Why aren’t these outlets grounded? What will it take?
I renovated a 20+ year old home a couple of years ago, and a GC did most of the serious work. I just put a new flat panel TV in the great room with a surge to “protect” the investment. The surge protector has a light that indicates whether or not the outlet is grounded. I’ve checked – this room is the only one in the house without grounded outlets, but the outlets appear to be the same type placed throughout the house (3 prong), all original to the home, same color, etc.
My main priority is to get the outlet my new entertainment center is powered by grounded so the surge will work. I plan to have an electrician do this, I don’t mess around with electricity.
I just want to understand the concept and scope (so I can get a handle on the $$) of what I am going to ask someone to do. The outlets in the room in question go to the same panel as the grounded outlets. Should grounding them (or at least the one the TV, stereo, etc will be on) be a difficult task?) I’m not an electrician, but the wiring looks modern, and like the same stuff the rest of the outlets use from what I can tell. I can’t figure out why this one room would not be grounded.
If the wiring is only 20 years old, then it is almost certainly grounded (unless wired by an idiot). So perhaps the ground has just become disconnected. If so, it should be an easy fix.
On the other hand, if for some reason there really is no ground, then new cable will need to be run from this location to the circuit breaker panel. The cost will depend on how difficult that is, and every situation is different.
