How serious a problem is it for an outlet's ground wire to be extended from an outlet that is part of a different circuit than the circuit providing the power and neutral wires?
I have an old fashioned fuse box – if a fuse blows for the circuit associated with the ground wire then does that mean that an outlet connected to that ground wire is no longer grounded even though it will still be getting power since it is associated with a different circuit? That is the one potential problem I can see with this set up but just wondering if this is how it works, and/or if there are other problems associated w this set up.
Thanks!!
Electrical outlet wiring question
electricalwiring
Related Solutions
Get a 20A to 15A converter cable, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Conntek-1F515520-1-Foot-15-Amp-Adapter/dp/B00439KIF6
It is perfectly safe to plug a 20A device in to a 15A receptacle on a 15A breaker. If your device draws more than 15A, the breaker will trip. You can reset the breaker and try again, with a lower load. If you never exceed 15A draw, you'll be fine.
15A is a lot for a computer. You can use a Kill-A-Watt to measure your actual load, if you're curious.
That's a big job. I had to sort out a bunch of wiring in an old factory which had a lot of neutral problems. I shut off service to the building and, at the panel, "pulled off" one hot and neutral off each circuit and did a series of diagnostics, checking for resistance between it and the rest of the neutrals, and resistance between the hot and neutral, and hot and other neutrals - alternating whether night-lights were plugged in or not. If anything seemed out of the ordinary I followed it to the next junction box and carefully troubleshot, and the next, and so on until it tested clean. (this was a real mess as many circuits were MWBCs.) I don't recommend this, but I also had a 120v extension cord coming from another building, and connected the pulled-off circuit to that, and sniffed for voltage being anywhere it should not. I would not recommend doing that with 230v, that stuff bites hard.
It can help to install a GFCI breaker (UK: RCD) in your panel, as they will trip if there is any cross-neutral activity between circuits. You can move it around from circuit to circuit. Likewise you can put GFCI outlets on any point in the branch circuit, which will protect everything downstream. In fact, many service panels have an outlet right next to the panel, and you could install a GFCI in there, attach a hot and neutral wire to the "load" side, and use that to test each circuit in turn. I wish I had thought of that in hindsight!
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Best Answer
Before National Electrical Code 2014, this was not allowed. However, if your area has adopted the 2014 version of the code, this is now legal as long as both circuits originate from the same panel (250.130(C)(4)).
See this answer for more detail.