Installing a 3 Prong Wall outler where at 2 Prong is at.?

Question

I have an older house and all the wall outlets in the bedrooms are 2 prong without a ground wire of course. I am wanting to replace them with 3 prong outlets but my question is What would happen if I installed them without having ground wires? Is it a bad idea?

Answer 1

That will not hurt anything, it will just allow you to use modern plugs. If you were to connect a wire from the white wire to the green grounding s***w and to the silver rec s***w it would actually connect the same as if it were a bare ground in the panel.

Just be sure to put the black on the brass colored screws!

Answer 2

Your third hole is the ground.

Answer 3

It is not a good idea to install them without the ground. By NEC  each recetacle must be marked plainly that "No Ground Present."   It is vital that any electronics have a ground in the system.  It sounds like the whole house is in need of an electrical revitalization.  Call a qualified professional electrician before you have a fire that destroys your home and possibly kills someone.

Answer 4

There shouldn't be a problem. The outlet will ground itself against the metal case you s***w it into, and that's connected to the third hole. You should, of course, buy yourself an outlet tester (available at most hardware stores). The lights on it will tell you if the ground is working, and if you have the hot and neutral wires hooked up on the correct sides.

Answer 5

bzzz500 is correct. The NEC allows GFCI to be install at the first plug then you can install 3 prong outlets after it. You must also use the little sticker marking the outlets No Equipment Ground.

Answer 6

The National Electrical Code does not allow an ungrounded (2-opening) receptacle to be replaced with a grounded (3-opening) receptacle; unless an Equipment Grounding Conductor is installed.

The other exceptions require GFCI protection. You can install a GFCI breaker (if you have a load center with circuit breakers), and use the "No Equipment Ground" stickers that you get with the breaker on the receptacles for that circuit. You may also use a GFCI receptacle in the first location served by that circuit, and daisy-chain the receptacles from the "Load" side of the GFCI (the side that will have yellow tape over the terminals). Again, you must label the receptacles "No Equipment Ground". The last option is to install a GFCI receptacle in place of every receptacle and label all receptacles "NO Equipment Ground".

If you choose to try to install a grounded system, hire a qualified, licensed electrical contractor. The EGC must be run along the same path as the existing circuit conductors, and every metal box must be bonded to this conductor; so must the receptacles, unless you install listed "self-grounding" receptacles.

It is important to label the receptacles because they will have the appearance of providing an Equipment Ground, but will not. They will offer “Ground Fault Protection for Personnel”, as the GFCI will still detect a change in current flow. I would recommend installing the GFCI receptacles in your kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room, as well as at any locations you may have in crawl spaces, basements, garage, or outdoors. (See NEC 210)

Answer 7

You can do this if you use a gfci (ground fault )  outlet as the replacement outlet.  The code does allow this for older homes that only have ungrounded ckts.  The outlets are more spendy than just a standard 3 prong but could avert a deadly situaton in the long run.

Answer 8

If you're going to update the outlets you really should ground them.