Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!batcomputer!gaarder From: gaarder@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Steve Gaarder) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: ANOTHER house wiring question (this one's basic) Keywords: DANGER! Message-ID: <1991Jan17.194103.24257@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Date: 17 Jan 91 19:41:03 GMT References: <1948@umriscc.isc.umr.edu> <7645@dayton.UUCP> Organization: Cornell Theory Center Lines: 25 >>MY QUESTION is, if you don't have 3-wire connections in your house, why >>can't you connect the white wire to the ground lug and conuit/boxes, etc??? If you did this, and the neutral wire failed open for any reason, all of the metal parts of 3-prong appliances would become live, not to mention the outlet boxes, etc. Painful. Possibly FATAL. I once lived in an old farmhouse. If you've never seen farmhouse wiring, you don't know what funky wiring means. Farmers are the original do-it- yourselfers; they never hire anyone to do anything they can possibly do themselves. Splices without enclosing boxes, for example, are common. Well, one day I finished up the dishes, pulled the chain to shut off the light, and reached for the faucet to turn off the water. YOW!!!!! Hmmm... light bulb connected between chain & faucet glows to full brightness... I was lucky to be alive. After considerable prowling, I found that the whole kitchen & dining room was wired with romex with a grounding wire. This romex was fed from some romex without a grounding wire. So the grounds were all connected together, and left floating. Then, in TWO SEPARATE outlet boxes, there was a short from the hot to the ground (accidental, not wired that way). So *every* outlet box and grounding prong was live. Steve Gaarder gaarder@theory.tn.cornell.edu ...!cornell!batcomputer!gaarder