DIYbanter - View Single Post - GFCI outlets required with a GFCI Breaker?

Tony[_13_]

wrote:
On Aug 3, 3:14 am, Tony wrote:
wrote:
Redoing my bathroom and I purchased GFCI outlets for the walls. But I
just realized that the bathroom, as a whole, is on a GFCI circuit
breaker. Does standard practice or the NEC require both? Or is that
overdoing it?
-Theodore
Use one or the other. It does no particular harm to have both, but if
one trips, it is much more trouble to figure out which and reset it.

It has been common practice until recently to use a single CGI breaker,
or even a single GFI outlet to protect all the kitchen, bathroom,
garage, and outdoor outlets. This is no longer allowed.

I don't know what your definition of "recently" is, but around here it
would be hard to find a house with all of the above wired onto a
single circuit of any kind.

I can't tell you which edition of the NEC started to change those rules.
It didn't happen all at once. It has probably been at least 10 years,
but probably not more than 20. I have seen plenty of this kind of thing.

The phone call goes like this: "All the circuits are dead in my
bathrooms." "How about the garage and outdoor outlets." "Oh my goodness,
yes, those are broken, too." "Go see if you have a GFI outlet in your
garage." "What's that?" "It looks like an outlet, except it has two
buttons on the front." "OK, I found one -- what's it for?" "I can
explain, but first why not go push the reset button." "I have to go get
my other glasses, I can't read the label. -- Oh! My bathroom outlet is
working! What is going on!" Etc, for half an hour.

It was either that, or charge her $70 to drive over there and reset that
GFI. I can tell you that after working up numerous quotes to run new
feeders to the kitchen, bathroom, and garage, I never made a sale from
fixing that problem.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **