My old house wiring doesn't have a ground wire. What to do?
Josh
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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Comments (8)
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Adding ground wires to old house wiring.
Comments (5)They need to have a path back to the panel (don't pretend you found "ground" on a pipe somewhere), but they don't need to be individual wires all the way back. You can join up grounds, and a #12 or #14 is ok. These are to carry the current from one fault somewhere for the time that it takes to trip the breaker, so they don't need to be bigger than the branch circuit wires and how many you join up doesn't affect wire size needed since we assume only one will be conducting fault current at a time. Connect the ground wires to any junction boxes along the route. You don't need to add additional junction boxes just for the grounds. The ground should follow as closely as practical the route of the hot and neutral on each circuit. If a fault current has to make a big loop (hot from the panel, fault somewhere to ground, and a different path on the other side of the house back to the panel) the breaker trip time can be extended because magnetic field effects limit the current. You want a very large fault current for a very short time to trip the breaker fast, not 40 amps for a long time heating things up before the breaker trips....See MoreOld House Ground Wire
Comments (30)rileyann, I don't think Joefixit had read the original posts about the ground wire. The truth is that I don't fully trust that ground wire - that's part of the reason for making a home run to the breaker box. If you don't feel comfortable making the connection in the breaker box, hire the whole job done. A professional will do a good job of getting it to the box, and getting it grounded properly. I think that running a new conduit (which is what would need to happen) may put the the job outside your current abilities. Just so you know, current code requires at least two 20 amp small appliance circuits in the kitchen that feed almost nothing else (the fridge can be on one of those, a kitchen clock outlet and an outlet for a gas stove are all that's permitted to be included with counter-top outlets - no lights and certainly not GD and/or DW). There's a little more to the code than that... but you can google it. I don't know if your remodel would obligate you to meet current code, but it's good to know what that code is. For sure if your counter-top outlets, GD, DW, and Fridge are all on the same circuit it needs the GD and DW split off. The circuit is over utilized even if there wasn't a rule about counter-top outlet circuits in the kitchen being kept separate. The point is you need to make a home run back to the panel and you probably need to hire it done....See MoreOld house, Copper wire but no ground
Comments (10)You can leave the grounded receptacles as is. Just install a GFCI type receptacle as the first one on each circuit and feed the rest from the load connection on the GFCI. Use the labels that come with the GFCI to indicate the GFCI protection and no equipment ground at each receptacle. The adapters ought to be outlawed and posession of them should at least be a flogging offense, IMHO Ungrounded lighting circuits are seldom as big an issue as receptacle circuits. Many appliances, tools, and other things have cords with a ground type plug indicating they should be grounded. The GFCI will protect you from shock with these things but in the case of electronic equipment, computers especially, a grounded circuit is almost a requirement to prevent equipment damage from a number of sources. Also, surge suppressors need the added connection to function properly. It wouldn't hurt to think about gradually upgrading all the receptacle circuits as you can, but no reason to hurry unless you get something requiring a ground....See MoreOld 3 wire dryer in new house with 4 wire receptacle
Comments (6)Put the 4 wire receptacle back in just like it was and take the 3 wire receptacle back. Purchase a 4 wire cord for the dryer. The middle terminal on the dryer should have some kind of jumper, either a bare metal strip or a green wire, that gets removed. There should be a place marked where the green wire in the cable goes on the dryer. The black, white and red wires in the cable go to the terminal block. There should be a diagram for all this on the dryer. The standard for dryer wiring is to use 4 wires instead of 3 and it is not code compliant to change back to 3 wire....See MoreRon Natalie
8 years agoJosh
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