Electrical problem - Open Ground.?

Question

My computer was fried by a surge last week. when I tested the outlets with a AW Perry 3-prong tester, it showed 'Open Ground'. I hired a master electrician to fix the problem. He connected the ground to the neutral in one of the outlets. Now my AW Perry shows that the outlets are wired correctly, but by connecting the ground (bare copper wire) to the neutral (white), I sensed that he did not do it correctly. I think what he did was only fooling the tester, not fixing the problem.

Any help from experts out there would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

The green ground wire and the white neutral wire are both connected to same contact in the main electrical box. The electrician connected your ground wire to the white neutral because your outlet was wire without the green ground wire in the outlet from the main electrical box. If I were the electrician I would have corrected the ground the same way he did. The outlet is now properly grounded.

Answer 2

Unreal.  I certainly hope you report this guy to some one of authority before he kills somebody.  If he did this, there's no telling what else he is doing.  It's a good thing you were watching what he was doing.  Good luck with your next electrician.

Answer 3

A master electrician did this? Bad choice.

Answer 4

"Master Electrician" needs to be reported.

Answer 5

You are definitely correct - he just is fooling the tester.  The ground and neutral essentially connect to the same place in the breaker box but server two separate functions.  The neutral is to complete the circuit or be a return path for the current and is essential  for the circuit to work.  The ground is a safety line such that if a hot wire were to touch an appliance chassis, the circuit breaker would trip.  I would say he scammed you, especially if the tester showed everything was connected properly before your surge.

Answer 6

There are actually 2 ground wires..  The bare copper wire is commonly reffered to as "safety ground"... The white wire is "common ground"...    They both go to the same place though and it really doesn't matter if you switch them...

The "safety ground"  used to never exist at all...  There used to be just a black and white wire...     Then for Extra surge protection and because of newer safety codes they added the safety ground...  This wire is either bare copper or sometimes it is green...

  What he did will not hurt a thing at all..  My entire home just has 2 wires to each receptacle...   Have you ever been somewhere where the receptacle didn't have the 3rd prong and you had to have an adapter or were forced to break off the 3rd prong on your plug ??   Well.. Now you know why...

What He did was a "quick fix"...    If the white wire is broken somewhere it could mean alot of work to either  tear into walls and isolate exactly where the wire is damaged .. Or, to toally run a new wire which could be quite a job to depending on how your home is wired...

  You can do as you choose..  Like I said though..  What he did will not hurt anything at all...