No ground wire???


Recently moved to a house built in 1961. When replacing outlets found that there's no ground wire, two wires only. Boxes are steel and I think there's metal conduit in there. Is ground provided by the screws holding the outlet in the box? Effective? I would assume only if the conduit is grounded?

Have a newer box with circuit breakers and a lot of Romex coming out but not to my two audio outlets.

Any comments or opinions would be appreciated. Considering having an electrician run a new line for audio (which wouldn't hurt in any case). I would be more comfortable with a separate copper ground wire. All y audio stuff is three prong.
128x128rja

Showing 1 response by markpao

The metal jacket of the BX cable acts as a ground. Being in contact with the metal box, you can buy a "grounding wire", usually green with a threaded screw at one end, and screw that into the back of the box. Then buy your outlet of choice and hook the other end into the outlet ground terminal. Of coarse, if doing it yourself, don't forget to disconnect power to that circuit.

"Absolutely have an electrician run a new, dedicated line, or maybe two, just for audio. It usually cost less than $100, and is one of the best bang for the buck upgrades out there."

An electrician come out to you house and run 1 or 2 dedicated lines for less than $100.00? I would imagine the material alone would exceed that (depending on distance from panel box to audio outlets).