We didn’t lose electricity or anything, but I am dealing with a 50+ year old house that only has two-prong outlets – the bane of computer geeks all over the world. Of course, once you start pricing out upgrading your electrical wiring, you look around and realize just how few appliances use grounding. And then you are both relieved and frightened all at the same time.
But seriously, just because my TV doesn’t have a third prong doesn’t mean I’m going to let my 32″ Wega suck juice straight out of a questionable receptacle. So I began to investigate my options. After deciding that burning down my house while rewiring the whole thing myself was a bad idea, it started to look like I would have to deal with those nasty 3-2 prong adapters for a little while longer until I could afford an electrician.
I kept looking up info on DIY boards anyway, because I wasn’t pushing my desk against the wall until I was certain that the wiring was how it should be. New hope was found in a response to someone asking about a similar situation in which the author mentioned that the outlets might very well be grounded already, but they simply didn’t bother to upgrade the receptacles, too. Excitedly I ran out to Home Depot and picked up some outlets and a tester. Sure enough, all of the receptacle boxes are grounded!
Last night and this morning I did the first rounds of rewiring – upgrading the outlets in the living room and office that will be used for computers, TVs, etc. That means tonight I can really start cleaning up the place as furniture can now be pushed against the wall and devices can be taken off the floor. Now I just need that Internet thing again, and some method for receiving and decoding digital video images beamed from outer f***ing space.
(Bonus points for anyone who knows what that last bit was a reference to).
My sunglasses get cable :p
Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner!