Hi everyone,
I am a homeowner trying to save some money by doing the work myself. I am new to wiring, but I am trying to swap out my two prong electrical outlets with three prong outlets. I have tested the outlets with a voltage meter and I have found that the receptacle boxes on my main floor are grounded, which made it easy to replace with self grounding outlets.
In my basement, however, I am not getting a ground reading when testing the boxes. I looked inside, however, and I saw that they were wired with the three wires, including the ground wire. Just to test the ground I installed a three prong outlet and attached the ground wire to the green screw. But When I tested with the voltage meter I got only a tiny reading (5-15 volts). Everything I read says that I should get 120 volts when testing for ground.
I was going to just install GFCI outlets to be safe, but my receptacle boxes are not deep enough, meaning I would have to replace all the boxes to install the GFCI outlets. I'll do that if I have to, but before I do I want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong. I really don't want to run new ground wires to each box.
My question is, if I have a ground wire included in my electrical wiring, is it possible that the wire doesn't actually act as ground? Has anyone encountered a situation like this or can they provide any advice? Thank you in advance for your help.
I am a homeowner trying to save some money by doing the work myself. I am new to wiring, but I am trying to swap out my two prong electrical outlets with three prong outlets. I have tested the outlets with a voltage meter and I have found that the receptacle boxes on my main floor are grounded, which made it easy to replace with self grounding outlets.
In my basement, however, I am not getting a ground reading when testing the boxes. I looked inside, however, and I saw that they were wired with the three wires, including the ground wire. Just to test the ground I installed a three prong outlet and attached the ground wire to the green screw. But When I tested with the voltage meter I got only a tiny reading (5-15 volts). Everything I read says that I should get 120 volts when testing for ground.
I was going to just install GFCI outlets to be safe, but my receptacle boxes are not deep enough, meaning I would have to replace all the boxes to install the GFCI outlets. I'll do that if I have to, but before I do I want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong. I really don't want to run new ground wires to each box.
My question is, if I have a ground wire included in my electrical wiring, is it possible that the wire doesn't actually act as ground? Has anyone encountered a situation like this or can they provide any advice? Thank you in advance for your help.