On Wed, 02 May 2007 14:30:36 -0400, Goedjn wrote:

On 2 May 2007 09:46:51 -0700, wrote:

I recently purchased a home built in the 1960s. While doing
renovations, I got an electrician out to inspect my wiring. He said it
was fine, and wasn't worth rewiring the entire house, but I have no
grounding, which he said meant surge protectors wouldn't work. He said
to add grounding, he would basically need to rewire the whole house,
which would cost about $12000. Is it possible to ground just certain
outlets and/or to get "grounded" in a less costly manner?

Thanks!


I'd ignore the existing wiring, and run a new grounded
circut to wherever I want to put equipment that needs
to be protected. That should work out to an entertainment
center and a computer workstation, right? and/or For much less
amount of money you're talking about for the whole house,
you could easily install protection at the service panel,
which will protect you against any event originating
outside the house. (Which is most of them.)

Over time, I'd think about replacing the existing
receptacles with GFCIs, which will give you
reasonable shock protection for people, but won't
do much for equipment.

I agree. You probably only need your computer and entertainment
center on surge protectors. That means adding two new outlets.
Any electrician can add a few outlets for a couple hundred bucks, or
you can do it yourself for under $100.