open-ground and little trust

Specific Inspection Topics Electrical Inspections
1

hi im in Canada.

i live in an apartment that has 3 holes electric plugs.

i was having a problem with my air conditioning. the breaker keeps shutting down everything in that room.

so i bought a small 3 lights tester at my local hardware store.

all the outlets on the indicator say “open-ground” except 2 outlets in the kitchen.

i have a sneaking suspicion that the 2 “correct” ones are bootleg grounds(if term is incorrect i mean is not really grounded).

i mentioned this to my landlord and offered to check on my neighbor’s outlets with said small tester. his reaction surprised me , he basically said that i shouldn’t get the neighbors involved and he’d get my apartment’s electric system fixed.

so basically i don’t trust him.

will fixing all the outlets to grounded help with my air conditioner problem?

and how can u tell when someone fakes a ground problem solution to fool, the Small 3 lights tester?

any help is greatly appreciated :slight_smile:

2

Your breaker is most likely tripping from too much current. This could be checked with an ampmeter.

A grounding conductor has no part in the normal operation of the circuit.

3

thanks for answering, what should i do so that my air conditionner doesnt trip the breaker ?

i have tried to unplug everything and turn off all lights and still the air conditionner trips the breaker.

4

Try cleaning it. If that doesnt work the unit may be rated higher than the circuit, or there is a problem with the unit. You could call an HVAC company to check it out, or for window units just try replacing it if the existing one is pretty old. Also it’s better to have larger thru-wall AC units on dedicated circuits.

And insist that any repair work to be done by a licensed electrician, and ask for a copy of the service ticket/invoice with the company name and license number.

Good luck … :wink: