How do i instal a ground to my old 2 wire electrical system.?

Question

in installed a regular 3 prong outlet to my 2 wire electrical system in my house. I want to ground one outlet for my new TV i already have a surge protector on it. i know my cold water pipes are properly grounded with a stake grounded outside too.

Answer 1

I was going to pass on this one, but none of the answers are totally correct. Some are even very bad. I think some people have been reading books and not really understanding what they have read. Not everyone read all your post either.

It is NOT a good idea to use either the conduit, nor a water pipe as the ground for an outlet. This has nothing to do with the ground rod, nor the water pipe ground that you already have on your breaker box.

To do the job well, run a green, or bare wire from the breaker box to the outlet. There is a chance that you don't have enough places for more wires in your breaker box. They sell the buss bars that are used for this in most Home Depot type stores. They are cheap and come in several different sizes.

You do NOT need a $60 outlet, you said that you have a surge supressor. You do not need a GFI, unless it is near a water faucet. You cannot rely on the cold water pipes because you can not guarantee that someone will not put in a section of plastic pipe and you will lose your ground.

Even one inch of plastic pipe, in the right place, can cause your ground to disappear. The amount of plastic is not an issue, it is where it is. There are also other drawbacks to that which are too complex to discuss here.

You could use the metal conduit if that is already there, but that solution relys on a mechanical connection that is inherantly not reliable for electrical continuity. In years past this was acceptable, but I doubt you even have that as an option in your house.

The discussion about ground faults and ground loops are an interesting subject, but is not applicable for your situation. Yours is extremely straight forward and those are more advanced than you need to know.

Obviously, you should not even open the breaker box unless you are knowledgable enough to do the work safely. Remember that it is unlikely that you will be able to kill all the power to the box. That means at least some of the connections and buss bars will remain hot, even with ALL the breakers off.

Remember, even with the main breakers off, there may be live power inside the box. That is too dangerous unless you have the skill AND experience AND proper tools.

If you need any more instruction than has already been given, you do not have the skill to do this safely. Please do not take even the slightest chance. I have seen pros get hit by a live wire and it is a very frightening sight.

Answer 2

Your cold water pipe is NOT GROUNDED IT IS BONDED. If you don't know the difference you shouldn't be doing any electrical work. Even if it was grounded( which would be a hazard something grounded carries electrical current under normally operation) is would have nothing to do with the outlets in your house.

You simply need to run a new cable(14-2 w ith ground or 12-2 with ground) from you panel to the outlet and completely re-feed it with a new circuit with a new GROUNDING conductor in it. Adding a grounding wire to a circuit wth out a grounding conductor is not code and is unsafe.\


FIY grounded and grounding are very different. A plug with 2 hole in it has a grounded wire but does not have a grounding wire.

Ungrounded wire= black= hot
grounded wire= white= neutral
grounding wire=bare or green= equipment grounding conductor
bonding jumper= big *** wire run to cold water pipe in house(not involved with outlets)


ALL OF THE OThER ANSWERS ARE WRONG MISINFORMED AND VERY DANGEROUS PLEASE CALL AN ELECTRICIAN THIS JOB SHOULD BE ABOUT $125 TO RUN A NEW CIRCUT TO TV. IF THE PEOPLE IN YOU AREA CHARGE $60 per hr. Job should take well under 2 hours for one man

Answer 3

unfortunately driving multiple ground rods is not only not reccomended, it not to code!!!!

here's why

a electro mechanical ground ( EMG ) serves as the sole grounding point in any single phase residential service , everthing ( the nuetral buss, and are branch circuits , the cold water service coming in no more than 5 at entry to the building ) is then BONDED to it, you NEVER want to have multiple EMGs as the ground fault will seek a path to connect the rods, you can drive 2 rods 8 feet apart and then bond them together ( as well to the main service panel ), but never 3 in different locations.

with a 2 wire system unless the runs are in steel conduit from he panel to the receptacles and lights or unless they have steel bx armour cable where the ground was the steel armour jacket into a metal junction / handy box to where your receptacles are, you cannot simple run bare copper wire to the nearest copper pipe for a ground, this creates ground loops and is dangerous in the even of a ground fault and you happen to between the fault ( like touching the sink nozzle ) when a fault or current leak occurs.

the only way to properly do a 2 wire is to re wire and provide a new ground rod plus cold water ground ( as old 2 wire systems might have one or none, but never both )

Answer 4

It is OK to run a ground wire directly to the cold water pipes as long as they are not plastic in any large amounts. I have grounded my house with 3 12' copper rods driven into the ground.
1) goes to the breaker box
2) goes to other electrical systems
3) grounds my computer and it alone.

I had a problem with every pipe we had on the property being rusted through, everytime my partner rototilled she broke a pipe, so we ran PVC pipes all over our property, and ran the electricity separately.

Answer 5

electricity is not a hobby, contact a qualified electrician. for personnel protection u can install a gfci, i install tvss type recepts( it sort of looks like a gfi recep) available at major electrical supply stores. tvss (transient voltage surge supressor) outlets cost around 60 bucks. weather or not u can use a ground tail to connect to the box depends on several different cases. ie: call an electrician.

Answer 6

If your 2-wire system is in conduit, the conduit is the ground. attach wire from metal box to the outlet. that should do it. If the 2 wire system is plastic covered cable, you need to run a new ground.

Answer 7

You will have to run a ground wire from the breaker/fuse box to a cold water pipe. then from the breaker/fuse box to each receptacle

Answer 8

you can by the adapters maybe not at Home Depot. Rewiring may be expensive but necessary.