I think I have finally found the right place to get the answer to this question. I can tell you, every electrician I have spoken to has a different answer.
The story so far:
I am buying an older but updated house. The inspection revelaed that some of the sockets were grounded, and some were ungrounded. I went in myself and pulled a few sockets out of the wall and determined that this was the case. A few sockets had newish 3-wire romex, but most were the old 2-wire. To "bring them up to code" (I actually met with the seller's electrician this morning), the 2 wire sockets were replaced with GFCI sockets. More accurately, the socket connected directly to the panel was cheanged to a GFCI socket, and all others on the circuit were changed to standard 3 hole plugs, but were still ungrounded.
After the inspection, I asked that the ungrounded outlets be grounded. The seller, of course, does not want to pay for this, and his electrician has naturally taken his side of the argument. He says that as long as a socket is on a circuit proteced by a GFCI, it is up to code and safe. Further he says, if I just put a surge protector at the socket, any equipment I hook up will be safe.
I know that the code requires such sockets to be labeled "No Equipment Ground", and more than one person has told me that a surge protector is useless on an ungrounded circuit, since a surge has nowhere to go.
So ultimately my question is this: In the event of a surge or other harmful electrical event, can I reasonably expect my equipment to not be damaged if I hook it up to a surge protected, GFCI protected but ungrounded socket?
Thanks in advance,
Chappie
The story so far:
I am buying an older but updated house. The inspection revelaed that some of the sockets were grounded, and some were ungrounded. I went in myself and pulled a few sockets out of the wall and determined that this was the case. A few sockets had newish 3-wire romex, but most were the old 2-wire. To "bring them up to code" (I actually met with the seller's electrician this morning), the 2 wire sockets were replaced with GFCI sockets. More accurately, the socket connected directly to the panel was cheanged to a GFCI socket, and all others on the circuit were changed to standard 3 hole plugs, but were still ungrounded.
After the inspection, I asked that the ungrounded outlets be grounded. The seller, of course, does not want to pay for this, and his electrician has naturally taken his side of the argument. He says that as long as a socket is on a circuit proteced by a GFCI, it is up to code and safe. Further he says, if I just put a surge protector at the socket, any equipment I hook up will be safe.
I know that the code requires such sockets to be labeled "No Equipment Ground", and more than one person has told me that a surge protector is useless on an ungrounded circuit, since a surge has nowhere to go.
So ultimately my question is this: In the event of a surge or other harmful electrical event, can I reasonably expect my equipment to not be damaged if I hook it up to a surge protected, GFCI protected but ungrounded socket?
Thanks in advance,
Chappie