Hi, I just had an electrical inspection done by Ontario Hydro, forced on me
by my insurance company. This was on a house that I just bought that was
converted into a triplex sharing the same hydro meter. Some of the wiring is
older two wire with no ground, but using three pin outlets. His advice was
to either block the ground hole with epoxy to make it two pin, or to use
GCFI's where a ground was needed, or run a ground cable to one of the water
pipes. This put the wiring within code and also acts as a safe or safer
circuit as any shorts to ground are picked up quicker than conventional
wiring using the ground to blow the fuse or breaker.
Unless you can get to a copper water pipe, the GCFI will more than meet
your needs.
Rob
"Chantecleer" wrote in message
news:emV0YW4=.3013f1f3b671a81a020274e8938daf46@107 2909957.cotse.net...

Have a question on Electrical outlet grounding. Hope you guys can help me
out.

I'm pretty new to Home repairs but learning fast. I had ran into a small
item that I cannot seem to accept. Namely, grounding an outlet.

I had replaced an old two prong outlet with a 3 prong in the garage. The
original was not grounded, obviously. I was told by the "Guy" at Home
Depot
that the only thing I had needed to do to ground the outlet was to connect
the GREEN screw to the metal casing I had got to install the plug in. The
old casing was thrown away. I got one of them industrial metal casings and
screwed it to the Drywall in the garage.

For the life of me, I don't see how the outlet is grounded. The "Guy"
says,
as long as it is to 'metal' I'm grounded. The House is grounded with an 8
foot copper bar to the Main breaker box. But the metal box, is just to the
drywall. Also am worried about arcing. The Hot lead and the Neutral are in
this box, and both screws are about 1/4 inch away from the casing. Is this
a
cause for alarm? Should it be insulated away somehow?

On the outlet, I had connected a #8 piece of copper wire to the metal
casing, and the green screw.

Am I grounded on this outlet?

Many thanks,

Chantecleer