Most of your home’s receptacles should be grounded.
If they’re not, learn four different ways to add this safety feature.
If you have an older home, you’ll need to verify that your electrical outlets are grounded.
Credit: Stacy Zarin Goldberg
No matter the method, it’s important that the ground circuit provides an unbroken path to the earth.
Ground wires must be firmly connected at all points.
And if conduit or sheathing is used as a ground path, connections must be tight.
Ifyou’re not sure if your outlets are grounded, a receptacle analyzer will tell you.
We’ll show you how to install grounding in outlets, fixtures, and switches.
These tips will help you properlyground electrical wires to help keep your home safe.
In this arrangement, both the receptacle and metal box are grounded.
Ground wires are spliced together and attached with a pigtail to the box and receptacle.
The grounding wire nut shown has a hole in its top that makes installing a pigtail easier.
Other methods also work well if installed correctly.
One such method is a grounding clip that clamps the ground wire to the box.
If a house is wired with armored cable or conduit, there often is no ground wire.
The cable connector joins the metal sheathing or conduit to the box to provide the path for grounding.
Here, where wiring runs through this box to another box, a grounding pigtail connects to the gadget.
How to Ground Wires in Fixtures
Many older ceiling fixtures are not grounded.
Recent codes, however, call for grounding electrical wires in fixtures.
However, recent codes call for switches to be grounded.
