DIYbanter - View Single Post - switching out 2 pin for 3 pin sockets in my victorian home

Nate Nagel

wrote:
On Mon, 25 May 2009 16:42:52 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

Si wrote:
we have a number of older 2 pin electrical wall sockets in our
victorian home and most of my appliances are 3 pin. can i just switch
them to 3 pin sockets? is there a problem with doing that?
depends on whether the boxes are grounded or not. If they are, no
problem, but unless you use "self grounding" receps you have to wire the
ground terminal of the recep to a grounding screw tapped into the box.
If the boxes are NOT grounded (e.g. house wired with 2-wire NM cable)
then you have two options - 1) install a GFCI upstream of the first
recep on each circuit, and mark each recep with a sticker reading "GFCI
protected - no equipment ground" 2) run a ground wire to each box in
which you want to use a 3-prong recep. Code allows you to do this in a
retrofit type situation; for new construction the ground wire must be

So, what you're saying is to run a separate green or bare wire from
the service panel to each outlet? I was not aware this was legal in
any situations, even though I tend to question why not, because a
ground is a ground, whether the ground wire is part of the cable or
next to it.

Personally, I'd rather add a separate wire as a ground, than to
install grounded outlets without a ground. May not be code, but it IS
safe, whereas using grounded outlets without a ground wire is NOT
safe.

That's exactly what I'm saying to do. Better check the latest code to
make sure that this is still acceptable, but in the 02 (I think?)
version - last one I looked at anyway - it was acceptable to ground a
receptacle to an "available point on the grounding system" (I believe I
got the wording correct) but only in a situation like you describe, NOT
in new construction. In new construction it must be part of the cable,
or if you're using conduit, in the same conduit as the other wires.

Technically this would mean that in your situation you could use a water
pipe, etc. but in reality I think the preferred method would be to pull
it all the way back to the neutral bus in your breaker panel, less
chance of something going wrong that way (e.g. someone comes in and
replaces a run of copper pipe with PVC, whoops, suddenly your ground no
longer exists)

nate

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