Switches gounded-when?

[JFletcher]

If I may ask a similar code history question here (if the mods want to split it I'm fine with that): when were switches required to be grounded? Did a house today that had original switches, no ground screws on switches, but pigtails were installed from the grounding wires, almost like the original electrician knew at any moment switches w/o grounds were going bye-bye and he may have to ground them.

 

[jumper]

I moved it to your own thread.

 

[ActionDave]

If I may ask a similar code history question here (if the mods want to split it I'm fine with that): when were switches required to be grounded? Did a house today that had original switches, no ground screws on switches, but pigtails were installed from the grounding wires, almost like the original electrician knew at any moment switches w/o grounds were going bye-bye and he may have to ground them.

'93 or '96. I still had good hair back then.

 

[readydave8]

I think I remember being required to ground switch only if using metal faceplate? And then later having to ground switch regardless.

 

[user 100]

I think I remember being required to ground switch only if using metal faceplate?

If faceplate was nm then no egc terminated to switch prior to '99 I believe. Kind of hard to believe that many switches held out long that long from egc reqs- probably the change had something to do with the possibility of those plastic plates being changed out to metal at some point.

 

[K8MHZ]

You can still buy switches without ground screws. I learned that the hard way one day. I just grabbed a handful of switches out of the box at an Ace Hardware and when I got back to the site found out that some had screws and some didn't. Of course, we needed the screws....:rant:

 

[jaylectricity]

You can still buy switches without ground screws. I learned that the hard way one day. I just grabbed a handful of switches out of the box at an Ace Hardware and when I got back to the site found out that some had screws and some didn't. Of course, we needed the screws....:rant:

That's ridiculous. One reason I hardly ever bother with a hardware store. Their selection in the electrical department is usually atrocious.