Electricity: Ground?

[Brian Kelsay]

Jason Clinton wrote:

> Hello all. I'm look at renting an older home in the Waldo area. My 
> question for the EE's on the list is this: The electrical sockets in the 
> house are of the older type that do not indicate polarity and do not 
> have a plug for ground. I would like to know (showing my age, here) what 
> happens if I plug in a surge protector? What sort of risks am I running 
> plugging my several thousands of dollars worth of electronics in to 
> these things? From poking around in the basement, it appears that a 
> three wire electrical wire was run to some of the sockets in the house. 
> If ground runs in to the socket, does that mean that I can get ground 
> from an adapter that attaches to the mounting screw? The land lady said 
> the house's electrical was redone in '91 and passed inspection then... 
> I'm not sure if that tells me anything useful or not (grandfather clauses?).

Your house can still meet code without having grounded sockets.  BUT, if 
you install three prong "grounded sockets and they are not grounded, you 
just violated code.  If the inspector puts his little circuit detector 
in your socket and it passes the test (green light) then you are up to 
code.  I know this because I installed three-prongers and didn't ground 
them.  I went to sell the house and we filled the ground hole w/ caulk 
and all of a sudden we were at code.  Brilliant.

I think you can run a jumper line from the negative side (white) to the 
ground and it will make the socket pass the plug test.  All the white 
wires in your electrical box run to a common block and that block is 
grounded.  Now will it protect the stuff plugged in to a true three-wire 
ground the same?  Don't know, but it will supposedly pass the test. 
Where you don't want to screw around is in the kitchen and the bath. 
You're around water remember?  In there, make sure you run three-wire 
and put in one of those outlets with the breaker/reset.  You need at 
least one in the kitchen and one in the bath is a good idea too.

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I refrained from telling him that I doubted they could find their ass 
with an electronic ass finder.