Calling all electricians ?????

[bdogfish]

I have a question that a electrician in the hobby might answer. I am about to move into an older house which has the screw in type fuse. None of the outlets are three prong. If I was to set up a aquarium set up how do I go about doing this?

I got the house from a past family member and we really like the charm of this older house. Everything is intact and the house is sound. I will be replacing the plumbing and the electrical in the near future. It is a nice house with a porch, harwood floors through out and great molding, trim. I really like this house and see a new beging here.

So back to my question, is there any way around this/ Or should I wait until I up grade my electrical. Which might be any where from a year from now

What do you guys think?

 

[DonW]

Just dont go overboard. Use low power devices and common sense. There is no reason you cant have a aquarium. A sub panel is another options if you want to go bigger.

Don

 

[twilliard]

(Upgrade as soon as you can)

There are two ways you can add a grounded receptacle to a non grounded system.

1-You can run a ground wire from the receptacle to a ground rod system.
2-You can take your ground wire from the receptacle and clamp it to the closest water pipe.

 

[mmkeeper]

And after you ground the outlet you can add a plug gfi to plug your stuff into.

 

[bdogfish]

Right on guys thanks. I will not go to overboard right now as I am going to go FOWLR until I can get everything in order. Thanks again.....

 

[Scooterman]

(Upgrade as soon as you can)

2-You can take your ground wire from the receptacle and clamp it to the closest water pipe.

Be careful with this, plumbing wasn't required to be common grounded with the incoming power on old homes, so you can get a difference of potential here & still get a shock but It is better than nothing IMO.

Fuses or breakers are designed for one purpose, to protect the wire nothing more, you'd want a fuse to burn open rather a wire in the wall somewhere.
Copper wire is copper wire, so If you can determine what gauge was used, you can determine what is on the circuit your planning to set up your tank & use that as a basis of how much you can safely put on it. If your capable of shutting off power & replacing old receptacles, then I'd do that if they are older, also check out the gauge wire, just get a diameter measurement of the copper & compare it to some at a local home center to see what you got, probably 14g or 12g. I agree with don, you can set this up but just plan for it & don't go overboard on the electrical products.

 

[Barelycuda]

There is another way to add a GFCI to this system. If you can turn off the power to the outlet then go to a Home Depot or other Home improvement store & buy a GFCI receptacle similar to what you would find in your kitchen. Install the GFCI receptacle in place of the existing receptacle & your tank will be gfci protected. It might take you a little more time to do but the GFCI receptacle is probably a better choice than a plug in unit. This is the normal an electrician would upgrade a receptacle in an older house & is an acceptable way according to the national electrical code.

Cuda

 

[bdogfish]

Thanks guys for all the information. I do however have another question related to the question I have asked.
In my Garage (which is apart from the house in the back) there is only a screw in light socket. I turned off the power at the main and unscrew the socket. There seems to only be two black colored wires. No plugs what so ever in this garage but the lone screw socket. Can a three prong outlet be attached to this screw in socket? I have always wondered how do you tell the hot from nutrual when both wires are black??
Thanks for all the great replys guys.

 

[Reefergeorge]

If I remember right the gold screw is your hot and silver your common. If your not able to tell. The wire that goes to the screw that connects to the threaded circle part is the neutral, and the screw that goes to the little contact at the bottom is positive. You will probably not have a ground in this setup either.

 

[twilliard]

That is the old school knob and tube wiring if it is all black single conductors and not that white romex wire.
The most simple way to tell the "hot" wire in that stuff is to find a true ground and test one of those wires to ground.
If it says 110V-121V then that one is "hot"
Old wiring is always a fun task to figure out. Thats why I love my job-- cough cough NOT

 

[burning2nd]

like don said a sub panel would be best..

120v line with like 3 or 4 oulets on a 30 amp braker
detacated.

 

[bdogfish]

Thanks guys, yes I will upgrade the wiring but in time. Thanks again for your replys... Reef On!!

 

[Paul B]

Twilliard is correct about finding the hot wire and the neutral.
You should do that at the receptacle near where you want to put the tank. If you get a reading from one of the wires to the BX, pipe or whatever your wire is encased in , then you can just screw in a GFCI receptacle and forget about it. Actually, those screw in glass fuses are much safer than circuit breakers. They trip instantly, no so with breakers.
People now use breakers because you need them with anything that uses 220 volts by code and of course breakers are much more convienient and about twenty times more expensive.
You should get the wiring checked though because that home was wired with rubber insulated wire which rots in about 50 years and causes shorts. Your glass fuses are safer in that house than breakers would be. You may have to change all the wiring to be safe.
Have fun and be careful.
Paul

 

[Scooterman]

From that type of wiring they have no grounds & a GFCI won't properly work in that case, yea you can make it work like an outlet but not ground fault protected, you need the neutral & ground for the circuity to determine if there is a difference of potential or not.

 

[Reefergeorge]

A gfci will work in a two wire system, but you will not have an equipment ground. A gfci works two ways one by measuring the amps going out the pos and amps coming back in the neutral, and if there is a difference tripping. Two if there is a low resistance path too ground it will also trip. It is not the best or safest way but is totally legal Nec 406.3

 

[Scooterman]

Yes it uses the ground as a reference, that NEC is basically a grandfather type deal for this older two wire type of housing, ungrounded. It is better than nothing.

 

[bdogfish]

Thanks, I will look into this when I get to upgrading the wiring in this house.