two prong outlet.

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broceaus

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In residential rentals in Baltimore inspectors are making the owners change three prong receptacles, that do not have a ground, to the two prong receptacles, which do not allow a plug with a ground to be plugged in. If you bond the ground screw to the neutral it will trick the inspectors plug tester into believing there is a ground. This saves the tenant from having to buy a three prong to two prong adapter. Usually they will just cut off the ground prong.

I know in theory it is dangerous to bond the neutral to the ground other than in the panel. Is it really though? I have done this in the house that I live in and don't see what the danger is.
 
Will they not allow a gfci at the beginning of the circuit then use a 3 prong. That is compliant per NEC. Also how do you comply with tamper resistant recep. with 2 prong. In the 2011 I believe you will have to comply on change outs.
 
broceaus said:
In residential rentals in Baltimore inspectors are making the owners change three prong receptacles, that do not have a ground, to the two prong receptacles, which do not allow a plug with a ground to be plugged in. If you bond the ground screw to the neutral it will trick the inspectors plug tester into believing there is a ground. This saves the tenant from having to buy a three prong to two prong adapter. Usually they will just cut off the ground prong.

I know in theory it is dangerous to bond the neutral to the ground other than in the panel. Is it really though? I have done this in the house that I live in and don't see what the danger is.
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What you are doing can kill, I know this sounds harsh but here's why, the neutral is a current carrying conductor, it will have normal circuit voltage drop which will create a voltage differential between anything grounded to this neutral and anything that still references Earth or the service bonding jumper point, there are many things that will reference the service bonding jumper in a building like HVAC ducts, water pipes, TV cable, Etc... now if a neutral has a bad connection, the things that are using this neutral will have 120 volts on it's grounding, I have also had a case where an elderly woman was shocked when she touched her freezer in a garage because someone tied the neutral to the grounds but didn't realize that the circuit had reversed polarity which put 120 volts between this ground and Earth, There are to many things that can go wrong and cause someone to be hurt, remember it is not only a liability but if someone is killed you can be found criminally negligent, there are a few electrician in prison.
 
broceaus said:
I know in theory it is dangerous to bond the neutral to the ground other than in the panel. Is it really though?
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Yes, it is extremely dangerous in the right scenario.
broceaus said:
I have done this in the house that I live in and don't see what the danger is.
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And you can drive in the oncoming lane with no consequences until another car is barreling toward you in that lane. The point is, until you have a fault in a piece of equipment where you or a family member becomes part of the circuit path you will probably not have a problem, when it does happen you could possibly be attending a funeral.

Roger
 
broceaus said:
I have done this in the house that I live in and don't see what the danger is.
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To the warnings the others have provided I will add the following:
An accident waiting for a place to happen will, given time, find that place. (Famous saying by some famous person.)
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I strongly recommend you go find the places you did this wiring error, and undo it.
 
2 prong outlet fix

2 prong outlet fix

I believe without looking in my code book you can only put 3 receps max downstream from a gfci. What you can do is, if the circuit is only outlets, put in a gfci breaker in the panel.
 
chuck1727 said:
I believe without looking in my code book you can only put 3 receps max downstream from a gfci.
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And I believe that if you did look in your code book, you would not find any such requirement. That said, if the instructions that came with the GFCI receptacle put a limit on downstream outlets, then 110.3(B) would come into play. That may be the source of the popular, but inaccurate, belief that the code itself imposes such a limit.
 
hurk27 said:
There is no such requirement in the NEC, at most it will be included in the listed instructions with the GFCI.
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I think that it was once in some manufacturers instructions but I have not seen it in any manufacturers info in many years.

Roger
 
Not really what you are talking about here, but in our state, Tn, there is a limit to how many outlets can be put on an AFCI circuit. Maybe because we're only required to have them for bedrooms.
 
Little Bill said:
I had to tether him to a stake so he didn't drive off chasing rabbits when I'm not with him! He doesn't know he's going in circles, so don't tell him. :lol:
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That dog ever gets out of that car he'll get arrested for drunk driving as he will be so dizzy he wont be able to stand
dizzy.gif
 
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