Apologies if this is in the wrong section (move to The Garage if so). So the place I recently moved into, having been built in 1925, has an acute shortage of grounded wall outlets. The problem is worst in the office, where I belatedly discovered that my desk is on a wall with two two-prong outlet boxes, and I would have to rearrange the entire room to put it within a power strip's reach of a grounded box. Not gonna do that. Can't use a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter with the grounding loop because the old outlets have odd faceplates.

There is a 3-prong box on the adjacent wall. Long term I'll just get a grounded extension cord (unless that's a bad idea), but in the meantime, I was thinking of using a second power strip to extend the first one. I know that, generally, daisy-chaining power strips is asking for trouble. But if the only thing plugged into the first power strip is the second one, how is it any different than an extension cord? Or am I going to burn the place down?

I do emphasize that this will be a temporary solution...

10/10/2012 8:07:18 PM

daisy chain it, you'll be ok for a bit

10/10/2012 8:21:37 PM

no need for it to be a temporary solution as it's better than an extension cord as you now have 2 fuses, assuming you have surge protectors rather than strips. a 3 to 2 adapter will also work, you don't need to ground it to a face plate. you don't even NEED a ground conductor since in a house as old as yours, I doubt any of your receptacles are actually grounded, they just might be newer outlets with only 2 conductors run to them.

my house was built in 1939 and i went through the same stuff and eventually just rewired it all myself.

10/10/2012 8:22:03 PM

Good point that the "grounded" outlets might actually be 2 wire anyway. If I owned the place I'd redo the wiring, but seeing as how we're renting, the landlord might not like me rewiring 1/6 of the building (apartment, there are 5 other units in the building).

Glad to hear I'm not likely to be giving the local fire department any extra business. (Both are indeed surge protectors).

10/10/2012 8:59:02 PM

Depending on where you live this may actually be against for code for a multi unit dwelling.

10/11/2012 2:05:03 AM

90 year old cotton wiring. Yummy. I actually like the knob and tube style, though. It remains operational long after the wires start falling apart, assuming you don't run more than one light bulb at a time...which should be sufficient for any room.

[Edited on October 11, 2012 at 2:26 AM. Reason : .]

10/11/2012 2:15:46 AM