Re: OFF TOPIC: 2-prong outlets

[Zoe Keating <cello@zoekeating.com>]

boy I'm confused!

The landlord has no idea, just says the electricity was "upgraded" in  
the 1960's and that he's not paying to have it done again...



On Feb 18, 2006, at 1:12 AM, Fluke wrote:

> I'm with STephen. A lot of the solutions suggested do not  
> edequately address
> the issue of safety,. and probably cost more than replaceing your 2- 
> prong
> outlets with 3-prong...if a safety ground is available. Running new  
> cable
> from the fusebox is a hassle, but not expensive in terms of  
> materials. It
> would be good to know if the in-wall wiring is run in conduit or  
> loose in
> dry wall or just embedded in plaster.
>
> Nik
>
> --------- Original Message --------
> From: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> To: "Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com"
> <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
> Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC: 2-prong outlets
> Date: 18/02/06 05:52
>
>
>
> Zoe,
>
> First it's good to know what that third wire really means. In one  
> way of
> looking at it, it's
> a second ground. Should anything ever go wrong with your equipment  
> and it
> decides that you make a
> pretty good electrical path, that third wire can be really nice to  
> have.
>
> Since electrical grounding codes are different all over the US, what's
> kosher for one area
> might not be for another. Sometimes, the ground and the neutral  
> wires are
> connected at the fuse
> box. Other times, the ground is only physically connected to the  
> earth via a
> grounding pole (sunk
> 8 feet deep, and usually not under the eaves of your roof unless  
> you live in
> a very wet area).
> Usually, it is no longer code to connect to a water pipe, mostly  
> because
> there's no guarantee that
> at some point the pipe isn't plastic (or may be at some point in the
> future), and hence no longer
> a suitable ground.
>
> Unless I'm totally mistaken, that third wire does not necessarily  
> make your
> electrical audio
> equipment more or less noisy. That depends more on the  
> configuration of the
> wiring in the rest of
> the house. It just makes it safer.
>
> Were it me, I'd run a new wire from the fuse or breaker box to my  
> music
> studio and make sure
> it had a solid grounding point. Perhaps as was suggested elsewhere,  
> you can
> do this by getting
> the 3 to 2 adaptors and grounding out the tab onto the screw in the  
> plate.
> You'd definately want
> to make sure of that via one of those there testers. Then I'd plug  
> my whole
> studio into that new
> circuit. That's basically what I've done in my home studio. If you  
> have an
> electrician friend in
> the area, you can ask them for more specific help. Pretty much  
> everywhere in
> the country, every
> single home has three wires running to it, two at 110-120 each, and  
> one
> ground. The second ground
> wire is done at each home by some sort of grounding rod.
>
> Stephen
>
>
>
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