we have an older house and outlet in bedroom only has 2 prong and just bought a window ac unit which has a 3 prong. can i use the heavy duty surge protector i use for my computer or do i need to rewire and if so is this relatively inexpensive for someone to do.thank you i advance, marilyn

 

Hi Marilyn,
You need to have an electrician check to see if the metal box is grounded. If so, MAYBE a three wire outlet can be installed at that location. If the box is ungrounded, a new line might need to be run. In fact, it is a good idea to have a dedicated circuit for an air conditioner anyway.
The surge surpressor will do nothing, as it has nothing to do with grounding the appliance.
Good Luck

 

The "heavy duty surge protector" also has a 3 prong plug, no? If so, how would this solve the problem?

In any case, the surge protector, as Andrew says, will not provide any grounding to an ungrounded receptacle.

Many people use those 2-3 prong adapters for this type of thing, and they provide no ground protection for an ungrounded receptacle either - just a way to cheat the three prong plug. Still others, simply cut the 3rd prong off of the plug. ALL of these tricks, I am sure, are dangerous. Don't do it. Wait for more info.

 

Marilyn,

What you have is called a "non-grounding type receptacle".

You can replace that NGTR with a GFI receptacle. You MUST apply a sticker that says "No Equipment Ground" to the GFI receptacle, but there should be such a sticker in the box. You would use the LINE terminals on the GFI receptacle and connect the hot/black conductor to the brass screw and the neutral/white conductor to the silver screw. If you have more than 1 set of wires in the box, I'd "pigtail" the GFI receptacle (connect 5" pieces of wire to the receptacle and connect those "pigtails" to the other wires with wire nuts). I would not use the LOAD terminals to feed downstream receptacles.

FYI, the GFI sensor does not need the grounding conductor (aka the "equipment grounding conductor") to function properly.

Rob