jalegris
GFCI's on every outlet, but it's overkill. Or should I say underkill?

You will note the confusion people in this newsgroup have about GFCIs.
And this confusion is not limited to those people. Experienced
electricians often don't even know what's inside of a GFCI. And
everyday-people, people who typically use receptacles, sometimes are
completely bewildered by them and how they should be used.

When ordinary Smo discovers a downstream receptacle to be dead,
sometimes that's the end of the troubleshooting. Smo simply concludes
there is something wrong with the electricity, and he or she leaves it
to somebody else to make the repair.

However, if the receptacle Smo is using has a reset button on it, Smo,
seeing the button right there, may try it, and he or she may succeed in
repairing the electric problem.

So a multiple-GFCI installation has a troubleshooting advantage. This
equates to an installation that is up and working a higher proportion
of its life. Thus, the multiple installation is superior. However, it
costs more.

In new construction, the labor cost of installing a GFCI receptacle is
equivalent to that for a regular receptacle. The cost difference in
materials isn't substantial. Consequently, new construction (on all but
the cheapest of projects) should have a GFCI at every receptacle where
GFCI protection is needed.

In retrofits, each replaced receptacle is an added cost. And in some
older houses, the old small boxes won't accommodate a GFCI. So an
inexpensive way to protect all the outlets on a circuit is to just use
the GFCI on the first outlet.
--
(||) Nehmo (||)