I just moved into an old house (with 2-prong plugs) to rent. I know that not having ground for electronics is bad. This mainly has to do with protecting my expensive electronics. I have a few questions, if you guys don't mind helping.

1) Is the owner required to change the wiring in the house, legally?
2) How much would it cost to do it professionally?
3) How much could I do myself. I've seen 2-3 prong adapters, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't help too much.
4) What damage would now be possible to my equipment now that the ground is missing?
5) Should I worry?

8/2/2008 12:18:18 AM

1) No.
2) A lot.
3) Not much. You would literally need to rip out the wiring from the walls and run wire back to the breaker box.
3) Adapters only help if the box if the screw connecting to the box is grounded all the way to earth. Otherwise, it won't do much at all.
4) Minor risk from surges, probably, although I doubt any kind of earth-shattering risk. Someone else want to give a second opinion on this?
5) I wouldn't.

I just moved into a similar place a few months back, and while annoying, and while I went through exactly the thought process you did, there's just not much you can do. Yes, you can put in surge protectors to protect your stuff and hope that does the job. Otherwise - do you have renter's insurance? Because that will typically cover this kind of damage.

8/2/2008 12:43:34 AM

i just went through all this as well, pretty much what DrSteveChaos said.

except for the fact that if you have metal j-boxes & metal conduit, you can ground the outlet to the metal box, but some municipal electrical codes don't allow this, and sometimes doesn't ground properly. the theory behind this is that the metal box, metal conduit back to breaker, then properly ground rodded would provide a continuous path for a surge, but this is not always the case.

probably only be about $200-$300 to have someone just switch out the 2-prong outlets to 3-prong outlets. (probably only $50-$70 to do it yourself)

probably closer to $3000-$4000 to rewire the entire house with new 3-wire grounded cable to do it properly.

and you won't do any damage unless there's a surge, so either have massive surge protectors, or just ground the outlets with the most expensive electronics on it

[Edited on August 2, 2008 at 1:06 AM. Reason : .]

8/2/2008 1:04:27 AM

So will this affect my renter's insurance?

8/2/2008 1:15:46 AM

Chances are, the age of the building will be factored into your renter's insurance. They didn't specifically ask me if was 2-wire or 3 when I got insurance, so I doubt they'd ask you. They probably make the assumption based upon the build date. (Mine was built in 1942.)

8/2/2008 1:18:02 AM

You could just add three prong outlets just where you need them, and only spend a small amount of money in the process.

8/2/2008 2:21:19 AM

I just moved out of a place that had two prong outlets and select three prong outlets that were not grounded.

When I first moved in, I had a HTIB receiver and our Scientific Atlantica cable box stacked on top of each other while plugged in. I was situating them when sparks shot out of the cable box and the receiver shorted out and no longer worked correctly. Not sure which component was at fault, but every power strip and my APC battery backups all complained about dirty/faulty wiring.

I'm definitely glad to be out.

8/2/2008 10:23:45 AM

Here's the thing about adding 3-prong outlets to 2-prong wiring - there is no substantial benefit to doing such over just putting an adapter on. If you're not wiring ground on the third pin, there's just no point to putting a 3-prong outlet on - at worst, it's false advertising.

Basically - why go to the trouble of re-wiring your outlets if the ground wire to support them isn't there? The only advantage is aesthetic - no looking at fugly adapters. But it's not doing you any more good.

8/2/2008 3:18:10 PM

i think everyone here understands that and has been clearly stated as such. but it can be a convenience thing as well instead of having to buy 15+ 3-prong adapters.

8/2/2008 6:26:59 PM

The 3pronged adapters have a tab that you put the screw that screws into the case of the electrical box which is earth grounded. This provides the same functionality as the direct plug for the currents involved in wall sockets. that is unless either portion associated with the faceplate screw isn't metal... I know the ones at the 2 houses I dealt with this were metal.

the thing that happens when you don't have a specified earth ground is a potential to get a little tingle when you touch something pulling a lot of current, like a TV, b/c you're providing a path to ground... but the voltages, and more importantly currents, involved with this are minimal.

So, no real worries but renters insurance is always a good thing. I'm sure theres more details I'm leaving out but thats all I feel like putting down now...



[Edited on August 2, 2008 at 10:12 PM. Reason : recievers are typically 2 pronged anyways... so that point was invalid]

8/2/2008 10:10:45 PM

wrong.

8/2/2008 10:12:37 PM

per the electrical code, if you have updated electrical the breaker is required to be grounded to both your copper water pipe, and earth spikes spaced 6'-0" apart.

but whether or not your outlets are grounded are an entirely different issue, and is in most cases different in every house depending on how it was originally wired, what kind of wire was used, what kind of conduit, what kind of j-boxes etc. and just because you have metal j-box or conduit, doesn't guarantee is grounded either. best case scenario test it. if you absolutely NEED to have something grounded, the best case scenario is either a) run a dedicated bare copper ground wire to your cold water pipe, or b) rewire it with a 3-wire cable that has the ground wire that goes back to your breaker. (that is of course with the assumption that you have an updated electrical box that's up to code)

[Edited on August 2, 2008 at 10:21 PM. Reason : .]

8/2/2008 10:20:11 PM