ESD safe with no ground at the outlet?

[mathog]

Our house was built in the 50's and most of the outlets are not grounded. The walls are plaster so running ground wires into the outlet boxes would be a heck of a lot of work. The outlets have mostly been changed to three prong GFCI, but the ground hole is not connected to anything, as there is no ground wire in the boxes. This wasn't a problem with my previous soldering irons, all two prong, but I'm going to buy an ESD one, and presumably those must use three prong cords. (And I do want it to remain ESD safe.)

The options that come to mind are:

1. run a long extension cord to one of the kitchen or bathroom outlets.
2. fake a ground by modifying a short extension cord, connecting ground to common.

Neither is very attractive. I really don't want a long cord attached to a live soldering station, lest somebody give it a good kick and drop a hot iron on the floor. The other one, well, yuck.

Anybody have a better solution? (And no, moving is not an option.)

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: ESD safe with no ground at the outlet?

Wire it to the room heater... If the house is old it doesn't have PVC pipe hence it is a big earthed piece of metal.

[mathog]

Re: ESD safe with no ground at the outlet?

Wire it to the room heater... If the house is old it doesn't have PVC pipe hence it is a big earthed piece of metal.

Room heater? Do you mean a hot water radiator? I don't recall ever seeing one of those in California. We have a central furnace (natural gas) with air ducts. The ducts have some foil in them but I doubt they would work as a ground. There are iron water pipes under the floor, however getting to them is not so easy (plaster walls). In any case, under the current US electrical code outlets are not supposed to be grounded that way. Even running a ground wire to an outlet separate from the other two wires is not code compliant, all 3 conductors are supposed to be within the same sheath.

Short of spending a lot of money to rewire the house, a temporary solution, employed only for the ESD work, will have to do.

[wirenut]

Re: ESD safe with no ground at the outlet?

Actually according to the nec you can run a grounding wire to a cold water pipe, or if your grounding is up to date any non gas metal pipe. If your near a kitchen or bathroom(cold water pipe) or can fish a wire (minimum 14 awg)to basement or crawl space(cold water pipe or main service box) and connect it to the box AND gfi then you will be grounded and conform to the code. You will need to make sure there isn't a dielectric coupling (usually used to connect galvanized pipe to copper to eliminate corrosion from dissimilar metals) and that no pvc pipe or pex pipe has been used, and use a grounding pipe clamp like those used for grounding the main service, if you opt for a water line.

[PlainBill]

Re: ESD safe with no ground at the outlet?

Here's a few ideas, free and worth every penny of it.

If the outlet is on an outside wall dig a trench and run 14GA UF cable (rated for direct burial) from the outlet location back to the breaker box. Run it inside PVC conduit anywhere there is danger of someone digging. Also run it inside PVC conduit up the outside of the house to the outlet box.

Run the cable through the attic and down inside an inside wall. Install a new outlet box for the new outlet, don't try to reuse the old one.

I've run electrical cable in older homes by pulling the baseboard, knocking a hole in the plaster below the baseboard level and drilling holes through the studs.

The 'Do It Yourself' reference for these projects is Richter's 'Wiring Simplified', it costs about $8.00. The heavy version is 'Practical Electrical Wiring'. I don't know the rules where you are, but it may be worthwhile to talk to the electrical inspector for your area.

PlainBill