Grounding a non-grounded GFCI
NickNukeEm
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I’m remodeling an old summer cottage which is wired with two conductor wire with no ground. The owner (rightfully) wants a GFCI outlet installed, along with a new lighting circuit. It’s my intent to replace the existing wiring with 14/2 romex, but how do I ground the new wiring? Will a nearby copper supply line work? Also, are mirror and ceiling lights (not above the tub) required to be wired through the GFCI, or can they be wired not-feed-through?
Thanks
Replies
It is not required to ground the GFI in old work where there is now 2 conducter wire. The GFI gives you adequate protection for itself and feed through loads.
If you use three wire ground for anything that is not fed through the GFI the ground must go all the way back to the power panel grounding bus.
Do not use pipes or any other non-electrical equipment to provide a ground path. Should an unknowing tradesman , during a repair cut a line and there was a ground fault in any equipment connected to the pipe they could get a nasty shock. It happened to me once. Damn near killed me. Do it right. Take the feed all the way back to the panel.
This will also help prevent the dreaded electric shower effect.
Is the panel grounded? Buss bonded to the water supply within 6 feet of entry? Can you rewire from the GFCI back?
Many questions, few answers.
-GWC
The ground and neutral are the same thing "at the first point of disconnect", usually the main breaker box. Even the earliest panels had a "Grounding Electrode Conductor (GEC)" of one sort or another. mostly these were for grounding out lightning strikes on power lines. Grounding receptacles only came in later.
Early ones may have used the metallic pipe supplying the water to the house. This was intended to provide a good connection to the earth. The copper or galvanized steel pipe being hundreds of feet long provided a far larger contact area to earth than any driven ground rod.
Two things happened. Some plumbers got badly shocked while repairing these pipes, sometimes hundreds of feet away from the house and plastic piping became more common. Presently piping should be grounded at only one point with no other electrical connections. This should be done as close as possible to the entrance point to to the house and it does not replace driven ground rods.
Presently piping should be grounded at only one point with no other electrical connections.
Isn't this also known as bonding the plumbing system?
Exactly.
I didn't use the term because, to the average person, it sounds like your having an emotionally fulfilling experience with a pipe. Not a pretty picture.
To me the first thing I think of at the mention of "bonding" is sticking stuff together with glue, not an emotional thing. And I'm from California.... ;-)
-- J.S.
Bonding reminds me of jail for some reason.