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Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,766,834 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barking Spider
For what its worth, 2 prong outlets are available all over the place. In Knoxville for example, I have seen them at Ace Hardware, Home Depot, & Lowes.
Well, it could be that I live in the 2-prong black hole, but that's an item that I would have to get from the internet or go through an electrical specialty supplier for - not easy to find off the rack at the big boxes here. What I was trying to get at is that while the presence of a three-prong receptacle doesn't necessarily indicate proper grounding, it's not at all likely that anyone would install two-prong receptacles where equipment grounds exist.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,766,834 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Do surge protectors actaully work? I saw an article once that said that most of them do not trip fast enough to do any good.
How often do surges happen anyway? I have lived probably 20 years total in places with no ground. Never lost anything to a surge. When I have had grounded systems, I have never had a surge protector trip unless it was overloaded (which has nothing to do with gronding).
Are there statistics on how often surges actually damage things? I sure would like to have back all the money I have spent on surge protectors over the years.
Touche.
My only defense is that I'm firmly rooted in the dogma that you must have surge protectors for receivers, computers, flat screens, etc.
Got it Jim - in fact when I see 3 prong outlets in older homes that also have 2 prong, I always check for "bootleg ground" conditions. Someone is always trying to fool the home inspector.
Here's a photo of one.
Last edited by Barking Spider; 02-15-2012 at 04:18 PM..
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,766,834 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barking Spider
Got it Jim - in fact when I see 3 prong outlets in older homes that also have 2 prong, I always check for "bootleg ground" conditions. Someone is always trying to fool the home inspector.
Here's a photo of one.
My only defense is that I'm firmly rooted in the dogma that you must have surge protectors for receivers, computers, flat screens, etc.
I have been sold on the same thing. We have probaly 10-15 surge protectors in our house varying form $8 Target specials to $60 protects everyting" models that the comuter store guy talked us into.
However I am curious whether they are actually necessary, or just the result of a lot of really good marketing. Good marketing includes not only advertising, but also getting articles published in magazines saying that your product is necessary (when it may not be).
If you ahve trouble finding 2 prong outlets, look for salvage places or charity re-sellers like Re-store.
First off, I'll tell you that I have never seen a specification grade outlet in a residential property. Probably way overkill for your use.
I guess I have a sample of one that does. I used hospital grade outlets throughout the house (and industrial-grade switches too). Helps when you work for a medical manufacturer... then they are dirt cheap.
12-gauge wire everywhere (well, 10 for the bathrooms), and 54 outlets on the lower level, for sound equipment. Virtually every outlet in the house is a quad receptacle.
If you have a bare copper wire in the outlet junction box, it is likely a ground wire. The questions is IF it is a ground wire, AND, HOW its providing the ground. Basically you want to make sure the "ground" goes all the way back to the electrical panel.
You can easily check to see if it is a ground, and is working properly with a two wire circuit tester. If you touch one pin to the HOT wire, and the other to the copper wire, and you get 120 volts, then you have a ground. You can also see if the box itself is grounded the same way.
If it is a ground wire then you are good to go with a 3 prong outlet providing you connect the White, Black, and Bare or Green wires correctly.
If you are not comfortable working with live electricity (because it could kill you), then get an electrician to take a look at it for you. You can also just run a new circuit from the panel to wherever you want this new outlet.
Good advice. One hand in your pocket, and you should have no problems.
Try dealing with triode tube amps... 5kV at an ampere is not a lot of fun. (4CX10000B's)
I have been sold on the same thing. We have probaly 10-15 surge protectors in our house varying form $8 Target specials to $60 protects everyting" models that the comuter store guy talked us into.
However I am curious whether they are actually necessary, or just the result of a lot of really good marketing. Good marketing includes not only advertising, but also getting articles published in magazines saying that your product is necessary (when it may not be).
If you ahve trouble finding 2 prong outlets, look for salvage places or charity re-sellers like Re-store.
I inherited a 10kW constant-voltage transformer (ferroresonant regulator)from my dad. These things are not that expensive. Also a few 1kW CVT's.
The ultimate in surge protection, and I get to choose my reference for ground . Leakage current is virtually nil, and the only way to get a shock is to go across the windings. Personally, I think the whole concept of a ground-driven system is not that safe, and a floating-ground system is much better (albeit more expensive). The only downside is that it hums. I know that this is old-school, and modern solid-state devices are better, but a saturating transformer and a capacitor does the trick. Power factor is in the high 90% range.
Got it Jim - in fact when I see 3 prong outlets in older homes that also have 2 prong, I always check for "bootleg ground" conditions. Someone is always trying to fool the home inspector.
Here's a photo of one.
Yep, very sneaky. I can tell you a lot of inspectors will just plug their tester in and move on, thinking that somehow a ground wire was added to the old circuits.
Some of us look further.
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. Leakage current is virtually nil, and the only way to get a shock is to go across the windings. Personally, I think the whole concept of a ground-driven system is not that safe, and a floating-ground system is much better (albeit more expensive). The only downside is that it hums. I know that this is old-school, and modern solid-state devices are better, but a saturating transformer and a capacitor does the trick. Power factor is in the high 90% range.
