switch not grounded - does it matter?

I opened a three-gang box and found that the three switches in the box not grounded. Two of them are for a ceiling fan and the other for a split receptacle. The grounding wires are tied together.

Do the switches have to be grounded? If they do, can I use one sigle wire to do the job?

Reply to
John Smith
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Is it a metal box, and is the box grounded? If so, the switches are grounded (more or less) through the box.

If not, then yes, you should ground the switches. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference; unless they get wet there isn't much chance of getting a shock off them, but if they have grounding contacts on them, it is easy enough to do. (even if they are grounded through the box, they should still be grounded by wire.)

What do you mean one wire? You want to run a single wire from one to the other and the other and then to the ground? Probably not optimal, but it will work.

Around here grounds have to be crimped together; but any connection is better than none.

Reply to
toller

Not necessarily, but it's a good idea. Yes.

Dan

Reply to
Dan

OK, I hope to learn something here. The switches I've installed had two connections available. My understanding is that the switch goes in series in the hot side of the conductor, then on to the appliance, then on thru the common side to the breaker box (or source). How and where would you ground the switch?

To email me, I have no equal.

Reply to
good ol' Bob

Most switches also have a green terminal that is the ground. Perhaps yours are too old or too cheap to have it. Not a big deal, but it is best to ground them "just in case".

Reply to
toller

FYI - In some situations you might have a metal cover plate over an electrical switch and usually there are metal screws holding on a plastic cover plate.

Sometimes there can be a stray wire touching the metal box, the metal on the switch, or a metal cover plate. I suppose a switch could also malfunction internally and cause the metal on the switch to become energized.

If the metal box and the metal on the switch is grounded, then should a stray wire touch either, or touch a metal cover plate, then the breaker should trip turning off the electricity and preventing someone from being shocked (Or re-direct the electricity to ground).

I've seen situations where someone was doing dishes in the kitchen, went to turn on the garbage disposal, touched the metal screw, and was shocked. (Person was OK in this situation, but wanted it fixed of course...)

Reply to
Bill

Certainly safer is better but in the grand scheme of hazards, ungrounded switch yokes are pretty far down the list.

Reply to
Greg

Crimping sounds like a very good practice. Here I see the bare ground wires twisted together and then one or two of them secured under the ground screw of the metal box. Sometimes a ground wire is pigtailed up to the device housed in the box; in other cases they seem to depend on the two screws which secure the duplex outlet, or whatever it is, to the metal box and which to some extent control it's 'depth' so as to be covered correctly by the flush plate. I presume properly pigtailed AND crimped would be best practice?

Reply to
Terry

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