ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Grounded outlets?

I came across some new outlets that I had never seen before. They were in an older home that had no ground wires. They were three prongs with an orange backlight in them. There was a jumper from the ground screw to the neutral screw. Apparently whoever had done the upgrades had put a small green sticker to indicate which outlets were now "grounded". I think they were labled "Bryant". Anyone ever seen these?

The 'small green' sticker possibly the Hospital Grade mark??

Did you happen to get a picture of it?

Is it like this?

http://images.drillspot.com/pimages/320/32035_300.jpg

.....an isolated ground receptacle

The 'orange backlight' sounds interesting.

Electure has the HG/IG without the 'backlight'

Here is one that is backlit by Byrant that I found in Google.

http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/e...vices/style-dup-rcpt-hg-15a-125v-5-15rwh

Google search turned up a few manufactures that make an illuminated hospital grade receptacle.

Until this posting I had never heard of such a thing. Never seen them in any of the hospitals here in Manitoba when I have been a patient or visitor.

Grounding to the neutral screw is a death trap. The old 3 lite tester will certainly say they are OK, even if you have an upstream white/black reversal and the case of any grounded equipment is now 120v above ground.

I think we are dazzled by a fancy device and overlooking the violation.

That's been standard practice in many German regions for decades and most Eastern European countries did the same. Most Western European countries outlawed the practice some time in the 1970s, but there are still many existing installations.

Not only a black/white reversal is dangerous, a broken neutral is just as bad if anything is plugged into that outlet!

I bought a 10 pack of the lighted Hubbell HG 5-15 recepts for novelty sake (and the counter guy at CED cut the price in half as they'd been on the shelf through about 5 inventory cycles..) I put one in my ex wife's sisters bathroom (GFI upstream.) She stared at it for about 10 minutes as if I'd installed something from another planet next to her med cabinet

The neutral to ground jumper is a no-no if you're not a fan of getting lit up if an upstream neutral comes loose

How much light do they give off? Could one be put in the bathroom (GFI protected of course) instead of a nightlight?