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Need to change a 2prong outlet to 3 prong.
Can I make this change w/o wiring from the breaker box?
Right now I use the adapters for the 3prong appliances. Can I just connect a piece of copper wire from the outlet box to the new 3 prong plug? Wouldn't that be similar to just grounding a 3prong adapter?
Thanks
The CEC permits you to replace a two prong receptacle with a three
prong if you fill the U ground with a non-conducting goop.
Like caulking compound. This is not permitted in the NEC.
What does this statement mean? What is the U ground?
Not that lucky no copper wire in the box. I don't understand how some of my outlets are 3 prong grounded, but there are not grounds in all the outlets?
Amature electrician, or only 3-prong duplex recpticles available when wiring, but should have waited/found 2-prong instead.
The 3-prong adapters suggest attaching the pigtail to the screw in the middle of the cover, but that does nothing for you if the box isn't grounded.
The irony of this discussion is that if you remove the cover on the fusebox, you will see that all the neutral wires are ganged together and all the gound wires are also ganged, then both are connected to the ground strap.
An electrician from the local power company showed me were the connector for the ground strap to the rod in the ground was and how the original contractor had not used the proper connecting device - major corrosion, not a secure electrical connection - wire could be pulled from the connector with a bare hand. He warned me that a major short in the building could backflow into the remaining house wiring unless I replaced the connector. I priced both connectors - only a couple of bucks different - not worth the risk in my opinion. Replaced mine and my next door neighboors the same day.
He also recommended NOT connecting to a waterpipe. A short could cause the entire piping to be "hot" between the connection and the ground and anyone touching a bare water pipe could complete the "ground" anywhere in the house.
The good news, more and more electrical equipment and tools are double insulated, so 2-prong commectors are more common, but they are polorized, so one prong is bigger than the other to prevent cross wiring.
Are you sure that the outlets you had already with the 3 prong are actually grounded? A couple places that I rented they'd installed 3 prong outlets, but they weren't grounded.
That is exactly what I was concerned about. If they wired some with 2, and some with 3, but did not have the groundwire anywhere.
I think that was the situation haighr was describing.
Sort of common in old country homes where the homeowner or some "handy-guy" added or replaced an existing duplex fixture, and did not verify what was needed.
Wow, thanks for this info.
I checked the 3 prong outlet box, but could not see well enough unless I remove the outlet from the metal box and did not do that as had not turned power off to those outlets and not sure that I could tell even then if the actual box is grounded or if just a copper wire is going to the screw in the box.
Guess I have to have an actual electrician tell me whether anything is grounded.
So just a wire to the box won't suffice, okay.
Right now I use those 3 prong adapters, so they really just make the plug workable? So I could install the 3prong and it would still work just not be grounded. How unsafe is that? Is it any less safe than just using the 3prong adapter?
I had an electrician install an outlet next to our wet bar and in our bathroom and those are both 3 prong and I don't recall that he pulled any wire from the basement and I am sure I would have noticed that?
I'm guessing the outlets by the wet bar and the bathroom should have not just been grounded, but also should have been GFCI, I think most modern electrical codes require outlets installed in potentially wet areas should be GFCI. I don't know anything about what's required to install those, but if he didn't install GFCI's there, I'd find yourself a new electrician.
He put those GFCI outlets in those places, but what are they grounded to or don't they need to be as if that is the case, I could then install GFCI in the two outlets I need convered for a television and puter.
