I just moved into an older house and all the outlets in my room have the prongs but not the ground. One outet does have a ground but the part for the two prongs are horizontal whereas most plugs I’ve seen are vertical. Is there some kind of outlet adapter I can buy so I can plug in something that has a normal plug with the ground?
You need to make extra sure that outlet isn’t 220v or some other oddball voltage. Is it where a stove or clothes washer/dryer might be?
Non-typical plugs usually note non-typical voltages.
The one plug that does have the ground is very odd and it does look like a specific type of thing is plugged in there but its a bedroom so I wouldn’t expect a washer or dryer to go there, but could I use some type of adapter to turn the outlets without grounds into an outlet with a ground?
If it’s a standard old style 2 prong plug, you can just get a 3 prong adapter from any hardware store. There are dangers with these adapters in the case that your household wiring does not have metal conduit, because your ground prong will not be earth ground and will not give you the proper protection from electrical shock. The screw holding on the faceplate and adapter is supposed to connect the female ground to the metal conduit via the outlet. How old is your house and do you know what type of wiring is in your house? My house was built in 1954 and had knob and tube wiring which does NOT have a ground.
IANA electrician, but I am an electrical engineer, so don’t trust me.
Thanks for the answer, I’m not sure exactly how old the house is but I will ask the roomies and find out the pertinent info before using the adapter.
I just found one of those tubes putting new telephone wire through the ouside wall. The old line went through one. It connected to a giant ceramic lightening arrestor or something 5 feet further into the house. One of these days I might get a picture for the people that like to identify stuff on this board.
You may have a 20 amp 120 volt outlet. Some heavy draw appliances have a prong that only alows for insertion into a 20 amp 120 volt outlet. There are specific patterns to be used with specific ratings and types of circuits, so a picture would help greatly. Here is a currently new 20 amp 120 volt outlet. You may find a 15 amp air conditioner with one of these plugs, because you can’t operate it on a 15 amp circuit. You have to leave load surplus on the line to meet codes.
It is probably near a window, if not directly under it, right? I’m betting it was installed to power a window air conditioning unit, and it is most likely 230V. Given the trouble many people have sleeping in the heat, cooling only the bedroom is an economical option.
It can be costly, but I would advise hiring an electrician to bring all the sockets in the house up to snuff. Also to tell you what that non-standard socket is, although it probably was for an air-conditioner.
Straight blade devices are identified via their NEMA classification, consisting of the ID#, followed by a second number corresponding to the ampacity for which the device is rated, and either a P or R for plug or receptacle. As such, a NEMA 1-15R is a two blade (parallel) receptacle rated at 15 amps, and is designed for 120 VAC use. The neutral, or white opening is wider than the hot, or black.
A NEMA 2-20R has two equally sized perpendicular openings, is rated at 20 amps, and is designed for 240 VAC use.
In the case of NEMA 1-15 receptacles and grounding, the boxes may have been grounded either with a separate traveling ground, the armor of type AC cable (otherwise known as BX), or with the grounding conductor present in early types of NM sheathed cable. Earlier installation methodology was to land the grounding conductor on one of the screws of the cable clamp where the cable entered the device box. In any event, if the box is indeed grounded in amy of these fashions, a three wire grounding receptacle may be installed, so long as the device screw is securely bonded to the device box via a properly sized pigtail.
Seek the assistance of a qualified individual for your own safety.
Another option I may have overlooked is it dangeroud to merely cut the ground off of the thing I’m wanting to plug in? I know it probably isn’t recommended but I think people do it quite often.
I am not an electrician but I’d suggest not cutting a grounding plug off the power cable. You MAY (check with someone who knows) be able to cut the ground plug off an extension cord and use that to connect your power cable to the wall.
It’s dangerous to have cut off the ground plug if a short occurs in the appliance and illegal. Buy grounding adapters. They’re cheap. The hole in the metal tab is so you can put the face plate screw through it, not that most people do.
And using a 3-to-2 adapter without making the faceplate screw connection is electrically identical to cutting the ground lug off the cord. Which is also electrically identical (or nearly so) to USING the adpter’s faceplate screw on an outlet that is not installed / wired for grounding the modern way.
My take: Either do as Danceswithcats (ie the professional) suggests & rewire as necessary to be fully safe, or do anything else that’ll make 'em plug together & recognize you’re running without a ground which has certain safety shortcomings. Half-measures like disconnected 3-to-2 adaptors don’t produce half-safety, they produce no safety with the illusion of full safety.
Having said my sound bite, do make damn sure it isn’t 240VAC before you connect anything expecting 110. Surprisingly, many electronic devices sold in the US can handle 240 natively or can be swiched to 240. Globalization occasionally has a small upside. But whatever it is, if it’s not expecting 240 it’ll be dead within milliseconds when you connect it.
O.K., here’s what to do.
First go with **danceswithcats ** suggestion… find out if the receptacle has a ground going to it. (Sometimes the metal box around the receptacle is connected to earth ground.) If it does, simply install 3-prong 120 VAC receptacles and connect the ground to the receptacles.
But more than likely they don’t have grounds running to them. If this is the case, you have a couple “legal” solutions to your problem. Take your pick:
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Run a ground wire to each box and install 3-prong receptacles. While this is the best solution, it’s a pain in the butt.
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Replace each 2-prong receptacle with a 3-prong GFCI receptacle. There still won’t be a ground connection, but this is O.K. for most appliances. And if you can figure out which receptacles are downstream from the others, you would only have to install GFCI receptacles in the most upstream locations. Just be sure to label the downstream 3-prong/non-GFCI receptacles as “GFCI protected”.
LSLGuy:
I know it’s not necessarialy grounding the appliance, but it is legal and not wrecking the plug, so in the future the appliance can be grounded The electrical box may or may not be grounded, which is what the face plate screw grounds the adapter to. The question was can they get an adapter, and the answer is yes. I would install the correct outlets in my house as soon as possible. I didn’t say not to upgrade. I just want to make sure the ground plug doesn’t get snipped off in the meantime. Once again the adapter is so they don’t cut off the ground prong.
I don’t quite understand. Even if you cut the ground prong off the cord of the device you want to plug in, aren’t the blades still oriented incorrectly? You’re original post says the main two prongs are horizontal?
If that is the case, then it is most likely that the outlet is wired for 240 volts, probably for a window air-conditioner as others have said.
Look at this page:
and see of you can find your outlet configuration. I’m betting it’s in the second table down (2 pole, 3 wire grounding) and in the second line of that table, which are the 240 volt outlets.
If so, you probably cannot just use an adapter, and you may not even be able to replace the outlet with a 120 volt without pulling more wires.
At that point it’s time to get an electrician or at least someone with good electrical skills in home repair.
You’re 90% of the way there - if there’s no ground, each of the receptacles are required to be labeled as “GFCI protected - no equipment ground.”
Besides eliminating the grounding conductor which is there for safety reasons, cutting the ground prong off of a non-polarized cord cap could allow it to be installed 180 degrees from how the manufacturer intended. No big deal, some say. That’s right, unless the neutral wire in the power cord also lands on the metal frame of the appliance being connected. If it does, and the cord cap is flipped over, now the metallic frame has 120 VAC hot potential, and if you happen to be a good path to ground when touching said appliance, it could be your last official act. :eek:
I agree 100% with what you’re saying here, both the statements & your rationale / intent. By expanding on your earlier post I was trying to ensure the electrically unskilled OP didn’t somehow get the idea that the mere presence of the 3-to-2 adaptor took care of his problem.