re a question about vac outlet wiring crisp ecsvax uncecs edu russ crisp writes so here s my question it seems to me that i d have the same electrical circuit if i hooked a jumper from the neutral over to the ground screw on new three prong grounding outlets what s wrong with my reasoning here may i respectfully suggest you not do this the ground is supposed to be a protective ground and though what you suggest looks good on paper it s dangerous to rely on the same wire for power and protection it d never meet code and if you now own the property and later sell it you may end up with liabilities you don t want and if you don t now own it well there s a wiring faq that i think addresses this i believe an alternative is use of a gfci but i m really not sure what current code allows in this area the gfci senses alternate unwanted current paths and doesn t rely on a specific protective ground wire at least not beyond the gfci in the protected circuit gfci breakers are available but expensive
