I was told my wires aren't "grounded". What does that mean?

[LaydeeBug]

[ret5hd]

1. Well, let's just say if we never hear from you again we will know why.

[zbdent]

2. Mommy and Daddy Wire aren't very strict parents?

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

3. You need to be a little more specific about what

you were told and by who. If for example your house has old wiring before the ground wire was added into code, than all electrical is grounded by house ground-grounding poll. That means your wires are grounded . Some people replace old recepticals that only except two prong plugs with the newer plugs with ground -or your three prong plug. If thats the case and your house wiring is old, than a tester will show you are not grounded, which means there is no additional ground .So it all goes back to the house ground.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. Here's a good link that explains it well..

and tells you what to do about it

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264400-28-poor-electrical-ground

[Warpy]

5. It means you need to sit down with them

and have a very long talk about what they want to do with the rest of their lives and what is attainable and what is not. They've been around for a long time and it's high time they got serious about life!

[jeff47]

6. Electricity requires two wires

A "Hot" wire carries the electricity from the power plant into the house. The "neutral" wire carries the electricity out of the house. Because that was the minimum required, a whole lot of houses were built with just those wires.

(There's usually 2 hot wires and 1 neutral for reasons we don't need to go into right now.)

As long as there is no electrical fault with the devices plugged into your electric box, all the current will flow from the hot, through any devices that are turned on, and back out the neutral. Problem is, electrical faults can develop. The fault can manage to connect the electricity to the outside of the device. Touching it results in a nasty shock. Enter grounding.

Newer houses still have those two wires bringing the power into and out of the house. But there's a 3rd wire embedded in the ground. There's either a long rod pounded into the earth, or the wire is attached to the steel in the foundation, and thus embedded in the ground. In electrical devices with 3-prong plugs, the ground plug is attached to the outside of the device. So if an electrical fault develops and energizes the wrong parts of the device, the current will flow out the ground wire. This makes the devices significantly safer. It also provides a path for surge protectors to discharge any surges. If your surge protector isn't plugged into a grounded outlet, it won't be able to do anything.

So are two-prong devices inherently dangerous? No. Today they're "double-insulated", meaning an electrical fault wouldn't be able to energize the outside of the device.

What's GFCI? (The plugs in the bathroom and kitchen with the buttons in them) A GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) is a major improvement over basic grounding. The plug (or circuit breaker) monitors the current flowing out on the hot and back in on the neutral. If the measurements are not the same, it disconnects the circuit. If you throw a grounded hairdryer into the bathtub, the water and plumbing is too good of a conductor - current will still flow through the water and anyone in that bathtub. So a GFCI outlet/circuit is installed in wet locations to protect against that danger. You'll note that GFCI doesn't actually require a ground - since the plug is monitoring the hot and neutral, a ground isn't required for the GFCI to work.

Long story short: Lack of grounding plus poorly maintained/old electrical devices can be a safety issue, which is why grounding became the norm. It is unlikely that you will suffer any ill effects from lack of grounding (but it is possible). Any electronics you want to protect with a surge protector needs to be plugged into a grounded outlet.

What to do about it:
Option 1: Nothing. Hasn't killed you yet, and while injury is possible, it is statistically unlikely.
Option 2: Have an electrician rewire the house. Your plugs and switches only have two wires. A 3rd wire needs to be run in order to ground them. This gets pretty expensive.
Option 3: If there are certain outlets where you want grounding (Washing machine, electric dryer, computer/other electronics) grounding a single outlet is fairly easy. You typically run a wire from the plug to a plumbing pipe, since those are usually metal and embedded in the ground.

[LaydeeBug]

7. Thank you for this! It was FiOS that told me my wires weren't grounded...

I need a new roof, (and now this) and *just* found out that where I *thought* I had blown in insulation, I don't have *ANY* at all. Lovely. On the bright side, it used to be all of these and plumbing. That one done.

Aaaaah Old houses that I never even considered in my twenties. LOL

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

8. You don't need to have your house rewired right now.

when you rewire an old house there is also a matter of a service change-could be from 100 amp upgraded to 200 amp.
That would require a change of the feed wire from the pole to the house,and from the meter on the outside of your house into your box which would also require changing .

And from there restringing new wire throughout the house. That's mega bucks.

And most likely it isn't necessary.
The person that reads your meter from the power company will most likely tell ya the same thing.

The thing of it is in a older house,you don't want too many things going on one circiut .It helps a lot to understand the distribution of power in your home.And how the circuits are divided.

Adding ground wires to critical areas such as kicthen recepticles or bathroom if there is a plug in there and recepticles or a recepticle where you plug in yer expensive electronics ,is a job a good handyman can do for you without it costing a bundle.If you add the ground wire in teh kitchen recepticles,you can than add a GFI recepticle-GFI is a ground fault recepticle -it's a safety thing.

You have to set your priorities in older homes.
It's slow going. I've done a lot of remodels in older homes,a lot of contractors don't want to do old home remodels because everything takes twice as long to do.

I have to replumb ours now-it's going to be quite a job. I really shouldn't be the least on that list !I already did the electrical work-but never got to the upstairs rooms. Don't think I will either !

As the saying goes-when in doubt,-Ask !

Good luck.

[LaydeeBug]

11. Thanks! I am in a very small two dormer cape cod, so hope it's not TOO horrible a job...

but it is something I want to address before we get insulation.

[jeff47]

9. In that case, they were probably wanting the grounding to protect the electronics.

(That part from my post about surge protectors)

If you want to protect your electronics, grounding one or two plugs is usually very easy. But it's not required. It's an insurance policy against something going wrong with the power grid outside your house (lightning, etc).

[Kolesar]

10. Metal lamps on a circuit with no safety ground can be an electrocution hazard

The risk is if the insulation gets damaged and somehow the hot conductor touches the metal shroud of the lamp. A GFCI protector would prevent that risk.

The NEC or "fire" code assumes that lamps with only two conductors can be safely used in a room where the occupants cannot be connected to ground. The code assumes that somebody walking on carpet or vinyl floor will not be grounded. The code "requires" GFCI protection in rooms with water like the kitchen or bath and rooms with a concrete floor.

GFCI in any room is not a bad idea. One can protect the occupants by replacing the first receptacle in the circuit with a GFCI receptacle. One can also buy a GFCI circuit breaker.