You are right on everything when it pertains to new houses. The original
question was to do with older wiring which does not have a ground wire in
the circuit. In my case three months ago I was buying a property that has
older wiring. I was required to do an electrical inspection to ensure there
were no shock or safety hazards for the tenants. The inspector recommended
(obviously) to have the place rewired. In reality you just cannot go in and
rip peoples apartments apart when you buy a place to rewire. They also know
that over time that you cannot buy 2 pin outlets anymore. To stop people
putting 3 pin plugs in to this type of circuit they recommend either of 3
methods. (1) Block the ground hole with epoxy to make the outlet into a 2
pin. (2) Bond a copper wire from the outlet box to a water pipe. (3) Put in
a GCFI. I followed this advice and repaired other violations and got a
certificate from the Ontario Hydro inspector in November 2003.
Like I said you are correct for newer houses. For retrofits houses and
apartments it is just not feasible. To make you feel a bit better I have
plans to rewire each of the apartments and put separate hydro meters in.
This is just my experience and advice for Chantacleer. It is also a little
bit of info for anybody that is buying duplexes or apartments in Ontario
that have been retrofitted and running off one hydro meter. The laws have
changed, for the better, for tenants who live in these buildings.
Rob
"Chris Lewis" wrote in message
...
According to Rob :
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.


Note that:
1) blocking the third pin is illegal in the NEC. This is pretty stale
advice
even for the CEC. I don't think it was ever required. In the NEC, they
require
you to put labels on GFCI-protected 3 prong outlets that only have 2
wires.
2) GFCI's don't "make a ground". Note in particular, DO NOT interconnect
the ground prongs of outlets downstream of a two-wire GFCI.
3) copper pipe grounding is bad advice generally speaking, and will
usually
be in violation of code. The inspector _may_ have had his reasons for
your
situation _specifically_, but it should never be generally recommended. In
many situations it's hideously dangerous.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.