How to ground equipment? (1 Viewer)

[StevenK]

Well, I just moved into my new rental home....and it only has two outlets in the living room....and they are both of the 2-prong variety. Of course all my equipment (well at least the good ones) have 3-prong plugs. I can't afford to re-wire the house...actually, I doubt the landlord would let me tear up his walls. So is it safe to just use a 3-2 adapter plug with a surge protector between the wall and the equipment?

Also, how would you recommend I split this list of equipment between two plugs?

Newcastle 9080 amp

HK 520 receiver

old 27" TV

X-Box

LCD front projector

HTPC

Or am I just worrying too much?

 

[Earl Simpson]

Some houses have a 3 wire cable with a two outlet receptacle. It would be simple to R&R those for 33 cents each. Be sure to kill the power. Hook the white(grounded conductor) up to the neutral or wide side, black(ungrounded conductor-hot) up to the narrow side, and the bare or green to the round slot(GREEN SCREW ON BOTTOM of receptacle). Get a book at home depot! Also the receptacles are labeled.

If you have metal conduit(EMT), then the grounding conductor may be the conduit. Just do a jumper from the conduit to the receptacle connection point for the(green screw) round slot(grounding conductor). Or don't worry about it. Most homes have EMT or 3 wire cable in the last 40 years. If you live in a big city up North, then you have conduit in very old homes. The only problem is sometimes people do repairs and use PVC and forget to put a jumper across the patch for continuity.