bjp_ne_elec
Senior Member
- Location
- Southern NH
Guess I've been spoiled, as the only knob and tube I've seen so far was in my father's house. Just ran in to a house that is wired with Romex - but it's the older stuff with the undersized ground. I found some newer Romex, but as I was walking through doing an estimate, I plugged my circuit checker plug (that's what I call it - but it's the three light plug in) and immediately noted that the Open Ground light, that should be brightly lit, was lit but very dim. This was a three prong plug, and I flagged the owner that this particular receptacle definitely needs to be dealt with, due to the open ground. The feed was defiinitely the older Romex with the smaller ground.
This smaller ground - have heard it referred to as "static ground" by an old-timer - was that an accepted ground back when this was installed? The owner, not the original, and not the one who had the newer Romex installed said he knows for a fact that the house was built in 1954. I've heard guys say they've found this type of installation where this smaller ground didn't get made up consistently thorughout the installation. Again, one of my main questions is, was this supposed to be required to be made up, complete through all circuits, back to the panel? Did the code back in 1854 consider this an acceptable ground, due to the undersized bare wire - it appears to be about 16 or 18 AWG?
My question is, as I'm not familar with knob and tube - and that's what I'm likening this situation to - is there a way to legitimately install metal boxes, etc.? You obviously won't have a bonded ground in the system, unless you go and run new HR's for any circuits that are modified. There are metal boxes installed in the garage and in a screened porch, and my concern is how do you assure they are properly grounded - considering this undersized bare copper wire?
This smaller ground - have heard it referred to as "static ground" by an old-timer - was that an accepted ground back when this was installed? The owner, not the original, and not the one who had the newer Romex installed said he knows for a fact that the house was built in 1954. I've heard guys say they've found this type of installation where this smaller ground didn't get made up consistently thorughout the installation. Again, one of my main questions is, was this supposed to be required to be made up, complete through all circuits, back to the panel? Did the code back in 1854 consider this an acceptable ground, due to the undersized bare wire - it appears to be about 16 or 18 AWG?
My question is, as I'm not familar with knob and tube - and that's what I'm likening this situation to - is there a way to legitimately install metal boxes, etc.? You obviously won't have a bonded ground in the system, unless you go and run new HR's for any circuits that are modified. There are metal boxes installed in the garage and in a screened porch, and my concern is how do you assure they are properly grounded - considering this undersized bare copper wire?
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