wiring up grounds to my living room... (1 Viewer)

[RodNoble]

my house is an older home, and all the living room outlits have no grounds, and that makes me nervouse.. aswell, my surge protector wont work.. so i have to run it off my computer power bar wich is running my comptuer aswell, so there is a big power drain..

anyway, my question is, is there an easy way to groung the outlits and just install new plates.. or is there some major rewireing that needs to be done to do this?

thanx

 

[Bryan Michael]

i think this a code thing i dont know if you can just replace all the outlets or not. you can just change out your outlest to a grounded one and tie the white to the ground. but that may be aginst code.

 

[RodNoble]

yeah well im thinking that there might be something in the wall that i can ground to.. or possibly try and run some cable to where ever it needs to be grounded..

 

[ThomasW]

The outlets need to be grounded to the fuse/breaker box and it's associated ground

 

[RodNoble]

thanks.. very good to know..

looks like i gotta higher someone...

 

[Joe Tilley]

Rod, Ive got the same problem as you do in my home which is a renter. I have fixed my outlet running to my main equipment like TV, Receiver & such but my sub is on another outlet without a good ground. I plan on fixing it here soon as it bothers me too. The way I done the first one was easy. I went into my panel & shut off & disconnected that outlet, than at the wall I tyed the new wire to the end of the old wire with butt connectors & electrical tape & pulled it out from my attic than down at my breaker box.
My other outlet on the other hand is under two windows so I'm not sure how easy this one will be with this method That & the wires are shorter in the receptacle so I may have to use a different way to pull the new wire through.
If you try anything like this just be sure you get one hell of a good crimp on the connectors so they don't come apart halfway through your run. And wrap them as tight as you can with tape keeping the wrap & connectors the same size as the wires jacket.

 

[Gary Silverman]

Yes, it is against code to tie the neutral to the ground at a receptacle. If it's safety you're looking for, code does allow a non-gounded receptacle to be replaced with a GFI receptacle. But as far as using the ground for home theater noise reduction, that won't work. Sometimes, even though you don't have grounded receptacles, there is still a ground present in the receptacle box. You can test this by using any voltage tester(meter, test light, etc.). Test from one side of the receptacle to the metal strap or the box. If you don't get a light, test from the other side of the receptacle to the metal. If you get a light from either of these tests, you do have a ground, and you can replace the receptacle with a grounded one. I would recommend a self-grounding receptacle(easier), or adding a grounding pigtail.If you don't get a light with either side, your options are the GFI or new wiring.

 

[Ron-P]

Rod, have you pulled out an outlet and looked inside the box for the copper ground wire?
My house was built back in the mid-60's and none of my outlets in the house were grounded, yet the ground wire was there inside all the boxes. When I replaced all the outlets, I was able to ground them with the existing wire.
Not sure why the outlets were never grounded when the wire was right there.:rolleyes
Peace Out~