Journal Fiver-rah's Journal: Grounding outlets? 10
I have a question. I'm in Ann Arbor, visiting friends and the law school. I found a place to live for next year. It's relatively nice. There's only one problem. It's an older house, and none of the outlets are grounded. Now I have issues plugging my beloved computer in somewhere that doesn't have grounded outlets. There should be a way to safely and effectively ground these thingies. Anyone here know how to do it? Or have any nice references for me?
Thanks!
Rental? (Score:2)
Re:Rental? (Score:2)
Re:Rental? (Score:2)
The other thing, as this is a rental, is do you have access to the circuit pannel? While professional electricians will replace a live outlet without even thinking about it, i
Solutions (Score:2)
But the best option was already suggested. Tell y
Re:Solutions (Score:2)
The other thing is that you can't just plug those adapters in, even though all of us have done just that. If all you do is plug it in, you are basically just cutting the grounding pin off of the elctrical cord. You actually need to take the screw out of the center of the wall plate and place it over
Re:Solutions (Score:2)
Of course, this will still be a makeshift and not as good as a real ground.
Then
Re:Solutions (Score:2)
If your house electrics are installed properly everything is grouned to a cold water pipe. You also have a grounding rod but that just a supplemental ground. We just use a clamp of this (much like a car battery) soldering is a little overkill.
GFI (Score:1)
I was told (IANAE) that these will switch themselves off if there is a power surge. It would not be grounded, but should stop a surge.
If there's no grounding wire to attach to the plugs I'm not sure a landlord would be willing to pay for one to be run.
Telephones (Score:2)
Rustin
IAMNAEC... (Score:2)
There are a lot of possibilities depending on what type of wire you have (Fuses or breakers, nob and tube, romex, etc).
Assuming you have a somewhat modern house. IE breakers and no nob and tube. There are three possibilities. All of them involve buying new grounded outlets.
1) Your place is has all metallic conduit (the pipe that the wires run through) in which case the box is grounded. Simply substituting the outlet with a your new grounded out