Making sure your home’s electrical outlets are safe is very important. Any type of electrical fault can be extremely dangerous due to the risk of fire or electrocution. While circuit breakers are an important safety measure for preventing some risks, having GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlets in certain parts of your house is equally important.
Understanding the Danger of Ground Faults
One important thing to understand about electrical currents is that they are always seeking any path that allows them to flow to the ground. The current will also take whichever path to ground offers the least resistance. A ground fault occurs when an electrical current manages to “escape” a circuit because it has a different path that allows it to flow directly to the ground.
Ground faults always result from one of two issues. The first is when a damaged wire in something like a power tool or small appliance touches something metal. This results in the current’s flowing out of the live wire and into the metal object, causing the metal to become electrified or energized. The second cause is water coming into contact with a live wire, which conducts the electricity into a nearby metal object.
Human bodies are extremely conductive to electricity, meaning they offer electricity a low-resistance path to the ground. That means if a person were to touch the electrified metal object in either of the two scenarios mentioned, it would instantly result in a ground fault. This means that the current can escape and flow through a person’s body to the ground, which may result in electrocution or, at the very least, a severe shock.
A ground fault also has the potential to cause a fire. That’s because if the current leaks out into something metallic, it can cause the metal to get so hot that it might catch nearby items on fire.
How GFCI Outlets Prevent Ground Faults
As the name suggests, GFCI outlets are specifically designed to prevent ground faults from occurring. The easiest way to think about a GFCI is as a circuit breaker for the outlet itself. If the GFCI detects even a tiny amount of current suddenly escaping or leaking from the circuit, it will almost instantly shut off the power to the outlet.
The way GFCIs detect ground faults is by continually monitoring how many amps of electricity are flowing through the hot wire and the neutral wire in the outlet. Electricity flows through a circuit in a closed loop. Under normal circumstances, the amperage of the current in the hot wire and the neutral wire should always be exactly the same. When a ground fault occurs, the amperage of the hot wire drops because some of the current escapes instead of flowing straight back to the neutral wire. As soon as the GFCI detects this drop in amperage, it breaks the circuit in the outlet so that electricity stops flowing out of it.
GFCIs trip within a fraction of a second when they detect even a tiny electrical imbalance. This fast reaction helps prevent severe shocks and potential electrocution. That many amps is still enough to give you a slight shock, but it takes at least 10 milliamps before you experience a severe shock. It typically takes 100 to 200 milliamps of electricity flowing through a person before fatal electrocution occurs. GFCI outlets are so effective that it’s estimated that the number of electrocutions in residential buildings has decreased by more than 80% since they were first introduced.
Which Parts of a House Should Have GFCI Outlets?
The National Electrical Code (NEC) sets the requirements for the use of GFCI outlets in new homes. The initial requirement was established in 1973, mandating the use of GFCI outlets in all outdoor electrical receptacles. The NEC requirements have since been updated several times, further expanding the number of locations where GFCI outlets are required. Since 2005, GFCI outlets have been required for the power receptacles in all of these areas:
- Outdoors
- Kitchens
- Garages
- Bathrooms
- Crawl spaces
- Unfinished basements
- Laundry rooms
- Outlets near utility sinks and wet bar sinks
It’s important to note that the most recent NEC requirements only apply to new construction or when making major renovations to a house. Even though you’re not legally required to replace your outlets in all of these places with GFCIs, doing so is definitely a smart decision, as it will help keep your family much safer.
Why You Should Test GFCI Outlets Monthly
The one concern with GFCI outlets is that they can wear out over time or suddenly fail. That doesn’t mean the outlet itself stops working. Instead, what can happen is that the internal breaker, which shuts off power to the outlet, may no longer activate as it should if a ground fault occurs. This potential issue is why you should test every GFCI outlet in your home monthly to ensure that the breaker can still trip and shut the power off.
Most GFCIs have a green light that indicates if the outlet is on. Some also have a second red or amber light that signals if the outlet has tripped. You can use these lights to determine if the outlet trips when testing a GFCI.
If the outlet has only a single green light, it should go out when you press the TEST button. This indicates that the outlet has tripped. The light should then come back on when you press the RESET button, indicating that the outlet is now back on. On some models, the green light will always stay on, but the red light will illuminate or start flashing when you test the outlet.
There are also some models that don’t have indicator lights. In this case, the only way to know if the outlet trips is by having something plugged in and checking to see if it has power after pressing the TEST button.
New GFCI outlets are required to have a self-test feature that automatically checks the outlet every few minutes or sometimes even every few seconds. Self-test GFCI outlets are safer, as you’ll know fairly quickly when the GFCI stops working. Nonetheless, you should still manually test these outlets monthly as an added precaution in case the self-test feature stops working.
If you have any GFCI outlets that don’t trip when you test them, they no longer work as they are supposed to. As such, you should consider that outlet unsafe to use until you can have an electrician replace it. In this situation, we recommend taping over the outlet just to ensure that no one accidentally uses it and potentially risks a ground fault occurring.
Work with Expert Electrical Services to Stay Safe
Since 1951, Childers Air Plumbing & Electric has focused on offering the safest and most reliable electrical services to homeowners in Beckley, WV, and the surrounding areas. As a full-service electrical contractor, we can help with installing GFCI outlets or whatever else you need. To get expert assistance with your electrical needs, contact Childers Air Plumbing & Electric for service.
