electrical

I just bought a house that was built in 1954...therefore the electrical is very old...the box has been upgraded but there is still no ground wire to most of the plugs in the house...I have just plugged and switched out everything in the living room from black outlet/light switches to white...but the new plugs and switches still have no ground. Question is: Will a surge protector still protect stereo, tv, computer equipment and a tread mill in case of a lightening strike etc...or is it necessary to rewire those plugs that I intend to plug those items in...or can you us those three prong plug adapters that screw into the plug. I've been given several senarios...one thing I'm afraid of is when I go to sell the house (won't be soon) is that those plugs give the impression that there is ground just looking at them but there's not. What's a girl to do?

 

a surge protector will not work without being properly grounded.

GFCI outlets installed upstream in existing circuits will protect receptacles, etc on that circuit without having ground.

 

I'm afraid I have to tell you but when you replace the outlets if no ground is persent you must either replace them with two prong receptacles or install a ground Fault receptacle and mark it as no ground available. If you put three prong receptacles on where no ground is present it gives a false sense of security to people and can be the cause of major accidents. Nothing really is a subsitute to having a proper ground, The Ground Fault Interupters are good and do provide a certain amount of protection and in reallity are easier to install then all new wiring with grounds on them.