If you are considering buying an older home you may discover that many of your electrical devices have three-prong cords that will not fit into pre-1960’s two-slot outlets or receptacles. One solution is to use a “adapter” which allows you to plug in your three-prong cord but does not give the necessary safety of a ground connection, which is the third prong’s purpose. Another solution is to install a 3-prong receptacle. However, if the home’s wiring does not have a ground wire, there will be no way to properly wire the new receptacle. It’s possible to leave the 3-prong receptacle ungrounded, however, if the property is being made ready for sale, ungrounded receptacles may be seen as undesirable. What some people choose to do is to create a false ground to make it seem as though the home has modern wiring that includes grounding wires.
A false ground is also known as a “bootleg ground” or a “cheated ground” by electricians. If you use a short “jumper” wire to link the ground screw on the side of the receptacle to the adjacent neutral screw when upgrading to a three-slot receptacle in a two-wire system without a ground wire, the connection will fool a simple three-light tester that many home inspectors and some homeowners use to test the receptacles of the home. This is because the tester can tell if the new ground slot will allow electricity to flow through it, but it can’t tell if the ground and neutral are on the same path.
Unfortunately this wiring design can induce electrical shock or harm equipment that needs a ground to work properly. The ground prong in a cord is attached to the appliance’s metal frame, which creates an electric shock risk. The frame becomes connected to the neutral instead of the ground with a fake ground, and any connection of the frame to a grounded object results in current flow. There is a chance of a lethal shock if a person is a part of that connection.
This is why it is important to do your due-diligence about the home’s history when buying a home that has had electrical work done. Building permits and city or county building inspections that are part of the permit process can help make sure that electrical work on the home is being done safely. You can also ask your inspector if they have equipment that is capable of detecting a bootleg or false ground. While home inspectors are not required to test for bootleg grounds, having the equipment may be able to help them identify whether or not the home has this dangerous wiring condition.
You can learn more about this condition here: