Outlet Grounding in Seattle

No Ground Wire in Outlet? Upgrade for Your Safety!

Many homes, particularly older homes, contain ungrounded two-prong outlets instead of modern three-prong outlets with grounding wires. While these outlets may have worked in the past, they are no longer suitable for modern energy demands and may pose a safety hazard when used to power too many appliances. Seatown Electric Heating and Air can inspect your home’s electrical system to ensure you and your family stay safe.

Call (206) 209-0690 now or contact our Seattle electricians online today.

What is Electrical Grounding?

Electrical systems include a positive charge, a negative one, and a ground to keep everything flowing properly. In the event of a problem with your wiring system, the grounding wire serves as an alternate pathway for electrical current to flow. Without grounding, that excess hot current could end up flowing into other materials, such as your home's plumbing pipes or wood framing. This is as dangerous as it sounds -- in fact, it's the source of many electrical shocks and fires.

When a home isn’t grounded, you could find yourself getting shocked more often, and your expensive appliances and electronics could fry. Is your home properly grounded? One way to check is to look at your existing outlets. If they look like the "no ground" image pictured here, they are not grounded.

There are a couple of different ways to meet code with grounding:

• Install a ground wire at every outlet: To do this, you would either rewire all of the outlets or pull a stranded ground wire from box to box. The rewire method is recommended since the labor is the same cost. Our Seattle electricians can handle this process quickly and efficiently.
• GFCI-protect the circuits or individual outlets: You can swap out every outlet in the home that is ungrounded with a GFCI outlet and the GFCI outlet can act as a physical ground.
• Install GFCI breakers: These special breakers act the same as a GFCI outlet but they control all of the outlets/lights hooked to the breaker.

Ground rods are also essential. NEC code requires two eight-foot rods driven into the ground. Usually, there is a copper wire coming out of the home down into the ground to connect them to the electrical panel. If you have no ground, you owe it to yourself to have a technician look over your electrical system.

Why You Need to Upgrade Your Two-Prong Outlets

Along with dangers of shock, grounding problems can make for issues such as a hum in electronics and even static in old TVs! By making sure your system is properly grounded, you’ll likely save on your electrical bill while enjoying better performance from your appliances.