GFCI protection provides for occupant safety as well as allowing three-pin (grounded) cords to be plugged in. The downside is that some surge protection isn't as effective without the actual grounding conductor.

While they do make AFCI receptacles, the point is to have them ahead of both the things you might want to plug into them AND the wiring running into the walls. There are constraints in the later code that pretty much makes AFCI in receptacles unpractical. You normally place them in the circuit breaker panel (instead of a normal breaker).

If you have ungrounded receptacles now, then there are other things that should be looked at: the presence of knob and tube wiring (not necessarily bad itself, if it hasn't been modified or had insulation blown over it over the years), overloading of the panel, improper fusing, etc.

I'd recommend having an electrician familiar with older homes inspect your house. The "house inspectors" your realtor steered you to at purchase time are by and large idiots.

Some devices constantly trip GFCI outlets. For example, fluorescent grow lights. I believe that the problem can be with anything that demands a surge in power.

It's not a "surge." The problem is that the stuff throws some of the energy back as harmonics which the GFCI can't detect so it thinks there's an imbalance.

Other parts of the world have whole-house GFCI breakers. In fact, those breakers are frequently the main shut off for the house.

This technology has existed for more than half a century and works exceptionally well all around the world. Saved my butt a few times as a kid who was just a little too curious about electricity.

In the US, this isn't quite as common and that might explain why some American appliances play fast and lose and cause nuisance trips. But I have found that this is less common with modern devices. I guess, we finally get the trickle down benefits of everybody building to international specs.

I don't think you can do a GFCI main breaker in the US, but I have gradually been replacing individuals breakers with either GFCI or AFCI+GFCI models as appropriate. And I'm quite happy with the results. I found AFCI to be more prone to nuisance trips. In fact, I don't think I've had any GFCI nuisance trips. The one device that kept tripping things actually turned out to have a ground leak.

Thanks all for the input. Sorry I haven't been on to reply as we were so busy with escrow.

I had a couple of electricians come by to take a look. They suggested to hold of doing outlets when I am ready to do some renovations (maybe next year) since my walls would be opened up then. I asked that in the meantime, would it be best if I installed gfci plugs in the two prong ones. They said that it wouldn't do anything since it is still ungrounded. I am better off just saving money and installing the regular three prong outlets.

My next concern is that I found out (because the plug is behind the refrigerator) that the outlet for the refrigerator is a 2 prong that the previous owner has been using with a 3prong adapter. Obviously, I would like to take care of that during renovations. Should I be concerned until then?

I'm a little confused by what the electricians told you. They are correct that it is more cost effective to rewire things when you're doing other remodeling at the same time.

But replacing ungrounded outlets with GFCI outlets or breakers always improves safety. In fact, many building inspector will insist on doing that when switching a two prong to a three prong outlet. Doing so might require putting a label on the outlet to warn users that the outlet is ungrounded.

A good electrician should know all of these, as it would come up when doing permitted work. On the other hand, if the electrician refuses to pull permits, that's a big red flag.

@M yeah I was a bit confused as well. Prior to getting a home, I was reading up on gfci for outlets in my previous place and I was under the impression that, although ungrounded, gfci still offers a level of protection. I had 2 electricians and a contractor come by. All had the same "ungrounded gfci is pointless" thought. I am a bit torn at this point. I was going to do gfci, then heard from the electricians, so bought some 3 prongs to swap later this week...

GFCI (unlike AFCI) doesn't need a ground connection in order to work. It gets installed inline with the hot and neutral wires and measures the current that goes through these two wires. Normally, the current that goes to the appliance should be exactly the same as the one that returns.

But if electricity "escapes" because there was an unplanned short circuit to environmental ground or through a person's body, there'll be a discrepancy between these two currents and the GFCI trips.

This isn't the same mechanism how a ground wire works, but the results are often comparable. A ground wire provides a low resistance path for electricity to travel to ground. It would take effect, if wiring was damaged and touched the grounded chassis. That causes a really high current to flow and hopefully trips the regular breaker.

In other words, these two safety features complement each other, but the GFCI stands a better chance to protect people. And while ideally you should have both, having at least one of the two is better than nothing.

AFCI doesn't care about ground either. The AFCI breakers do not have a ground connection.

Thanks all for the comments and advice. I think i might put in some gfci to hold me over until I can get some more electricians after the holidays.

Gfci s require a ground wire or they wont work

That's not technically true. They are very simple devices that compare the current going through hot and neutral. If there is any mismatch, they trip. The mismatch often is a result of a short circuit to ground. But that's not required. In fact, a GFCI is commonly used to bring old outlets up to code when ground isn't available

Afci arc fault circuit breaker is a breaker a gfci is a outlet and requies a ground to work

Well - that's not true either...

"Afci arc fault circuit breaker is a breaker a gfci is a outlet and requies a ground to work"

Not correct!

"

"A GFCI does not require a ground wire to work the way it should. GFCI offers protection from electrocution by tripping power off in case of ground faults detected across the hot and neutral outlet slots. As mentioned above, GFCI is very important for protection against ground faults such as imbalances in the current."

Stax is right. The GFCI beaker doesn't even have a connection to ground. A GFCI receptacle has a ground terminal., but it's use is solely to pass through to the ground pins on the receptacle. The GFCI doesn't internally do anything with it.