Electrical Grounding in Household Wiring
No matter how old or new the wiring in your home is, safety measures should always be implemented to prevent fire hazards or any severe injuries. Electrical grounding is one of the ways in which you can protect yourself from getting electrocuted when you touch any metal appliance that is powered on. Moreover, electrical grounding also protects your appliances from malfunctioning or receiving excess power, which can cause a short circuit.
You can enlist the help of an electrician in Vancouver to check the grounding in your house. If you have no clue what electrical grounding is or how it works, keep reading to find out all you need to know about it.
What is Electrical Grounding?
Electrical grounding is an alternate route that is used to divert current back towards the ground, in the case of a fault in the electrical wiring or a short circuit. It involves a physical connection between your electrical appliances and the ground, which is used to protect you and your appliances from any harm. Basically, it acts as an escape route for excess electricity to reach the ground rather than electrocuting your appliances.
The electricity flowing inside your household wiring consists of electrons that are highly charged and flowing through the wires. The current exists as a positive and negative charge. The negative charge is carried into your home through black wires or live wires, which you can often see behind your switchboards or the circuit breaker. The positive charge is carried by the white wires, which are also called neutral wires.
The current in any electrical system flows from the live wires and flows back into the ground through the neutral wires. Basically, the negative charge is returned to the ground to maintain a state of equilibrium. However, if something is wrong with the neutral wire and it breaks the flow of current to the ground, it will find other ways to travel, such as the metal casing of your appliances, metal piping, or other materials in the house.
This causes a short circuit, which happens when a system isn’t grounded and the current tries to take an alternate path towards the ground. This can cause an electrical fire and also electrocute you if you come in contact with any appliance or pipe inside your home. Therefore, electrical grounding of your household wiring is crucial, so that the excess current has a path to return to the ground in case of a malfunction.
How does Electrical Grounding work?
In your household wiring, there should be three types of wires: the active or live wire that carries the current, the neutral wire that returns the current to the ground, and the grounding wire that acts as a secondary path for returning current safely to the ground in case the neutral wire is disconnected or broken. These wires are usually made from copper, which is an excellent conductor.
For grounding the wiring inside your home, a set of bare copper wires is connected to every appliance, device, and electrical box inside your house. In most of the new cables, this wire is included with the live and neutral wires. These grounding wires lead to the main service box, where they are connected to a grounding bar. A wire is connected from the grounding bar to a grounding rod, which is buried inside the ground near your home.
This system provides an alternate and convenient path for electricity to return to the ground, in case the neutral wire breaks or loosens up. However, if your house is very old and has a conventional electrical system, then there may not be any electrical grounding present. In the 1960s, homes were electrically grounded by using metal conduits or cables.
If your home is very old, it is a wise decision to upgrade the wiring inside it, so that you can be protected from any electrical hazards. When upgrading the wiring, make sure to have it grounded as well, so that you have additional protection against short circuits.
How to Determine if Electrical Grounding is Present?
If you have 3-port power outlets all-around your house, then there is a strong chance that your wiring has been grounded. However, this isn’t a 100% guarantee, as you can’t be fully sure unless you see the wiring behind the outlets. Some contractors aren’t particular about grounding and when you closely inspect the wiring, you might not find grounding wires.
To determine if electrical grounding is present inside your household wiring, you can grab a circuit tester and apply the following steps:
If you have a 3-port outlet installed, insert the red probe of your circuit tester into the smaller port, which contains the live wire that brings current to your appliances.
Insert the black probe of the tester into the larger slot, which will contain the neutral wire. This should complete your circuit.
When you do this, the indicator light should turn on if the outlet is electrically grounded. If it doesn’t light up, swap the red and black probes. If the light is on now, it means that the outlet is electrically grounded. If not, then there is a risk for electrical hazards.
Repeat these steps for all of the electrical outlets in your house. It may be possible that some outlets aren’t grounded, while others are.
You can also use a multimeter in place of a circuit tester and apply the steps mentioned above. If you don’t have either of the two, you can make do it with a light bulb and a base socket. Follow these steps to check for electrical grounding in your household wiring.
Buy a 100W light bulb and a base socket with a suitable power rating.
Strip off the wires at each end by ½ inch to expose the copper wiring. You will need a wire stripper for this purpose.
Now, put the two wires in the live and neutral ports of any three-port outlet in your house. Make sure there is no exposed wiring that you are touching.
If the light bulb turns on, remove both wires. Now, place one wire in the grounding port, which is the top one. The second wire goes into the live port, which should be the smaller one.
If the light bulb turns on and has the same brightness, your outlet is grounded. If the light is dim or doesn’t turn on at all, then your outlet isn’t properly grounded, or it may not be grounded at all.
By performing the aforementioned test, you will be able to determine whether your electrical system is grounded or not. You can also hire an electrician in Vancouver to help you with the testing if you don’t think you can do it on your own.
What is the Importance of Electrical Grounding in Household Wiring?
Here are a few reasons why your household wiring needs to be electrically grounded.
Overload Protection: When there is a power surge in your electrical system, there is a high voltage level and excess current is flowing into your wiring, making them very hot. If there is a grounding system present, the excess electricity would be safely guided to the earth. Otherwise, it would cause the wires to melt, and even burn the circuits of your electrical appliances.
Faster and Safer Transmission: When you get your electrical system grounded, you are providing a seamless path for electricity to be transmitted wherever it is needed. For instance, if you plug in a vacuum cleaner and flip the switch, the current will instantly reach the outlet without any hurdle or drop in power.
Voltage Stabilization: The standard voltage rating across the U.S. and Canada is 120 volts, which means that most electrical appliances are also designed to work properly on this voltage. If for some reason, the voltage levels rise or fall, it would cause your appliances to burn out. This can be avoided by grounding your electrical system, as it allows a safe distribution of current and also allows excess power to be directed towards the ground.
