Hey Folks,
I just moved into my new (old) house, and found out that my outlets all have an open ground.
The house was built in 1948, but the wiring was upgraded in 1987ish. It was originally all the 2 prong outlets, but now they have been upgraded to the standard 3 prong outlet. There is still the odd 2 prong outlet in a couple of the rooms, but they have no voltage.
I went to hook up my computers and when I plugged in my surge protector the site wiring fault light came on. So I purchased one of those outlet testers and found that the outlet has an open ground. I tested all of the outlets in my house and all except for 2 in my kitchen have open ground.
Where my computer is going to go, I pulled the outlet out of the box and there are 3 wires coming in, black (hot), white (common), and copper (ground). Now the ground isn't connected to the box, but while I hear this will fix my ground problem, it isn't necessarily enough for a surge protector/UPS.
I opened up my panel and all the incoming wires, with the exception of my furnace, have the copper ground wire, and are screwed to the back of the panel. There is also a copper wire running from the panel to the water main pipe on the street side.
So it would SEEM like things are hooked up properly, but I must be missing something.
My thoughts are:
- If the ground isn't connected in one of the upstream outlets would that make a difference? (I'm not quite sure how resedential wiring works, are the outlets/light switches hooked up in series, and thus breaking an upstream connection would prohibit the rest from working?) If this is the case do I check just the outlets, or do I have to check light switches and even the boxes at the lights?
- Is there a way to check at the panel if the outlets are grounded properly?
Any advice, options, knowledge would be appreciated here. I'd really like to get my computers setup, but I know that isn't happening until I get this ground connection fixed.
Thanks!
I just moved into my new (old) house, and found out that my outlets all have an open ground.
The house was built in 1948, but the wiring was upgraded in 1987ish. It was originally all the 2 prong outlets, but now they have been upgraded to the standard 3 prong outlet. There is still the odd 2 prong outlet in a couple of the rooms, but they have no voltage.
I went to hook up my computers and when I plugged in my surge protector the site wiring fault light came on. So I purchased one of those outlet testers and found that the outlet has an open ground. I tested all of the outlets in my house and all except for 2 in my kitchen have open ground.
Where my computer is going to go, I pulled the outlet out of the box and there are 3 wires coming in, black (hot), white (common), and copper (ground). Now the ground isn't connected to the box, but while I hear this will fix my ground problem, it isn't necessarily enough for a surge protector/UPS.
I opened up my panel and all the incoming wires, with the exception of my furnace, have the copper ground wire, and are screwed to the back of the panel. There is also a copper wire running from the panel to the water main pipe on the street side.
So it would SEEM like things are hooked up properly, but I must be missing something.
My thoughts are:
- If the ground isn't connected in one of the upstream outlets would that make a difference? (I'm not quite sure how resedential wiring works, are the outlets/light switches hooked up in series, and thus breaking an upstream connection would prohibit the rest from working?) If this is the case do I check just the outlets, or do I have to check light switches and even the boxes at the lights?
- Is there a way to check at the panel if the outlets are grounded properly?
Any advice, options, knowledge would be appreciated here. I'd really like to get my computers setup, but I know that isn't happening until I get this ground connection fixed.
Thanks!