for repairs. If you own, the value of your home will greatly increase with a "modern" wiring layout. In my mind, this is a no brainer.
Click to expand...

I was telling him how to make a TEMPORARY ground "fix", not run a new 3 conductor cable to his system. That would be best done by a licensed electrician like you said.

Never heard of an uninsulated ground wire requirement. That would be tough to do, seeing how any type of jacket (e.g. Romex) would be considered an insulator. But then the only NEC book I ever borrowed from a library was for New Hampshire codes only, when I wired my theater and computer rooms in the basement.

Your statement about armored cable is incorrect....code states the jacket is NOT to be relied on as the ground conductor. It is there because of fire codes in NYC, not grounding requirements.

What you said about modern wiring increasing the value of your home is very true..accd to the real estate agent we used to sell the NH home, it is a MAJOR selling plus in older houses.
 
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