internet at home... kinda

[juldea]

Well. The situation as it is:

My apartment now has cable TV and internet.

However, my room doesn't have any grounded outlets (with three-prongs). My surge protector, which provides enough outlets for my computer, needs a three-pronged outlet to connect to. Therefore, my computer is currently turned off. :(

Luckily kobold has a grounded outlet in his room, so his computer is set up. It's the only outlet of the kind in the apartment, near as I can tell.

Anyone know anything about whether or not this is legal? I'd think that apartments these days should have all grounded outlets.

Ah well. At least I have some computer to use... and a book to finish, and a room to organize, so perhaps I should get on that, eh? :)

[EDIT]: looks like such things as "grounding adapters" exist... they plug into two-prong outlets and ground on the outlet faceplate screw. I guess Randy and I will go buy some of those tomorrow!

Comments

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any legal requirement to rewire old apartments to put in grounded plugs. However, if new wiring is done for another reason - remodelling, etc - then any new wiring needs to be three-wire and grounded. Basically as long as the old two-wire works and is left alone, it can remain indefinitely.

I wonder if the three-prong outlet in his room is *really* grounded - or if someone just stuck a three prong outlet on 2-Wire. Someone did that to some of the outlets in my apartment. I have 3-hole outlets all over, but some of them are *not* grounded. The ground hole isn't wired to anything, or the wire isn't grounded at the other end. If I plug one of my UPSes into an ungrounded outlet I get a 'ungrounded' alarm - I move it to a different plug and it is grounded.

That is probably a code violation, but I'll be moving when I find a house, so whatever. :-)

[ex-sleek838.livejournal.com]

They're fairly cheap for the adapters. Or you can find some handyman that could do the grounding for you.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Oh, about those adapters - while your out buying those pickup a tester. They make cheap 'pen testers' - you basically use it to close the circuit to ground. If it lights up, there is ground, if not, there isn't.

The adapters don't always really ground - because even if you connect it to the screw there may be no ground circuit at all from there to earth ground. Earth ground is required for any real grounding - no earth, no circuit ground.

One thing that is often done is to tie the ground to the nearest copper water line. Since the water lines are required to be grounded to earth at the point of entry into the building, it is generally a good path to the earth ground. You could also drill a little hole in the wall and run a single copper wire down the outside of the building and either tie into an existing earth ground (look for the phone box, etc - they have grounds coming off of them, trace it) or you can drive a new ground into the, um, ground and tie to that.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... handyman... :D

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Hmm. This is all getting beyond my handyman-fu. I'd love to learn, of course, but I don't have the knowledge currently...

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

The annoying thing about MA is that even if you know how to do the wiring, you have to be a certified electrician to make any permanent changes. Anything hardwired into the dwelling is electrician time.

But if it can be unplugged you can do it yourself. Generally speaking.

Some years back I once put in conduit and an extension from a 220V line that fed the stove to power a dryer in an apartment - circuit breakers and all. But we connected it with a pigtail to the existing wall jack, so it could be unplugged. So it was a really fancy extension cord. ;-)

[kobold.livejournal.com]

I told you there were grounding adapters, but you didn't believe me!

Hmmph! I'm gonna pee on your bedsheets.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I'm disturbed by the fact that when you wrote this, I was on my bedsheets.

I need to buy new ones anyway.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Actually, since I used to live in that apartment, I'm pretty sure we still have some of those adapters still kicking around. If we unearth them, we could just drop them on the top stair.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Thanks!