are two or three prong outlets, that are not grounded, any risk to:?

First and foremost if you want to rent call your insurance company and ask them what to recommend in this situation? Many homes are rented and do not have three wire grounded receptacles. The risk is that some one could get a shock by carelessness of plugging or unplugging a cord but that could happen with a grounded outlet as well.

As far as appliances many appliances today have two wire plugs not three. Refrigerators have three, sump pumps have three, washing machine's have three and so on.

The NEC does have an article in the code book for three and two wire receptacles.Article 250-114 (3) STATES THAT IN RESIDENTIAL OCCUPANCIES THAT THE FOLLOWING ARE TO BE GROUNDED: Refrigerator,freezers,air conditioners,washing machine, dryer, range tops ,cook tops,

hand held tools that require 3 wire grounding,sump pumps and there are a few more but you get the picture here most of these all have motors or a person could become a shock hazard like with hand held tools that have 3 wires. Many tools today only have 2 wire and are double insulated.

There are some things You can do to ground these receptacles and or in some cases you can add a GFCI receptacle but this is not grounding a receptacle.

It is against code to replace a 2 wire receptacle with a three wire that looks as though it is grounded if it is not. Best thing to do is to make sure that you have any motorized appliance grounded and any appliance the requires grounding.

This can be done by running a ground wire to the receptacle box and attaching to earth ground rod or metal water pipe if your locality allows a water ground.

Many homes I have been in are rentals and they have only grounded receptacles where required, so do not think you have to rewire a home because of this, if the home is safe as far as what receptacles can be grounded does not mean you need to re wire.

Many things today use only a 2 wire plug anyway.

I suggest you call an electrical contractor or electrician in your area to have them give you advice on what is need in your local area.

Two prong outlets are still sold as it is definitely against code to install a three prong outlet without a ground. You are grandfathered in for the ungrounded outlets. The purpose of the third wire is a safety ground which protects you if your appliance shorts hot to ground inside. It will trip the breaker. Most small appliances today are double insulated and only have a two conductor cord with an ungrounded plug on it. It is not code to run your green wire or ground wire to a cold water pipe as that is not considered a good ground. It is supposed to return to the breaker or fuse box. One thing that is inexpensive and safe is to install GFIC outlets close to sinks and outdoors. They are still ungrounded and should be marked as such, but they will protect you and your tenants in case of any inbalance between the current supplied to the outlet (hot side) and current returned to the breaker box (neutral), or anybody getting a shock. They will turn off before you even know you are getting shocked. Yes the best thing is to rewire, however that is definitely very expensive. Oh another point - there is nothing wrong with aluminum wire if it is properly installed and maintained. The problem comes in when people do stupid things with it, just like with copper wiring.

the 2 prong outlets are not going to protect you or anything you plug into them.it's ok if it's original and is covered under the grandfather clause but when it comes time to do any rewiring they will have to ground each outlet and install 3 prong outlets.the ones you have can be grounded by running a green wire from each outlet to a cold water pipe and install a ground clamp and for your other question refering to physical injury.the outlets in the kitchen by the sink,if they are 2 prong outlets and you decide to plug in a toaster or a toaster oven and happen to touch the sink you could get a serious shock.if it's a three prong outlet and grounded the ground will prevent that from happening same thing with the bathroom.any outlet within three feet of a sink should be a ground fault interupter(GFI). they have a circuit breaker built into the outlet and if anything interupts that circuit it will trip the red button/breaker on the outlet and thats for your safety.for your protection i would check into it by calling a electrical contractor to come and give you an estimate on what it will cost to make it safe for you.and if you can't afford it there are government grants out there to help you.be safe and check it out.estimates are usually free,but call at least 3

Hi, Brandon. Several things involved here. Let's start with your feeling that you're missing (three) wires, because the new receptacles have five screws, and you just have one black and one white. the "extra" two screws are mainly for hooking up another receptacle further out (or for splitting the thing for two circuits, but let's leave that alone). With your black (hot) wire to either brass screw, and your white (neutral) wire to either silver screw, you're good there. What's missing is the 3rd wire for ground to the green screw. Your newish breaker panel suggests that the basic set-up in the house now provides for grounding, except that they didn't run new wire to the bedrooms, which would have taken more time and money. If the older wiring is not only in steel boxes, but covered all the way back to the service box with metal conduit (or to a newer grounded junction box), you may still have ground through that steel. With a new grounding receptacle installed (as above), an inexpensive plug-in circuit tester can tell you if you got lucky and have that steel ground track. If not, the only good way is to by-pass the old wire with new to get that third wire. Plan "B" then would be to use a GFCI, which can afford safety, but still no ground. Some current GFCI's, however, will not function without that third, ground wire - so would still need new wire run. For circuits that will serve expensive solid-state electronics, like flat screens, PC's, etc. definitely go for new stuff.

I would not rent out a house that has ANY ungrounded wiring at all. The safety issue wouldn't be a fire, but rather, personal injury from shock. This is a safety issue, and if I was the chief electrical inspector in my city, I would NOT allow any house to be put up for rent unless it passes minimum standards, grounded electrical wiring being one. The other major one, of course, would be circuit breakers, all properly sized, instead of fuses. As for existing homes, I would hold rental houses to a higher standard than the ones that are sold.

I would consider getting some estimates from some electricians for rewiring your rental house. I know it won't be cheap, but you will save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run. Nowadays, no house should be operating on ungrounded wiring. In fact, I feel the same way about aluminum wire. It, too, should all be replaced (if any).

As long as you're having the house rewired, I would wire 2 separate 15-amp circuits for lights only (half the lights on each circuit). Then divide the house up into regions of about 8 outlets each, and wire those to separate 20-amp circuits. The bathroom outlet needs to be on its own 20-amp circuit. You need two such circuits for outlets in the kitchen, in addition to one each for the microwave, disposal, refrigerator, and dishwasher.

Ungrounded outlets can be dangerous. Your concern should be the fact that you may be renting it out. Your insurance may not cover in the event of an electrical fire, and tenants are not the most caring people in the world.