Outlet Ground Should Never Be Jumpered To The Neutral

I was wondering if I could just run a jumper from the neutral at each receptacle to the ground terminal… © By: Dave Rongey

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Electrical Question from Jeff about Grounding Outlets
Background: Jeff, a Other from Aurora, Illinois
[ad#block]Question: I have knob and tube wiring in my house. I want to ground the second floor receptacles but have no way to get new lines(Grounded) from the basement upstairs. My main electrical panel neutral and ground terminals in the basement are bonded together so I was wondering if I could just run a jumper from the neutral at each receptacle to the ground terminal? It makes sense to me because that connection is already made at the panel. Thanks.

Dave’s Reply:
Thanks for your electrical question Jeff.
Creating a jumper wire from the neutral terminal to the ground terminal is not advised and is an illegal practice. This will not create a bond to  ground, but will create the possibility of feeding neutral voltage into the ground system of anything that is plugged into an outlet that is wired this way. This could cause an electrical shock hazard and damage devices that are used at this location.

There are methods to install  a separate ground wire to the second floor outlet locations to provide the needed ground bond.

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