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3 hole plug outlets
How to Upgrade to Three Prong Outlets.
Three prong outlets require a solid copper wire from the third hole of the outlet to a properly grounded conductor. Previously the code allowed us to run a bare copper wire along the baseboard to the nearest grounded outlet. There were problems: for example a painter might say what's this wire for? And remove it during the paint job causing the grounded outlets to become no longer grounded.
The code now requires the ground wire to be large enough to look formidable. The minimum size is No. 6 copper whitch is close to the size of a wooden pencil. For this reason it is fairly impractical to ground outlets in an old house or even newer buildings.
A work-a-round - One way install a GFI or Ground Fault Interupter. Even though the third hole doesn't go any place the electronics in the GFI do provide for life safety.
This type of GFI conversion is not suitable for a refrigerator or other appliance where the manufacture states that a grounded outlet is required in order for them to honor the warranty.
A few houses built in the 1950s had grounded boxes but they only had two prong outlets at that time. If you're lucky enough to own house of that era, simply changing the two prong outlets to three prong plugs (after testing for a good ground) is a good solution. The code allows us to use one GFI to cover "down stream" outlets and to put in thre-prong outlets as long as we put a sticker on each on that says "outlet not grounded or "no equipment ground" or what ever it says on the sticker that comes with the GFI.
Copyright 2009 John A. Peters Revised December 3, 2009
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