How to properly ground an older AC outlet

[smallblock]

I have an older house and none of the outlets are the three prong grounded outlet. How do you properly add an earth ground to them. I remember someone saying that a ground rod has to be 13 feet or something crazy in the ground to act right. I have replaced the outlet with a newer three prong style but how can you make sure you have a good ground?

 

[smallblock]

I've looked it up a couple of times and get different answers at every place. Whats code to do and no I will not ground to any of my water pipes. I just wanna do it correctly

 

[codsack]

Well this is what I did. I drove a ground rod out by my meter box and ran a copper #4 ground to my meter box and from the meter box to the panel. Then I ran a dedecated circuit to my Tank. I've also ran several circuits through out the house for things that I'm really concerned about such as TV's, surround sound and stuff. FYI surge protectors don't work properly unless the circuit has a ground. I hope this helps you a little, feel free to ask if you have any questions. I'm also for hire, but it's simple to do. Good luck man.

 

[smallblock]

thanks man, I'm gonna give it a shot soon. I remember I got a sony cd recorder when it was somewhat new tech years ago. It was the kind where you put a cd in one side and it dubbed a copy on another drive on the other side. Everytime I would do it I would get bad static in the dubbed copy. I plugged a vcr in the same outlet a few months later and the wall caught on fire. It had a metal outlet box and it was picking up the bad ground in the dub. I was too young to figure it out before the fire happend but ever since then I've been all about a good ground on electronics!!!! That experiance helped me alot when I started working on cars with DC.

 

[rbredding]

there will be NO way for you to properly ground the outlets within the house without replacing the circuits..

new construction grounds each outlet (by way of a bare copper wire) to all OTHER outlets and to the panelbox (which is also grounded itself) typically using a short ground rod driven a couple feet into the ground (you can probably see it next to your panelbox)..

usually (not always) a ground wire is brought into the house from the transformer (well it is on my service entrance, anyway)...

you see.. even if you ground each outlet to it's own steel box, unless you carry the ground from that box to all the other boxes or each box back to the panel, you're not truly grounding the panel...

some construction will use a bare copper wire, connected to the neutral, in order create a phantom ground.. but unless you know how the entire house is wired, don't attempt that..

 

[pwest]

Rbredding;654469 wrote: there will be NO way for you to properly ground the outlets within the house without replacing the circuits..

Usually.... But, I had a house built in 1960 that had ungrounded two prong outlets. Amazingly, though, the house was fully wired with three conductor properly grounded wire--all we had to do was replace the outlets. I'm betting that the electrician that originally wired the house was just out of grounded outlets!

One question for the OP, are your circuits wired with 3 conductor grounded wire, or two conductor wire? If 2, how did you connect up the grounds on your new outlets.

-Phil

 

[siavashv]

Rbredding;654469 wrote: there will be NO way for you to properly ground the outlets within the house without replacing the circuits..

new construction grounds each outlet (by way of a bare copper wire) to all OTHER outlets and to the panelbox (which is also grounded itself) typically using a short ground rod driven a couple feet into the ground (you can probably see it next to your panelbox)..

usually (not always) a ground wire is brought into the house from the transformer (well it is on my service entrance, anyway)...

you see.. even if you ground each outlet to it's own steel box, unless you carry the ground from that box to all the other boxes or each box back to the panel, you're not truly grounding the panel...

some construction will use a bare copper wire, connected to the neutral, in order create a phantom ground.. but unless you know how the entire house is wired, don't attempt that..

Actually, from the transformer there is never a ground coming to any house. The neutral IS the ground. The National Electrical Code says that after the first disconnecting means, the ground and neutral will be separated. But if you have an outdoor disconnect on your home, you will find that the wires that come from the utility transformer (underground or overhead) are made up of three wires, two phases and a neutral. The ground copper wires in the cables in the walls are a ground that indeed goes TO THE GROUND. The neutral wire is the return to ground.

 

[john wright]

I can help if you need me to Blake I used to sub for Flint and I worked for an electrician when I was in school I might be able to come up with a ground rod and a cad weld kit.

 

[johnr2604]

You can legally change a 2 wire plug to a 3 wire plug by way of using a GFCI outlet however keep in mind that the plug will still not be grounded and only provides personal protection. The plug would not be good for a ground rod. Like stated above if you try and start grounding outlets then it would have to be brought up to code and you would likely be biting off more than you would want to chew. IE. driving ground rods, installing a cold water ground, replacing wire etc.

I used to be an electrician and there was an exception in the code book for this exact thing, however it might have changed in the last NEC edition for all I know

 

[rbredding]

siavashv;654514 wrote: Actually, from the transformer there is never a ground coming to any house. The neutral IS the ground. The National Electrical Code says that after the first disconnecting means, the ground and neutral will be separated. But if you have an outdoor disconnect on your home, you will find that the wires that come from the utility transformer (underground or overhead) are made up of three wires, two phases and a neutral. The ground copper wires in the cables in the walls are a ground that indeed goes TO THE GROUND. The neutral wire is the return to ground.

cool...

mine looks like it comes in with my service.. they must have just run their ground in the same conduit coming up into the bottom of the loadcenter..

 

[smallblock]

johnr2604;654537 wrote: You can legally change a 2 wire plug to a 3 wire plug by way of using a GFCI outlet however keep in mind that the plug will still not be grounded and only provides personal protection. The plug would not be good for a ground rod. Like stated above if you try and start grounding outlets then it would have to be brought up to code and you would likely be biting off more than you would want to chew. IE. driving ground rods, installing a cold water ground, replacing wire etc.

I used to be an electrician and there was an exception in the code book for this exact thing, however it might have changed in the last NEC edition for all I know

Whoa!!! Havent seen you in forever, Hows it going bro

Edit:

john wright;654529 wrote: I can help if you need me to Blake I used to sub for Flint and I worked for an electrician when I was in school I might be able to come up with a ground rod and a cad weld kit.

My man!!! I will take you up on this one bro. I hate AC gimme Direct current

Edit: thanks everyone for the info and advice!!