High Tide Aquatics

Do all houses have a breaker box somewhere in them? And how to change outlets to grounded?

GFCI trips when detect a ground fault between the hot and the nuetral. GFCI's are designed to trip when the ground fault circuit current exceeds between 4-6 milliamps (mA).
 
Kind of like James Earl Jones in the moving Best of the Best when he says "NO" in the last fight...


Now if you understood that movie reference you get bonus points for remembering obscure crappy martial arts flicks! :D
 
Ugh, finally found the panel hidden underneath the opening of a panel that's permanently open for the PGE meter, if that made any sense.

So now, I understand what Mike was saying about how to ground the outlets if I decide to switch them. Landlord decided that "the electricity works fine, why you trying to get me to waste money" so no electrician coming in to swap the outlets. My new question is: if I can't find a good way to ground the outlets, would it be bad to just swap them for the 3-prong ones anyways? Even if they're not grounded, it's the equivalent of using one of those adapters, right? This would just be more for convenience (not buying untold numbers of adapters) since I have access to enough 3prong outlets currently sitting in a box in storage.
 
As long as you know the 3-prong outlet is not grounded, there should be no issue. Sounds safer then adding another connection point into the works.
 
The issue with 3 pronged outlets comes when you stuff that isn't UL approved, if it is, then 3 pronged is not an issue, if it isn't, then you may have an issue. It literally has to do with electric shock from the appliance's case.

If it were me, I would use the adapters rather than switch it out, because you can very well have a grounded case (the box everything gets crammed into) and if you screw that little loop on the bottom of the outlet into it with the faceplate screw you actually effectively made a 3rd prong ground. However I wouldn't count 100% on the case being grounded.

If this is all for your aquarium (christ I forgot after all this! :D)... I'm not sure what the laws/rules are involving UL approval, but I know I got quite a few older pumps lying around that aren't UL approved.
 
Eh, it's all getting muddled now :). Bedroom is mostly 2 pronged outlets too, but the worst I'm worried about is running my desktop. For the tank, I'll make sure that it's a good ground one way or another. Even if I have to run a ground wire to the outlet from the crawlspace.

Thanks for the help all you guys.
 
Can't you ground the receptacle to the box that encases the receptacle? When I re-wired a couple outlets at my parents place there was no copper ground (house was built in the 60's) and all the receptacles were 2 prong. My uncle (cert. electrician) showed me how to use the box the receptacle is housed in as a ground. You can usually wrap the copper wire around a screw.

...
Well, assuming it uses the metal conduit and assuming that is grounded somewhere.
 
sfsuphysics said:
The issue with 3 pronged outlets comes when you stuff that isn't UL approved, if it is, then 3 pronged is not an issue, if it isn't, then you may have an issue. It literally has to do with electric shock from the appliance's case.

If it were me, I would use the adapters rather than switch it out, because you can very well have a grounded case (the box everything gets crammed into) and if you screw that little loop on the bottom of the outlet into it with the faceplate screw you actually effectively made a 3rd prong ground. However I wouldn't count 100% on the case being grounded.d.
Click to expand...

That is only possible under two scenarios, 1. his house is wired with metal conduit or 2. there is a ground wire. If he has metal conduit he can ground the new 3 prong outlet of the conduit or "gang box". If neither there is no way to ground it off that screw and have it grounded ;) Any added adepter is adding another failure point and another place for water to get into.

FWIW metal "gang boxes" have grounding screws in them. So either way IMO/IME it's way better to not use an adapter if you really don't need one.
 
Here is answer to your question found this on how to website.

How can you change a 2-prong outlet to a 3-prong outlet?
In: Modification of Old Electrical Work [Edit categories]

[Edit]

Answer
I assume you mean a standard (15 or 20-amp) outlet and are not trying to make a 220 connection for a stove, dryer or air conditioner. If that's what you want, forget it. You would need to run more and heavier wires and install a different shape of outlet and a different circuit protector. Otherwise, most people just hook up the two wires to the new outlet and ignore the second ground connector. Of course, then they don't have the safety feature of a second ground, and this would be unsafe and possibly illegal.

To do it right, you need to have your electrician run a third wire from the second ground back to the grounding bar in the breaker box, or install GFCI protection.



Answer
The National Electrical Code (NEC) 406.3(D)(3) allows this without a third (grounding) wire, but only IF you install a GFCI receptacle to replace the 2-prong receptacle, or install a GFCI circuit breaker for that circuit, and mark the outlets "GFCI Protected" and "No Equipment Ground".
 
Ok, so I replaced ~5 2prong outlets that had been painted on multiple times (eek!!) with standard 20amp 3prong outlets. They were all in metal gangboxes and I attached a grounding pigtail from the ground screw on the outlets to a hole in the back of the box. For some reason, though, my little plugin tester still calls an 'open ground'. Is there anything I did wrong? It seemed pretty straight forward....
Also, if not then is there anything I can do to get the boxes grounded? I'll have to look closer around the breaker box to see if it says anything about grounding/has a grounding bar near it etc. Should there be a ground wire coming into the house at the main junction point? All the elect comes into the house at one point on the roof corner.

But hey, at least now I can plug in my electronics without an adapter....
 
The box is not ground that's why you have an open ground. Honestly I wouldn't worry too much. I used an open ground outlet for my tank at the old place for 4 years without any problem. If you worry, I suggest you call the electrican. I wouldn't mess with the panel/breaker box myself. That is JMO. :bigsmile:
 
The safe way to replace a two prong outlet with no ground is to put a GFCI outlet in it's place.
Otherwise run a new ground wire to the panel.
 
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