To keep this concise, here are the facts:
- This is an old house, with a lot of 2-prong outlets. The garage is fed off a 20A breaker (which is not grounded).
- I'm finishing the garage. I don't plan on this being a living space, but want to have outlets for lite project work, etc. This circuit really needs to be grounded, especially with the cement floor, etc.
- So far, I've replaced the socket that this circuit feeds off with a GFCI (with no ground). I've fed six 3-prong outlets off of this on the walls of the garage, but I still need an actual ground.
- The garage is on an exterior wall, which contains a metal natural gas inlet line.
I'm considering installing a new ground electrode outside of the exterior wall, running a conductor through the hole and attaching this to the ground wire in the circuit. Is this a viable strategy that will fix my grounding problems on this circuit?
Best Answer
What you need isn't a ground rod -- it's an EGC (ground wire) run back to the rest of the grounding system, so that current can use it as a safety return to the neutral/ground bond in the main panel.
Fortunately, under the 2014 NEC -- you can run your new ground wire to a suitably sized branch circuit ground, as well as to the equipment ground conductor system, or to the main panel. It can also follow any route you wish -- as it's a safety-drain of sorts, it doesn't have to be routed with the other circuit conductors.