My house is really old and although I have grounded outlets, I want to know how can I tell if behind them they are really grounded???
2007-11-07 07:58:00 · 5 answers · asked by G-man 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
I'm a home inspector and the tester I use is from a hardware store. It has 3 lights on it, 2 amber ones and a red one. Through the various issues that an outlet can have, the lights going off in a particular pattern can show you if your outlet is grounded or not, if the hot/neutral wires are reversed, if the outlet is GFCI protected or not, etc. It costs about $10.
Follow the link to see a picture of one.
2007-11-07 08:22:53 · answer #1 · answered by DA 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The easy way is with a volt meter meter. Set to 120 or 500 VAC just be sure it above 120. Put one prong in left slot and the other prong in right slot. Not matter which color prong with AC. The meter will show the voltage. Next keep left in slot and move to the ground hole, it should still read 110-120 volts. If, not try right slot and ground hole. If, neither shows voltage when one prong in a slot you not grounded.
Second go outside to the Electrical box below the Meter. Open and look. You can see the wire for the house and two go to the Breaker/Off Switch one goes to a Ground bar and to a rod in the ground. Next you want to verify the ground. Inside the house should be another breaker box, this have probably 4-10 Breakers. You will need to remove the cover. You can see where the main wires from outside come in and then each breaker will have wires. These run to the various rooms. These wires will be one to the Breaker and the other two go to the ground bar. IF, you see one to Breaker and one to ground, then most likely the Plugs are not grounded. You can pull a plug out (Be careful or turn the electric off), but, just because there 3 wires at the plug (One each side and one to a ground screw) this never means it grounded at the inside box or outside box.
I hope this not confuse you. The reason you have two wires on Hot/Breakers is for 220-230 and only one go to ground. So, in an old house the 110-120 plugs and lights have 1 wire to a breaker and 2 wires to ground. For 220-230 volts 1 wire is ground and the other two wires are hot, you see this inside the outside box Two on Breaker and one to ground.
2007-11-07 08:15:35 · answer #2 · answered by Snaglefritz 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can buy a cheap circuit tester and it will show if the ground is open, or with an ohmmeter you could check the resistance from ground to the body of the panel box. Be careful because ground and neutral are connected together at the panel box. Look for the ground rod going to hearth around the panel box.
2007-11-07 08:09:45 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
as an electrician I use an outlet tester, It has a red light and two amber lights. If you have two amber lights you have a ground and everything is wired correctly. If you have one center amber light then you dont have a ground and everything is wired correctly except the missing ground. Any other combination of lights means something is wrong.
Great device and very inexpensive. You can also get one to trip breakers and gfcis to see if they are working correctly.
2007-11-07 08:40:22 · answer #4 · answered by analize2much 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get a voltmeter or a tester. Pull out a receptacle that checks good and look for a bootleg jumper between ground and neutral.
2007-11-07 16:32:40 · answer #5 · answered by John himself 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