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Chicago requires solid metal conduit in all structrures and then BX armored inside the metal conduit (refits must be costly). I know they had a big fire that burned the city down, but this sounds like overkill to me.
Not true, BX is not required nor used in EMT/Rigid. It's just individual wires.
There has been some good information here.
I agree with the GFI comments.
Not to hijack this thread (so this is all I will say), is that I never understood the concept for referencing the circuits to ground (except for expense). Used to work for a medical device manufacturer, and one of the divisions made (rather large) medical-grade 1:1 isolation transformers (extremely low leakage current). In one of the houses I put in a few of the the ones they were throwing out (electrical inspector was puzzled), and thus I had the ability to pick my ground reference (which there wasn't one, as the circuits were floating). The only way to get shocked was to go across the two legs, which meant you could stick a paper clip in one side of the wall outlets, and grab a metal grounded pipe, and no shock.
But I digress... back to our regularly scheduled thread....
There's a difference between GFIs and a ground wire.
And no ground wires are not always necessary.
If your house is wired pre-Romex and used BX armored cable, the armored cable is generally the ground wire, so you dont need a 3rd green wire. You do have to remember to connect the ground wires from fixtures to the METAL box though. Plastic boxes and BX dont mix.
If you are using Romex, then you need a ground wire, generally GREEN or bare.
And if you have knob and tube, run... or be prepared to rewire quickly.
A GFI is a ground fault interupter, an added safety device that requires a ground wire and will shut the outlet or circuit down if the flow of the current is interupted or otherwise impeded. These are required in wet and outdoor areas.
The first three statements are correct, the last two are incorrect.
There is nothing wrong with Knob & tube wiring. Just check the connections and make sure they have not come loose. There are thousands of homes functioning just fine with knob & tube wiring. Millions of people hav elived safely with it in their house.
GFCI will work regardless of grounding. It sill still not be a grounded circuit, but the GFCI will function just fine. GFCI is requried in wet and outdoor areas IN NEW APPLICATIONS. There is no requirement to instal them in an existing house that does not have them (unless you use it for certain commercial purposes). It is up to you to decide whether you want to take the risk. A GFCI protects you from sustained electric shock if you touch a hot wire, or the metal part of the plug or get water into an outlet or an appliance or other electrical device. If the house has breakers instead of fuses, you can also instal GFCI breakers which protect all of the outlets on that circuit and get the same protection.
Grounding is another safety measure. If there is a short, the ground wire will cause the fuse or breaker to trip rather than leaving an undetected short waiting to run to the ground trhough you. However look at your appliance cords. You will find many of them have only two prongs on the plug. These are non grounded devices and it makes no difference whether there is a ground or not for these devices. If you are only using two prnged electrical devices, grounding is irrelvant (unless you have metal outlet covers). Some of your devices will have three prongs on the plug. These are grounded devices. They are intended to be used on a grounded circuit for extra safety. They will function just fine on a non-grounded circuit, but there is an added safety risk.
Keep in mind, until somewhere around the 1960s (give or take a decade), no homes had any grounded circuits. Guess what, everyone in the US did not die! However some people did die becasue they did nto have gorunded circuits. Usually they were people who did stupid things like handling electronic devides when they were wet, or standing in water. However sometimes some people just got a shock form an appliance gone bad and it killed them. In order to prevent these relatively rare, but absolutely horrific occurrences, they came up with grounding.
Also, without grounding, it is conceptually possible that an indternal short could concievable cause a fire, where it would not cause a fire if it was grounded. The grounded circuit would allow the breaker or fuse to blow and reent heat build up.
If you decide you do not want the risk, you can often ground existing circuits without re-wiring. It depends on how accessible the circuit is. You can often ground out a circtui by merely connecting a ground wire to a copper plumbing pipe. Some say not to do this, howevr I have seen hundreds of homes grounded this way with no problems. Again there is some chance tha it might cause a problem. Like all things, you have to balance risk vs. cost.
When I lieved in houses wiht non-grounded circuits, I just installed GFCIs. That way you have the protection of the GFCI, you have the protection of the breaker or fuse, you just do not have the added protection of the ground.
Even grounding does not make you entirely safe. You can still be electrocuted even with a grounded circuit. The only way to be entirely safe from electric shock in your home is to have the electricity disconnected entirely. Then unless you get hit by lightening or somehow get a shock from a battery powered device with a capacitor, you can be asured you willl not get electrocuted in your home.
I really hope you aren't asking this question to avoid the fix. When we sold our house the buyer's inspector found the same thing in one of our bathroom outlets. It cost a minimal amount and10 minutes to fix.
You cn only be talking about a disconnected ground wire. That is different than an older home with no grounded circuits at all. A disconnected ground wire is a ten minute fix (or less) and should cost nothing. My 12 year old could fix it.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by peabodyn
Adding a GFCI and marking it appropriately seems like the best solution.
I have seen outlets where the neutral was jumped to the ground screw -is that acceptable or dangerous?
In my jurisdiction, if no grounding method exists installing GFCI protection and marking the outlet as ungrounded is sufficient to meet code and, for all intents and purposes, it makes the outlet very safe.
DO NOT jump the neutral terminal to the ground terminal. It will make the outlet appear grounded to a plug-in circuit tester and may fool an inspector, but it creates a potentially dangerous condition; particularly in a bathroom if you ask me. By connecting the neutral and ground terminals, you have essentially put the casing of any appliance designed to run with a ground in direct contact with the neutral wire. Under normal conditions, that isn't much of a problem. Afterall, you can lick the neutral terminal of an electrical outlet that has current passing through it without getting a shock because you are "a bird on a wire" with respect to the neutral wire. That said, what if you have a corroded or loose connection here and there along the path of that neutral wire causing some resistance to the flow of electricity? What if while you're holding that appliance that's plugged into your fake grounded outlet that doesn't have a great connection to your panel neutral you touch a water faucet that's connected to a copper pipe that provides an excellent path for electricity to follow to ground? You may get one helluva shock. Like, maybe enough to cook you. It's a stretch, but why accept that risk when the GFCI alone is pretty danged safe?
If someone told you that was a good idea, quit listening to that person's ideas.
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