On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 17:43:05 GMT, (Jim Haynes)
wrote:

I had an inspector report that all of the outlets in my house were reverse
wired. It turned out that in fact they were three-wire outlets with no
ground wire. The house was built back before ground outlets were standard,
so they are all wired with two wires. Someone later replaced all the original
two-wire outlets with three-wire ones. Although this creates a false
sense of safety in that there is no protective ground, it is apparently
legal because you can't get two-wire outlets anymore. An electrician I
consulted said it would be too costly to put in modern 3-wire wiring
because of all the demolition - the old wiring is stapled inside the walls
and can't just be pulled out as the new wire is pulled in. So I had him
put in GFCI outlets and breakers where needed for safety (bathrooms and
kitchen) and let the rest go.


It is not legal to retrofit 3-prong outlets without a proper ground,
unless the circuit is GFCI protected and labelled as such. Hell, I
GFCI protect most of my outlets anyway because they provide good shock
protection

I had one save my arse once, standing bare foot on damp concrete and
grabbed a fray cord. Everything went dark for a few seconds and I
heard the gfci snap off about 20-miles away. Only damage was an achy
arm for several hours afterward.

-Chris