no grounded outlets

A friend of mine lives in an old house with no grounded outlets. The landlord's electrician says that to install grounded outlets, he would either have to break into one of the walls or else do some kind of piggy back operation (?) at the fuse box. For some reason, neither of these possibilities is considered desirable or feasible, maybe because of expense or safety. At any rate, my friend is wondering what the alternatives are for safely operating a computer in that house, as well as other devices that require 3 prong outlets. It's not just a matter of protection against electrical shock to the user of the computer, but also of damage to the device itself.

I'm aware that there are 3-2 prong adaptors that will plug into a 2-prong socket and which have a lead wire that attaches to the screw that holds the face plate of the socket in place. Allegedly the lead wire provides the ground since the screw is allegedly grounded. However, I've seen some sockets where that screw is not connected to anything and is certainly not grounded.

What is the right way to deal with this problem, given that no one seems to be willing to pay the electrician to do the things he has offered to do?

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Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 
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Reply to
Allan Adler
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Any heating radiators nearby?

Reply to
ian field

As to the outlets there really is only one right way, re-wire the house or add circuits with grounded outlets...any other way is the WRONG way. PERIOD.

There is however another solution for your friend, Move, give the cheap a** landlord

30 days written notice, pack up his stuff and move to a more modern house or apartment. Problem solved.

Good Luck George

Reply to
George

It probably doesn't meet current electrical codes, but the old electrical installation might be "grandfathered-in". It met the codes when the building was originally built, so the local authorities can't ordinarily force the landlord to upgrade.

Reply to
Matt

OK, thanks for confirming that.

Apparently there are some grounded lines to the house. When the electrician talked about piggybacking, he apparently meant to tapping into those lines. The fridge is apparently not grounded, nor is the washing machine. Cost for the piggybacking would be about 300 dollars.

Anyway, I'd like to also confirm that using the PC without doing this is likely to lead to the demise of the PC, if not of its user.

I've been getting my information about this in dribs and drabs. My friend did not originally call the electrician about grounded circuits for the PC but about grounded circuits for the kitchen microwave. He used a travel surge in the room that has the PC and found that it lit up weakly when plugged into a power strip that was plugged into a wall. So he isn't sure whether the sockets in the room with the PC are grounded. The mere fact that the wall socket has a 3-prong plug, possibly installed by an unlicensed acquaintance of the landlord, may not guarantee it.

Moving is not an option. I don't want to see my friend electrocuted or his computer fried. My opinion is that, electrocution hazard aside, 300 dollars is a lot less than the cost of replacing a fried computer and various appliances, even if he has to pay for it instead of the landlord.

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Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 
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Reply to
Allan Adler

You are lumping grounding into a solution for different problems. First safety grounding. Three prong appliances such as refrigerator and other major appliances should have ground wires. And it is not that difficult. Even if some small holes need be made, those holes are easily and quickly repaired. How do you think cable gets installed in all homes? Electricians have numerous tools and tricks to install a grounded wire easily. Landlords too often fear what they never done.

Second, code permits use of a GFCI to provide safety where a safety ground wire does not exist. The box even comes with labels that must be applied to that receptacle when GFCI is installed. This again is only for human safety.

Moving on to computer safety is a need for everything to share a common ground. Some peripherals can be damaged if grounds 'float'. Even if using the GFCI in solution two, still, we have this third precaution for electronics. All electronics should share a common ground point. Even if the ground point uses a receptacle that is not safety grounded (ie GFCIed outlet), still, all interconnected appliances should share the ground of a common power strip.

Computers fry because a destructive transient was seeking earth ground- the fourth point. Even if wall receptacle is not safety grounded, still, a surge can find other paths to earth destructively via that computer. It is, for example, how modems are damaged by an AC electric line surge. Such surges are made irrelevant if earthed where AC wires (and all other utilities) enter the building. BTW, this means earthing at that breaker box should be upgraded to post 1990 code. Easy and simple to upgrade. Computer safety also means AC mains should also have a 'whole house' protector. Post 1990 earthing means the 'whole house' protector has a short connection to earth - so that transients do not find earth via computers. Shunt mode protectors without earth ground is not effective.

Various grounds and soluti> ...

Reply to
w_tom

I have the same problem. The only codes the landlord is legally obligated to follow here are the ones that were in place when the building was built (40+ years ago!). A more modern apt in our area would add another 100+ to the rent monthly, so moving isn't an option for me either. I imagine he'd raise the rent by that much to justify the upgrade.

Anyway, I've been using those orange adapters with surge protectors (not that I think they work, but they add additional outlets) for 1.5 years and (knock on wood) everything seems to be OK. I have two PCs, a laptop, an air conditioner, microwave, fridge, cable modem, two cable boxes, etc. I am careful about not overloading each outlet. And I don't operate more than one power hungry device on the same outlet at the same time (turn off the coffee pot before turning on the A/C). Just my experience.

Reply to
TheRealShmanda

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