Wall power outlet question

[kali420]

Hello, I'm new here but this looks like I've found heaven!

Anyways on to the question...
I'm planning a small grow with a 400w HPS light. However, the place I'm going to be doing the grow at is a very old house. So, it only has 2 prong power outlets on the walls, here's a pic of what I'm talking about:

I have access to some 2 prong to 3 prong converter things as seen here:

However, I don't know if it's safe to run my light through one of the power outlets using a 3 prong converter....

Here's what I was planning: To install a 2 to 3 prong converter on the wall outlet, then plugging a power strip into that which would have the light and a few other things plugged into it.
Would this be a safe thing to do??????

My only alternative would be to run an extension cord from the next room which has a 3 prong power outlet installed for the air conditioner.

THANKS IN ADVANCE !!!!!

 

[kali420]

The 2 to 3 prong converter I have does have the little metal tab you mentioned... The one I have almost looks exactly like this one:

And the package says: "Grounding Adapter" "Converts an outlet for a 2 prong plug to an outlet for a 3 prong grounding plug".

THANKS!!

 

[glassONglass]

don't use extension cords inside....it's more of a fire hazard than not having your lights grounded (2 prong). as long as the lights aren't beat up or really old you should be fine about not getting shocked. i would try not to put anything else on the circuit with the light just to be sure you don't put too much strain on old wiring. good luck bro

peace

 

[Stix]

the "grounded tab" is only effecient if the box itself is grounded. If you only have 2 wires entering your receptacle box then your box is not grounded. Sometimes homes have a wiring system called BX wiring. This wire has a metal spiral casing surrounding the 2 conductors inside. The metal casing is an efficient grounding conductor. This type of wire must be used in conjunction with a metal box for your "grounded tab" to work. To figure out if your box is grounded simply take your tester and test from the hot wire to the box and see if you have 120 volts. If this is the case I would advise you replace the receptacle with a self grounding receptacle and not even use a 2 to 3 prong conversion piece.

PS. If your dealing with very old wiring such as Knob and Tube your gonna have to do 1 of 3 things.

1. Run a ground wire to the receptacle from either you panel box or the closest water pipe. Simply run a copper wire from your water pipe. Attach the wire to your water pipe with a proper ground clamp. Duct tape won't work here!

2. Replace your 2 prong receptacle with a GFCI receptacle. This actually is code compliant and a safe way to protect anything that you plug into that receptacle in regards to grounding. If you actually ever do get a short to ground in any of your lights or equipment the GFCI will trip out before letting anyone get shocked by touching anything that may have been energized by faulty wiring.

3. Simply install a 3 prong converter. By doing this with a ungrounded box you are not safe. All your doing is making it possible to plug 3 prong equipment into a 2 prong receptacle. It will work. But it's not protecting you in ANY way from shorts to ground.

 

[glassONglass]

good call. i don't know why i didn't say GFCI. i guess that shows how long its been. found this on them though since i got curious myself:

GFCI receptacle will work just fine without a ground wire, so having an open ground on the receptacle will not reduce the shock protection. Be leery of using computers or other electronics on this ungrounded circuit, however. GFCI will protect people from shock, but will not protect equipment from lightning/ spike damage even with a surge protector.

so i'm pretty sure you can just ground the GFCI to the box as long as it is metal and it would still meet code. hope that helped.

peace

 

[dom42]

just for info sake...the nuetral wire is the grounded conductor and the bare copper or green wire(if they did it right) is the grounding conductor

 

[ziptie]

just plug and grow............