I have a 3 wire outlet with the entrances for hot, neutral and ground. But I know that the ground entrance is not really grounded, so in effect useless. Now, since the neutral is grounded, could I connect the ground entrance with the neutral therefore "grounding" the ground? What would be the problem with that?

  • If you don't have an EARTH wire DO NOT BRIDGE NEUTRAL + EARTH! This is potentially lethal as AC NEUTRAL is -220VOLTS! Earth is used in conjunction with LIGHTNING ARRESTORS and SHORT CIRCUITS prevention mechanisms! If you want earth- you need to UPGRADE your entire electrical system. – Piotr Kula Oct 3 '11 at 11:07
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  4. Replace the outlet with a 2-prong outlet.




  • Pigrew is essentially correct with an exception. The reason for the separation of the equipment ground and the neutral is that current flows on the neutral during normal circuit operation and you don't want current flowing on the equipment ground while equipment is plugged in. The ONLY time current should flow in any quantity on the ground is when there is a ground fault in the equipment. And this is intended to cause the circuit breaker to trip or fuse to blow. – ArchonOSX Nov 16 '15 at 0:10
  • @ArchonOSX, I agree, though it should be noted that normal circuit breakers do NOT detect the ground fault current (in the case that the neutral and chassis are shorted). An AFCI or GFCI circuit breaker is required to detect that sort of fault, but it would never be able to be detected (even with a GFCI/AFCI) in the presence of a bootleg ground. – Pigrew Nov 16 '15 at 18:07
  • I think what you are saying is that the breaker can't detect a ground fault at the same level that a GFCI can (4-6ma) and that is true. They do detect ground faults, short circuits, and overloads at their setting level but at that level a human would be dead. – ArchonOSX Nov 16 '15 at 18:30



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  • If a system is properly grounded then any device that shorts to ground will trip the breaker or blow the fuse. That is the intention in order to protect people from energized metallic parts of appliances. – ArchonOSX Nov 16 '15 at 0:18
  • @ArchonOSX yes, a hot to ground short would do that, but not an intentional neutral to ground short + a failed neutral downstream. Keep in mind this question is about wiring without a ground available and using a bootleg ground as a replacement. – BMitch Nov 18 '15 at 16:56
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    @ArchonOSX A direct short to ground can be enough to electrocute you without tripping a breaker or burning out a fuse, or before the breaker trips or the fuse blows. That's why GFCI's were created. – Craig Mar 19 '16 at 16:27




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    @CarlMeyer No, unfortunately. Remember that the "neutral" (the grounded conductor) is absolutely a conductor and carries exactly as much current as the "hot" wire. If you bootleg your ground, then you're energizing all the parts of any plugged-in appliance that are meant to be grounded. It might the metal housing of a toaster, it might be screws in a hair dryer--who knows. But you're energizing those parts and creating a shock hazard. – Craig Mar 19 '16 at 16:32




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  • Sure, one of the roles of the ground is to equalize voltage throughout a local electrical system (aka your house), so you could refer to that as dissipating static. But that's not all it does. The "neutral" is more appropriately called the grounded conductor. It is a live circuit conductor. Yes, it is grounded, but you must not bond the neutral and the grounding conductors anywhere other than the main panel. If you do, you can end up energizing the metal housings on appliances, energizing your water pipes, and more. It's dangerous, don't do it. – Craig Mar 19 '16 at 16:40

protected by Community Nov 18 '15 at 16:52


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