How Much Does It Cost To Change 2 Prong Outlets To 3 Prong
Between 1920 and 1960, tens of thousands of houses were congenital in the United states of america. Virtually all of them had two prong outlets. Many of them still do. While the majority of Indiana'southward houses were built in the 1990s, there are more than than 8,600 currently for sale built between 1920 and 1960 in the Hoosier state. Many more off the market. If you lot alive in a house with two prong outlets, you might want to consider an upgrade. Y'all are at chance for more than than inconvenience when you effort and plug in your 21st century Television into one of these outlets.
Risks Associated With Ii Prong Outlets
In that location are two risks associated with two prong outlets: electrocution and power surges. Both of these issues take to do with the fact that the wiring in two prong outlets isn't grounded. In outlets built since 1962, U.Southward. electrical lawmaking has required all outlets be synthetic with a basis wire. This ground wire protects electronics and people from electrical surges and faults by providing a pathway for actress energy to escape the house'southward circuitry. When a mistake or surge occurs with grounding, the energy travels through the ground wire to the electrical panel. There, it will trip the circuit breaker or blow a fuse, thereby shutting down the circuit before damage (hopefully) occurs. The free energy then continues through the ground wire into the earth below the structure, where it dissipates harmlessly.
Without grounding, it's besides impossible to protect your electronics and appliances with surge protectors. Surge protectors work just if they are tin can connect to a basis wire. Without this wire, they offer no better protection for electronic devices than practise multiprong outlets.
Two Prong Outlets are Not Up to Code
Upgrading your home'south electrical system can toll between v and 15 percent of your home'southward value — a toll tag many people cannot beget. With this in mind, regulators determined that homeowners with two prong outlets need not upgrade them. However, that doesn't mean they're the safest choice.
For more than than fifty years, lawmaking has required all new construction have grounded, three prong outlets. More recently, U.S. electrical code has required that not only outlets be grounded but that outlets in areas with water present accept a GFCI. A GFCI, short for ground-mistake excursion interrupter, protects people from electric shock by cutting off the excursion if a short circuit occurs. (A brusque excursion is when free energy is directed out of the regular circuit pathway through a path with little or no resistance.) If that curt circuit occurs because a person is being electrocuted, a GFCI can salve their life.
No such protection is bachelor with a two prong outlet.
2 Prong Outlets Suggest Other Issues
Two prong outlets also raise flags about other electrical issues that may be present. Homes built before 1965 were congenital with 30- or 60-amp fuse panels. While 60-amp fuse panels were made with at least i 240-volt wire for larger appliances, 30-amp fuse panels only provide 120-volt wiring, and they are inadequate for modern household electrical needs.
lx-amp fuse boxes are problematic considering they, too, cannot handle well modern requirements upon electrical systems. In comparing, newly constructed homes today are built with 200-amp excursion breakers (the service panels that replaced fuse boxes).
When there is too much free energy running through a wire, the wire heats upward, putting the firm at risk for fire. Also much energy (electricity) will besides accident fuses. You volition have to constantly supplant if your fuse box'south amperage rating doesn't come across your needs.
Some other trouble to be on guard for when 2 prong outlets are present is the lack of grounding in outlets that accept three prongs. If a house has both two and iii prong outlets, it means that the iii prong outlets were installed for convenience and that they're not actually grounded. It could also ways that only part of your house's electrical system is grounded.
Y'all will desire to test your outlets to detect out whether they are grounded or not. If the three prong outlets are not grounded, regulations require that you characterization them with the words "No Equipment Ground."
Four Ways to Upgrade 2 Prong Outlets
To upgrade your two prong outlets, y'all cannot simply add a three prong outlet. While this will solve the convenience issue, information technology will not solve the rubber issue.
If yous truly desire to accost your 2 prong outlets and make them safer, you have four options.
Choice 1: Rewire Your Outlets
Your get-go, and all-time, pick is to hire an electrician to rewire your house's outlets and its electric panel. If the expense is a concern, consider having your electrician rewire select outlets into which y'all will plug larger or more sensitive electronic devices, such as a reckoner or game counsel.
Note that this is not a project you can practice yourself. Merely a certified electrician has the expertise necessary to run a footing wire from the outlet to the service panel and and then properly ground it.
Option ii: Footing Three Prong Outlets with the Metal Housing Box
Many two prong outlets were installed in metal boxes. While the circuitry itself wasn't grounded, these individual boxes oft were. If your firm has two prong outlets with metal boxes, information technology is possible you tin can ground your outlets without overhauling the wiring.
To notice out whether the metal housing is grounded, purchase a circuit tester. Insert 1 of the tester's prongs into the hot slot (the shorter slot in the outlet). Put the other prong onto a spiral holding the cover plate. If the tester lights up, it means the metal box is grounded.
If the box is grounded, you lot tin can install a three prong outlet and ground it by attaching it to the armored, or BX, cable in the back of the box.
Option 3: Install a GFCI at the Outlet
The tertiary pick to upgrade a two prong outlet is to supplant it with a GFCI. While a GFCI volition not protect your electronics from power surges, it will protect you from electrocution and brusque circuits. If you replace your ungrounded, two prong outlet with a GFCI, you must label information technology with "No Equipment Ground."
Option four: Install a GFCI at the Circuit Breaker
It's also possible to supervene upon your 2 prong receptacles with iii prong ones and add together a GFCI circuit billow at the service panel. Doing this will as well protect you lot from electrocution. If y'all do this, you volition have to label outlets with "GFCI Protected, No Equipment Ground."
Whatsoever y'all decide to practise, nosotros recommend having a certified electrician complete your electrical piece of work. Safety is ever a concern when working with electricity, and an expert will best take intendance of your home.
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Inquire an Electrician: How to Reset a GFCI
Source: https://www.whiteselectrical.com/blog-post/whats-problem-two-prong-outlets/
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