Redeyezzz

I live in an older house & my room of choice only has sockets with two flat parallel prongs. Since everything I want to use has grounding pins I need to change my current setup.

So, I did some searching & found information about replacing these older sockets with GFCI receptacles.

I'm not electrically inclined so would this be the best route without having to rewire the whole circuit? Has anybody here done such a thing?

Thanks!

__________________

argo430

have you located which breaker/fuse the circuit is on? Find it and plug a light in to make sure you have it off. after you take the plate off you should have a white and black wire going to your two pronged outlet. Attatched to the box should be a copper wire if that wire is missing then you shoud run a new wire to your fuse/cb panel. If that copper/gnd wire is there just change out the socket. You can also get a grounding wire adaptor plug and attatch the tab to one of your pipes... hope that helped.

__________________
Seeds are a great thing.

Kaosativa

i had the same problem in my old home, and short of rewiring, what i did was just go to home depot or local harware store and buy the proper grounded socet you need, come home hit the power and disconnect the wires from the back of the socket. keep them proper, i think its silver screws to wite and copper colored screws to black. after you wire them back up and put the plate on, turn on the power, then plug somethnig in like a radio, unless you are sure you did it right. this will work, but you will NOT be grounded, just have the proper plug you need. not grounded, no no no. thats what i did, hope that helped ya

p.s. you can buy those plastic or rubber 3 prong adaptors that you can scre the ground tab into the face plate, but i dont recomment those, used one and got way hot, there not meant for pulling alot of energy.

__________________
-Gratefuly Deadicated-


"I'd like to get some sleep before I travel,
but if you got a warrant, I guess your gonna come in."

"Grateful Dead"

Redeyezzz

Thanks argo430. I have located the breaker which the curcuit runs. However, I haven't looked at the wiring behind the face plate as of yet.
I just assumed there was no ground. Will have a look when I get back to it.

Kaosativa. I thought of replacing the sockets at some point earlier but then decided I'd much rather have them grounded just because of the amount of draw I will have on the circuit.

__________________

Kaosativa

understood my man.. let us know what ya do

__________________
-Gratefuly Deadicated-


"I'd like to get some sleep before I travel,
but if you got a warrant, I guess your gonna come in."

"Grateful Dead"

argo430

hello: I guess running a wire to a water pipe can be dangerous. Hooking up a gfci to two wires is ok. Or you can also hook up a gfci circuit breaker and use three prongs all theese should be labeled non grounded. check this
http://homerepair.about.com/od/elect.../no_ground.htm

good luck.

__________________
Seeds are a great thing.

whitewidow44

hmmmm, i just used a 3 prong converter... you plug your 3-prong into it and then plug THAT into the socket,it converts 3 to a 2.

ps. but the again, ive only got a 70 watt HPS hooked to it. its actually just plugging into a 2 slit 24hour timer. 70watt light to the adapter and the adapter into the timer and timer into the wall.(timer is only 2 pronged also)

__________________
eye's a lil' low cuz i twist da dro'

savage_one

Damn, this probably means I need to check out my outlets. In a few odd places in this house, theres only the 2 slit outlets. Right know my closet is running a 400w MH, 2x 65w flouro's and a plugin fan controller with 2 .21 amp fans, all plugged into an extension cord=plugged into timer=plugged into surge protector=plugged in with adapter to outlet...

__________________
The REAL reason Hemp and Cannabis are ILLEGAL-http://100777.com/drugs/marijuanaconspiracy

----------Quotes, jokes and everything else----------
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ... "Holy shit! ... what a ride!"---Anonymous

Kaosativa

in my old house i have to run 2 extension cords from different rooms, when my in window AC came on, the light used to dim, and thats bad for the transformer

__________________
-Gratefuly Deadicated-


"I'd like to get some sleep before I travel,
but if you got a warrant, I guess your gonna come in."

"Grateful Dead"

Beginner Grower

hortilux-blue good or bad