Protection against Electrocution: Have you ever touched the metallic surface of your refrigerator or washing machine and felt a slight jolt? This happens because either your appliance or your electrical system isn’t grounded, and there is excess current inside your electrical system. Since the ground is a natural conductor, it quickly draws excess current towards itself, rather than electrocuting the metallic surfaces of your appliances.
Prevention of Electrical Hazards: In a nutshell, electrical grounding prevents you from all sorts of electrical hazards. Without it, your expensive electrical appliances are at risk of getting burned. Moreover, a power surge can also cause a fire, which may cause irreparable damage. Plus, you are also putting your life at risk by continuing to live in your home without getting your wiring grounded.
No Repair Costs: By electrically grounding your electrical system, you will be able to make your electrical appliances last longer. Moreover, you won’t have to spend any money on repairing your appliances, which will help you save hundreds of dollars. However, if you don’t ground the wiring inside your home, you are exposing yourself to immeasurable damage, and even threatening your own life.
As you can see, electrical grounding is an essential step that must be implemented in your household wiring, whether you are getting new wiring installed or upgrading your electrical system.
How to Choose Electrically Grounded Appliances?
Along with your household wiring, your electrical appliances also need to have a grounding wire in their plug, and this is only possible if your appliance has a cord with three wires, as well as a three-pronged plug. The top prong goes into the grounding port of your three-port power outlet, and this ensures that your appliance won’t catch fire or electrocute you if its neutral wire breaks.
Nowadays, almost all appliances come with three-pronged plugs. Whether you are buying a blower or an air-conditioner, make sure to look for appliances that have these plugs. Most people overlook this simple step, mainly because their homes don’t have the three-port power outlets that can be used to power these appliances.
Some people also remove the grounding prong from the plugs of their appliances to make them fit into two-port plugs, which is an extremely dangerous step. This can cause the wiring inside the appliance to short circuit and may cause electrocution or fire.
How to Fit Three-Prong Plugs into Two-Port Outlets?
As mentioned above, most appliances come with three-pronged plugs and are electrically grounded to protect against short circuits or power surges. If your home doesn’t have three-port outlets, you don’t have to cut off the grounding prong to make it fit. One of the ways is to get an electrical extension that has three-port sockets. You can plug your appliance into these sockets, and plug the extension cord into a two-port outlet.
Another solution to this problem is to use plug-in adapters, which are designed to accommodate three-pronged plugs and fit into two-port sockets. There are different types of plug adapters available in the market and while you may think that these are electrically grounded, that may not be the case.
Only those plug-in adapters are properly grounded that have the pigtail wire or metal loop attached to the mounting screw on the cover plate, and the cover plate screw is connected to a grounded metal box. Therefore, you should exercise caution while using a plug adapter to fit your three-pronged plug into a two-port outlet.
The aforementioned methods may be effective to use your appliances, but you shouldn’t rely on them completely. These steps don’t offer you complete protection against electrical overload or short circuits, so it is always wise to get your home electrically grounded in the long run.
Are There Any Other Protection Measures in Household Wiring?
Although electrical grounding is extremely important for any electrical system, it is not the only safety measure that you can implement in your house. Hazards caused by power surges and excess electricity can also be mitigated with the installation and use of safety devices, such as circuit breakers and fuses.
Circuit breakers are installed into each respective circuit inside your home’s electrical system, and you can easily locate them in your fuse box or the main service box. There are numerous circuit breakers and they are divided according to the number of rooms inside your home. Typically, large appliances like refrigerators and washing machines have their own circuit breakers.
Circuit breakers are beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, they prevent the wires from overheating in case there is an electrical overload. Secondly, they instantly trip as soon as they detect a short circuit, thus protecting your appliances from getting burned and also protecting your home against electrical fires. Even if your electrical system isn’t grounded, the breaker protects against any hazard by tripping immediately.
Another method that electricians use for protection is to connect the metal piping inside the walls to the grounding rod so that even if there is a short circuit and the grounding doesn’t stop it, you don’t get electrocuted by the metal fittings in your home. This grounding is done by attaching a grounding wire to the water pipe near the heater or the junction where the pipes enter your home.
If your home isn’t electrically grounded and you can’t do much in this regard, you can install additional protection through a ground fault circuit interrupter, or GFCI outlet. This is also a type of circuit breaker, but it is directly installed at each power outlet. Whenever there is a short circuit or electrical fault, the GFCI outlet instantly cuts the power to the socket, so that there is no risk of injury or damage to you or your appliances.
How Much Does Electrical Grounding Cost?
The cost of electrical grounding depends on a few scenarios. Firstly, if there is no grounding wire present inside your household wiring, then it will be a major project that can cost a few thousand dollars, including the equipment and labor. You can expect the figure to be north of $5000.
The second scenario is that the grounding wires were laid out during construction, but the electrician didn’t attach them to the devices and electrical boxes. In this case, your cost shouldn’t exceed $1000. Another possibility is that grounding is done but you have two-port outlets all-around your home. This is a relatively easy task and would only cost $150 to $200.
If some of the three-port outlets haven’t been properly grounded, then you can expect to pay around $150 to $200, provided that the main service box is electrically grounded. Moreover, you can also expect to pay the same amount if you want to replace your power outlets with GFCI outlets.
Final Thoughts
Electrical grounding is a crucial task that most homeowners neglect, mainly because it doesn’t affect their routine lives until it is too late. When you experience a short circuit or electrical hazard, you will have to spend thousands of dollars to repair your appliance, and thousands more to get your home grounded. Therefore, make the smart decision and hire a licensed electrician to get your wiring grounded, so that there are no electrical issues in the long run.