It can be difficult to know if your home is properly grounded without a circuit tester or professional inspection. There are a couple of things to look for that will give you an idea, however. First of all: do your outlets have two prongs or three?
The lower, third prong of an outlet connects to the ground wire. Even if each of your outlets has three prongs, you may still not have effective grounding. Sometimes, homes that were once grounded now have ineffective grounding because of damage or wiring mistakes. Homes built in the 50s and 60s often have no grounding or ineffective grounding, even if they have three-prong outlets.
If you want to know if your home is grounded for sure, invest in a home circuit tester or schedule an inspection. Your best option would be to call an electrician to install grounding immediately. These outlets automatically interrupt the flow of electricity when they sense a shock, fire, or damage hazard. Whether you want to install grounding, replace two-pronged outlets with GFCIs, or you have another electrical question, get in touch with Early Bird Electric any time.
Our licensed and experienced experts are your go-to for any and all electrical problems. We want to help make sure your home is safe.
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I was able to get this done. This site is perfect. I am glad I found it. Please keep it going. Estimated Time: Depends on personal level experience, ability to work with tools, work with electrical wiring, and the available access to the project area. Important: Modifying existing electrical circuits or installing additional electrical wiring should be done according to local and National Electrical Codes, with a permit and be inspected. In the worst-case scenario, an overload of power can even cause a fire to start, risking not just extensive property and data loss but physical injury as well.
In most homes, the wiring system is permanently grounded to a metal rod driven into the ground or a metal pipe extending into the house from an underground water-supply system. A copper conductor connects the pipe or rod to a set of terminals for ground connections in the service panel. For wiring systems that use electrical cable covered in metal, the metal usually serves as the ground conductor between wall outlets and the service panel.
In wiring systems that use plastic-sheathed cable, an extra wire is used for grounding. Since electricity is always looking for the shortest path back to the earth, if there is a problem where the neutral wire is broken or interrupted, the grounding wire provides a direct path to the ground.
Through this direct physical connection, the earth acts as a path of least resistance, preventing a person from becoming the shortest path, and suffering a serious electric shock. You can usually tell whether your electrical system is grounded by checking your power outlets. If they accept plugs with three prongs, your system should have three wires, one of which is a grounding wire.
Similarly, an appliance designed to be grounded is equipped with a three-wire cord and a three-pronged plug. The third wire and prong provide the ground link between the metal frame of the appliance and the grounding of the wiring system. The best thing you can do to create a safe electrical system is to ensure the whole system is grounded and the ground circuit is electrically continuous.
Grounding your electrical system is a smart and easy way to make it a whole lot safer, as well as to protect against the very real possibility of having to deal with fluctuations in power supply. If you want to safeguard all of your important assets, whether at home or at the office, as well as look out for the health and safety of everyone around you, find out if your electrical system is grounded — and if it is not, contact Platinum Electricians today on Platinum Platinum Electricians is rated 9.
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