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"DAC" <darwincam@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1170335020.981014.187800@k78g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> The GFCI advice given here is good. One thing that I want to throw
> out is a short cut that my bosses hubby did...and it's illegal, wrong,
> and and incrediblye dangerous...
>
> Presented with the same thing as you, he purchased 3 prong recp.
> Instead of using a GFCI, or adding a ground, by poking around in the
> service disconnect, he saw that the ground and neutral were both
> attached to the disconnect box. He's a bright chap, and deducts that
> if ran a jumper to the grounding screw to the neutral screw on the
> recp. he'd be good to go, didn't need that extra bare wire anyway. No
> kidding.
>
> The sad thing is as you can imagine is that the little plug in tester
> said "Grounded". For the sake of everyone, your family and future
> owners do not go this route. The sad thing is that when the house was
> sold, the inspector plugged in the little tester thingy, and it said
> grounded and no one bothered to take a cover plate off.
>
> Bottom line...if your not 100% certain, do yourself a favor and at
> least hire an electrician for an hour or two to provide a
> consultation, no amount of savings is worth a life.
>
Agreed, but make sure it is a real electrician. When I moved in, I hired a
company that had a real office, real painted trucks, a yellow pages ad, and
everything, to repair one dead circuit. I also asked for a site survey and
estimate for some other things I had noticed. They fixed the dead circuit,
and provided a sky-high estimate for the other stuff, so I did most of it
myself, finding all sorts of stupid and dangerous stuff that indicated that
they really hadn't checked out squat, since it wasn't listed on their
report. IOW, ask around at work, and find who others have used and were
happy with. (I am trying to get my brother, a semi-retired electrician who
used to work as a plant engineer, to come visit and help me with the other
stuff....)
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Re: Grounding the receptacle boxes in an old house
