New AC Window Unit.. no grounded Outlet?

APODionysus

Hey folks. Maybe I can get some advice here.

So we got a new Window AC unit for my living room. However, the apartment (really an old house thats been converted into apartments - 3 floors, 3 apartments) has no grounded outlets to speak of. Like i said, the house is pretty old so everything is old two-prong outlets. Is there any solution here? Heavy duty surge protector with one of those little grey converters? Something else?

bowen

You can use the 2-3 prong converters but if something comes through and sends a surge into your device it'll probably die, and if it's got metal housing on it, you run the risk of the frame/housing actively shocking people.

The next big ticket item to look for is amperage on the circuit and how many amps the window AC uses. You may not be able to use much in the unit while it's running. Like a microwave, hairdryer, or electric oven. The total amperage for your apartment is also important because that's the max load you can put it through at any one time (60 usually in the older stuff).

zepherin

That third prong is the ground. The primary purpose of that is for safety, electrical shock of course, but more importantly is electrical fire, but this is a potential risk for all of your devices, and if you have an off the shelf surge protector, you might as well not even have it without the ground. There are some specialty surge protectors (mode 1 or series mode) that work without a ground, but most require a ground to function correctly.

That includes your computer.

NEO|Phyte

Given something nearby to ground to, it is possible to swap out the outlet for a 3prong with a groundwire running to the groundpoint.

Ignore the dust and junk, there's normally a catbasket pushed up there.

:edit: Though I suppose where this is an apartment situation you wanna make sure that's ok with the owners first.

APODionysus

Spunds like I need to ask the landlord to bring an electrician in to change the outlets? Is that feasible?

NEO|Phyte

Hard to say, if there isn't any handy nearby plumbing or the like, getting the outlet grounded is gonna require running wires until you reach something to use as a ground, and at that point you're probably tearing out walls and just redoing all the wiring so it's modern.

evilmrhenry

I think you can install an ungrounded GFCI outlet, and that's up to code most places. (Though not as good as doing things properly.) I'd still be worried about hitting an amp limit, though. A house old enough to have only 2-prong outlets is not going to have a good amp limit to begin with, and dividing the house into 3 apartments is going to make things worse. A heavy load like an air conditioner isn't the best thing to throw into that mix.

Shadowfire

The grounded GFCI outlet is a thing as long as you do it to the first outlet in the chain.

zepherin

NEO|Phyte wrote: »

Given something nearby to ground to, it is possible to swap out the outlet for a 3prong with a groundwire running to the groundpoint.

Ignore the dust and junk, there's normally a catbasket pushed up there.

:edit: Though I suppose where this is an apartment situation you wanna make sure that's ok with the owners first.

... if you are going to ground it to plumbing do it behind the wall. It looks cleaner. Just be careful, eventually it will eat the pipe through electrolysis.

mts

if its a metal junction box you can typically also ground to the box.
and also second the gfci outlet as an option.

bowen

Typically the ground loop part in the 2-prong adapters would just be put where the screw in the outlet's face plate would go and you would screw it into the sock itself, which would carry the ground to the box itself. Theoretically, that would also be grounded, but in older buildings this was not always the case.

You probably don't want to ground via metal drainpipes either, because that's a great way to electrify whatever you've connected it to (potentially a shower drain).

GFCI w/o ground is probably the "best" of all the shitty options.

zepherin

bowen wrote: »

Typically the ground loop part in the 2-prong adapters would just be put where the screw in the outlet's face plate would go and you would screw it into the sock itself, which would carry the ground to the box itself. Theoretically, that would also be grounded, but in older buildings this was not always the case.

You probably don't want to ground via metal drainpipes either, because that's a great way to electrify whatever you've connected it to (potentially a shower drain).

GFCI w/o ground is probably the "best" of all the shitty options.

Grounding to water piping is code compliant as long as the water pipes are burried and touching the earth for at least 10 feet.

bowen

zepherin wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Typically the ground loop part in the 2-prong adapters would just be put where the screw in the outlet's face plate would go and you would screw it into the sock itself, which would carry the ground to the box itself. Theoretically, that would also be grounded, but in older buildings this was not always the case.

You probably don't want to ground via metal drainpipes either, because that's a great way to electrify whatever you've connected it to (potentially a shower drain).

GFCI w/o ground is probably the "best" of all the shitty options.

Grounding to water piping is code compliant as long as the water pipes are burried and touching the earth for at least 10 feet.

Also probably unlikely for an old house. It's probably ceramic once it gets to the point where it transitions to earth.

zepherin

bowen wrote: »

zepherin wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Typically the ground loop part in the 2-prong adapters would just be put where the screw in the outlet's face plate would go and you would screw it into the sock itself, which would carry the ground to the box itself. Theoretically, that would also be grounded, but in older buildings this was not always the case.

You probably don't want to ground via metal drainpipes either, because that's a great way to electrify whatever you've connected it to (potentially a shower drain).

GFCI w/o ground is probably the "best" of all the shitty options.

Grounding to water piping is code compliant as long as the water pipes are burried and touching the earth for at least 10 feet.

Also probably unlikely for an old house. It's probably ceramic once it gets to the point where it transitions to earth.

Depends on the age, cast iron was popular for a while, my dads old house had cast iron piping into and out of the house, my dad replaced the feed lines with PVC in the 90s because he had accidentally cut the pipe in half digging in the yard, and when he dug up the pipe realized it was fucked up in several areas.
Luckily for him the city wasn't metering water or sewer and it was just a flat monthly fee.

In hind sight, he never used a dedicated ground, he just had that shit still connected to that pvc pipe he had installed.

I wonder if the current residents had that rectified.