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No grounds in my 1950 house
I'm sure this question comes up often, but I have a bit of twist on it.
My house was built in 1950. I purchased it in 1971. When I looked at the wiring, I knew nothing of electrial boxes and actually didn't even think to ask where it was. I was satisfied though, because I noticed that all the power recepticals were of the three-prong type, which indicated to me a grounded system. It wasn't until a couple of years later, when painting and taking off the face plate, did I discover that the wiring was only two conductor Romax, with the two prong sockets removed and the three prong, with the ground installed.--but it the ground went nowhere. Every outlet, is fake as far as grounding goes. I was/am very unhappy about this. Financially, I can't afford to rewire the house, although it desperately needs it. Since finding the "no ground" ground, I've found copper wire, spliced to aliminum, no consistent color scheme for hot, neutral. The circuit breaker panel appears to have been hacked into the wall, which is on the stairs and hidden behind the stairway door when it is opened. The panel is completely exposed. EMF fields are strong. I can't tell the amps of the breakers, but I know if I run the microwave and an electric mixer at the same time in the kitchen, withing five minutes, the breker trips. There is no Master Disconnect. When the refridgerator kicks on or the washing machine is turned on (they are on different breakers) the house lights flicker, some of the electrical outlets in the basement are in the ceiling (I don't think they could get a box into the concret foundation. In the upstairs, there are a few recepticals on interior walls which have been plastered in--no attention to whether there was a stud anywhere. Along the perimeter walls, which are made of plaster, over metal lathe, over cinder block and an outside brick veneer, evidently, holes were cut into the cinder block for the outlet box and the box and wire, plastered into the wall. Oh, the downstairs wiring, which is in the ceiling, when I did work there, saw that the wiring is stapled to the joists--so fishing something through would be very difficult with staples holding the wiring in place. 1st question is what would you do? --I know, move out; burn the house down, blow it up, take a very large backhoe to it and start over. How this passed code, even back in 1950, is beyond me. Except people around here said that the contractor and building inspector had a "special" relationship. Is there anyway at all to ground anything, without spending a fortune. Can something be done with GFP that would help? I have tools that I need to use outside. They are not double insulated. The warning is written over and over, do not use a ground lifter--this equipment MUST be attached to a properly grounded outlet. Could I for the outside outlets, drive a copper rod into the ground, attach a thick copper braid (strap) to it and attach that to the metal of the box that the socket is in (or to the box then from there use 10 AWG to the Ground of the socket) and have a good, workable, safe ground? Years ago, I used to be an amateur radio operator. To ground my equipment, I drove a 10' copper rod into the ground, attached a 1" wide copper Strap, brought that into the room, attached it to a heavy metal box and ran ground wires from that to my equipent --instead of trying to ground the electrical boxes, I grounded the equipment. This actually worked. When lightining struck my antenna, all it did was come down the heavy coax, jump the gap of a lightining arrestor that led directly to the ground and the strikes never got to my equipment --except for the one time when a storm was coming, I had unhooked the antenna and was preparing to put it directly to ground--ground cable in left hand, antenna coax in right and WHAM! a lightning strike that knocked me across the room. (Boy was that fun). So, would some kind of copper grounding rod and strap to an outside metal box work. And as I mentioned would I gain anything by putting in GPFs, although there would be no ground to them? --I know, I know. It's my fault for not having an electrician inspect the house before I bought it, but I was young, trusting, and saw the three prong outlets. Any helpfull ideas will be appreciated and if you want to laugh at me, go ahead, I deserve it--but now, what can we do to fix it? Thanks, Bob that leaves me open to all kinds of wise-cracks, but take it seriously. I don't have the money to tear out the ceiling, basement walls, upstairs cinder block and stucco walls, rip out all the wiring and have someone do it right. .. It is completely exposed at all |
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