No grounded outelsts


We moved to a new house yesterday and my system is still all in boxes. I have to set it up, but am wondering what to do since the house is fifty years old and the outlets are not grounded. Is it safe to connect everything and to fire her up using cheater plugs until we get an electrician to upgrade the system?

Thanks.
pbb
Replace one outlet with a grounded duplex outlet. The use one of those inexpensive electric outlet testers with three lights (home depot/ace/lowes/....) and see if the outlet is grounded. If it isn't, the lights will show you.

why guess when you can actually find out for less than $10.
Do check to see if your wiring is in metal conduit. You can ground to the conduit. If not, do you have access to beneath your house? (Basement, crawl space..) If so, run grounding wire down and to a pipe.

Upstairs rooms that are not adjoining a bathroom wall with pipes in that wall are a big-time problem. Look to outside walls and see what piping, etc. is out there. Ground to that.
Just to state the obvious....a ground to pipe is only useful if that pipe is metalic all the way to the outside of your house.

Connecting to a plastic/non metalic pipe is useless as a ground. Just because the pipe you see is metal does not mean it's a good ground. Some houses run all their water thru a plastic filter (softener, iron, whole house,....) and if there is no all metalic path to the outside of your house....it's not a ground.

If your water comes from a well and you have plastic pipes outside (or down the well), it's not a ground either.

Most people forget all of the above and just figure...ah a pipe, I'll connect and I now have a good ground. What you have is a connection that can potentially kill you, not a ground.
Yes, that is why you need to use a ground tester. Also, I doubt a reputable electrician would stand by the cheat that uses the skrew in the outlet.

Mine wouldn't.