As jaded as this must sound, seeing is believing. I dont risk my life on stranger’s well documented chabuduo. Always best to be cautious, especially with such a well known issue 
There’s no ground in my building either and I’ve been replacing the receptacles for big appliances with GFCI versions ever since the washing machine socket caught on fire.
2 Likes
Decoration?
The whole only 110V makes no sense as 220V pulls lower current.
Same here, but I wonder whether this was a fool’s errand.
True. I imagine if I’m going to die in a fire here it’s much more likely to be a neighbor who starts it.
1 Like
I inspected about a dozen places when I first moved here. None had outlets with ground. Even if I did see an outlet with ground, say in some new apartment block, I’d be interested to see how the block is grounded. In my home country you need to dig a deep hole and sink the wire properly, costs time an money, and requires a good solid job. Not saying Taiwanese electricians couldn’t be bothered to do it properly, or take shortcuts or anything, just curious.
I posted about it before, in the home country you can put a copper loop under the building’s foundation or put pins in the ground as long as you get 30 Ohm or less.
Additionally in all residential electric installations you need a differential switch.
‘According to the guidelines of the AREI, it is mandatory to place a ground fault of 300mA at the beginning of the electrical installation. The additional 30mA differential switch is for connecting damp rooms and appliances such as the washing machine, bathroom and outdoor lighting.’
In the end it is probably the best way to die in a fire. that is to say, not your own fire.
The Panasonic one assumes you have a good ground at a three wire outlet, and a two-wire device with separate ground. (Thus providing a way to easily connect the appliance ground to the circuit ground.)
The orange thing should have (can’t tell from the photo) a metal tab which is the right size and shape to be anchored by the wallplate retention screw. It assumes that the two-prong wall outlet is installed in a metal box which is connected to a dedicated ground wire or to metal conduit which is grounded at the other end.
Functionally they both allow an appliance to be grounded, just in different ways, (depending on the appliance cord). The downside of both is that they still require grounding to be present at the outlet somehow, which is apparently rarely the case.
I think the only place I seen that has proper grounding is hospitals… I think. I never tried poking around with a voltmeter there. I assume the hospital might not like that…
2 Likes
One of those things we all hope and probably assume is true…yet wouldnt be at all surprised if not 
1 Like
I mean they SHOULD be properly grounded… I mean hospital use oxygen by the ton. Pure oxygen is very dangerous unlike the stuff in the air. It makes everything extra flammable if you know what I mean. This is one of the reason why there is no smoking allowed at hospitals. People have died smoking when they are on oxygen because you know the oxygen makes them really combustible (though the smoking is probably the reason why they are on oxygen in the first place).
I always see smokers with tanks right outside the front doors of hospitals 
not that that would really matter as they are away from the hospitals storage.
It is quite disrespectful to everyone else that is sick
Yea. It’s not true. Places built since the mid 2000s are properly grounded.
Just curious if this is formally part of the code now, and actually consistently enforced for new construction…?
Yes
Yes.
1 Like
I just had some renovation done and they pulled a ground wire to all the new sockets. They said this was standard practice now. You can look in your braker box to see if you see “typically” green wires running out of there to various locations to help determine if ground wires are used at your place.
1 Like
My house I had updated to the new code as well.
1 Like