Ground Wire

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GoldMaple

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My buddy has an old house and the upstairs uses wires with only a white and a black, no ground. He's done a lot of renovating in the basement and all the newer circuits in the house have a ground wire. One of the new receptacles with a ground is very close to an old receptacle without a ground. Can a ground wire be run from the old receptacle to the new receptacle that has a properly working ground? Thus grounding the old receptacle? Please give us your thoughts. Thanks!
 

ActionDave

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No, the equipment ground is supposed to be run with the other conductors in the circuit as a general rule. You are allowed to run to a metal water pipe no more than five feet from where it comes into the house or back to the breaker panel. Thing is as soon as you pull the ground wire you might as well pull a whole new romex.
 

GoldMaple

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Yes, thanks. With further research I was able to determine that borrowing the ground from another circuit is not to code. So, he's going to leave those receptacles and put two prong plugs on them. Then run a new grounded circuit through the attic and drop a new grounded plug in each room. The kitchen circuits in this house were already grounded so that should be good enough. Not going to be fun running the wire in two feet of cellulose attic insulation and drilling holes through every ceiling joist to pull the wire through.... but it is what it is!
 

Reach4

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Note that it is OK to put GFI outlets that have 3 holes without the safety ground being connected if the appropriate label is added to the outlet. The GFI protects people, and it makes it handy to plug in 3-prong plugs.
 

Jadnashua

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The house I grew up in had mostly 2-wire circuits (i.e., without ground). Since the house was over 60-years old, many of the receptacles were long past their lifespan, so I bought a pile of GFCI receptacles and good quality 3-prong plugs, and identified the first one on each run, then installed a GFCI, and the down stream ones were fed off of the load side of the GFCI. There were a few 3-wire, grounded circuits in the house, but not many. Some things will not work as well without a true ground (all modes in a UPS or surge suppressor, for example), but from a safety viewpoint, the GFCI is safer than a circuit with the ground, but the ground does add a bit in functionality for some devices. The only hassle is, my mother (in her 80's) might have one trip, and then after she can't find a tripped CB, has to be reminded to search out the GFCI's and see which one tripped. In that house, some rooms have circuits from two breakers, and finding the offending one can be a pain sometimes.
 
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