"Provided its effective"....Its too easy to fake a ground, and done more often than anyone on this forum should care to see. I run into dozens a year where some guy has just tapped onto the neutral to fake the ground. That's definitely a pitfall.
We're all just giving our opinion here, and mine is that ive NEVER come across a situation where its beneficial, or cost effective to just run an EGC. Running a wire in a home is running a wire. You can't surface mount that egc all the way to the outlet. So run some romex and call it a job well done instead of just a job done.
Minimum standards are for minimum safety.
I think the NFPA should take the Arc Fault approach on this matter. "We don't care that its a pain in the ass and costs more, its the way its going to be done" said the NEC code panel member.
Again...my opinion.
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False grounds and bootleg jumpers to the neutrals are totally different animals than a properly run, NEC compliant, separate EGC.
Perhaps the problems you see are more endemic to your area. I can count on one hand the number of faked (short piece of green wire stuck through the back of the box going nowhere) receptacle grounds I have come across, and the number of bootleg ground jumpers to the neutral screw would total less than a dozen properties.
Three-prong outlets on 2 wire circuits though, probably the single most common electrical violation in older homes.
I agree with your points that it is a better job to replace the existing nonmetallic cable rather than just run a ground wire, and that the extra materials cost is not that high in a job of that scope.
Afci Breakers do not function any differently if there is a ground wire there or not. They don't really function at all, but I don't want to turn this thread into another 'afci breaker bashfest'.
We all do code minimum installs. There is nothing wrong with that. Where I think most electricians take their pride is in doing a neat, timely, or difficult install.
Nonmetallic cable for instance... Has to be stapled every four and a half foot, or within 12 in of a box with a clamp, 8in if it doesn't have an internal clamp.
Stapling it every foot is going way above the code, and is also a colossal waste of time. in that case it does not look neater, it looks like somebody who did not know the distances stapled it down.
You could run a # 8 ground wire to all of your receptacles back to the panel. Again, above code for 15 and 20 amp Branch circuits, but stupid. You cannot wrap number eight around the screw terminal of a receptacle or switch.
GFCI protected receptacles everywhere is coming. Putting them in where they are not required now, perhaps not so stupid, especially if I bought contractor packs of them versus buying them individually.
"Minimum standards are for minimum safety"... True in many aspects of life, however the NEC is a very notable exception. Building something to current code is not minimum safety, as the NEC is anywhere from mildly to extremely conservative when it comes to wire methods, overcurrent protection, etc.
you could build a house with all rigid metallic conduit all Outlets arc fault and ground-fault protected, high temperature wire, metal boxes, putty pads, explosion-proof enclosures, tamper-proof fasteners, etc etc etc and somebody is still going to kill themself through an electrically fueled glorious misadventure, like dumping half a pound of homemade nitroglycerin in a blender just to see what will happen.
Back to the original poster, yes you can run a separate egc to receptacles to provide grounding, however it is rarely that simple as my posts (which are dissertation length, I know) here and previously demonstrate.
