Where are 3 wire grounded outlets required?
If you move into a house or apartment where some or all of the outlets are the old 2 prong ungrounded type, don’t panic. There is no reason to call an electrician at 2:00 AM in the morning to upgrade them all at great expense. (This also applies to 3 prong outlets that don’t have their third prong hooked up.) You don’t need grounded outlets for two wire appliances, lamps, etc. They do essentially nothing if the third hole isn’t occupied :-). A GFCI will provide much more protection and it is permissible retrofit these into ungrounded wiring. You should have grounded outlets for the following: • Computers in order for the line filters and surge suppressors to be most effective. Note that since all the third prongs of your computer system (e.g., PC, monitor, printer) will likely be connected together by the outlet strip, a fault in one unit resulting in its third prong becoming live could result in damage somewhere else without a proper ground. And, no, you shouldn’t just cut off all the
