Dear Joe,
I have an old home that I
believe was built in the 30s or 40s. I
have several outlets throughout the house that are the old 2 slot kind. This is quite inconvenient as most new appliances
have either three prong plugs or those ones where one prong is bigger than the
other. Neither will fit into these old
plug ins so I have to admit that I have jury rigged an extension cord to serve
as an adapter if I need to use one of the problem plugs. I have also removed the ground prong off of a
lot of my electric things too.
I know
it’s not the right way to solve the problem but its quicker and cheaper than
having an electrician come in and rewire my house cause I know that’s what
would happen if they came in and had a look, and I can’t afford that. Is there a safer, cheaper solution to my
problem because I don’t feel right leaving it the way it is with grandkids
crawling about these days.
Thanks for your advice.
Love your column,
Peter.
Peter,
Thank you so much for your
question and thanks for doing the right thing by taking care of this problem,
better late than never. It’s the kids’
safety that’s at risk with a problem like this.
Yes, there is a cheaper
safer way to remedy your problem without rewiring your whole house. But let me clarify that what I am about to
outline is in no way a substitute for hiring the services of a qualified
electrician to bring your home up to current electrical code. What it is though is something you can do to
protect your family and home until such time as you have the money or the
occasion to repair the deficiency correctly.
Better to do something than do nothing because you can’t do everything.
In a circumstance like
yours, and trust me you are not alone, you have what is called an ungrounded or
unbonded circuit. At least 75% and
probably more like 90% of homes built prior to 1950 contain at least some
ungrounded circuitry. Any home that
hasn’t undergone significant renovation or been the beneficiary of homeowners
capable of shelling out the $10-15000 required to completely rewire an average
sized house, will have at least a portion of their concealed wiring remaining
and thus connected to receptacles and switches throughout the upper floors of
the home. By their nature these
ungrounded circuits are not unsafe if kept in serviceable condition, and in
fact are perfectly legal, but do pose serious difficulties when used in
conjunction with modern electrical devices.
It is however illegal to replace a two wire receptacle with a three wire
receptacle if there is in fact no ground wire present, modify any electrical
device not intended to operate on a nonpolarized circuit, or remove the bonding
prong from an appliance cord.
So what a home owner can do
to provide a measure of protection for their family and property is protect the
offending circuit. This can be done by
installing a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) device on the
circuit. These are the plugs that you
typically see in bathrooms and kitchens that have the test buttons on them with
the little LED indicator light. This can
be done one of three ways. Starting at
the panel, you can replace the 15A circuit breaker with a 15A GFCI circuit
breaker. This will effectively protect
all devices on that circuit from ground faults.
If you have a fuse panel instead of a breaker panel, you can install a
blank face GFCI in a separate device box immediately beside the panel in line
with the circuit you need to protect.
This can be done on a breaker panel too in lieu of a GFCI breaker; both
devices will achieve the same result.
Lastly you can replace a specific receptacle with a GFCI outlet. You will then have the convenience of
plugging in your grounded three prong devices into this outlet. Preferably, if you can, install your GFCI
outlet at the first in a series of outlets. This will protect all the outlets
on that circuit. Once you have protected
the circuit you can then upgrade your outlets to three prong outlets. This will allow you to use any three pronged
or polarized plug on that circuit. One
important thing to remember is that the polarity of a GFI is imperative. If the wires are hooked up incorrectly the
GFCI will offer no protection. If you’re
not sure have an electrician do it or at very least guide you through it.