On 9/8/2015 6:48 PM, Arnie Goetchius wrote:
Don Y wrote:
On 9/7/2015 7:38 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 9:50:09 PM UTC-6,
wrote:
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As these are usually required on *dedicated* circuits (i.e., bathroom,
garage, outdoor, two counter top, etc.), consider looking into using
a GFCI *breaker*, instead. This allows all of the outlets to "look"
the same (one or two don't stand out as having funny "buttons").
I've opted for GFCI *breakers*, here, as the breaker seems to be of
higher manufactured quality than the (disposable) GFCI outlets.

I use a GFCI breaker for the one circuit that feeds both of my bathrooms on the
second floor. I'm about to buy a GFCI tester to make sure that my GFCI
receptacles turn off when I push the "Test" button. This should trip the GFCI
breaker in the breaker box located in the basement. Have you ever tried using a
GFCI tester on a GFCI circuit? I assume that the breaker should trip after
holding the Test button for a couple of seconds.

The circuit will open *immediately* when the TEST button is pressed.
The whole point of the GFCI is to interrupt the circuit before it
can damage "tissue" (typically, cause the heart to stop).

The GFCI detects an imbalance of a few *milliamps* between the
current being "supplied" by the hot and "sunk" by the neutral
FOR THAT BRANCH CIRCUIT (this is why a GFCI breaker has a neutral
wire connection!). This "imbalance" is current that is typically
flowing through a human being's body (though it can exist for
other reasons as well)

At 10 mA, you experience a severe shock; at 100mA you're pushing up
daisies (if not attended to). Higher currents can actually *burn* tissue.

One adage when working with electricity is to keep one hand in your
pocket; working with *both* hands tends to provide an easy path
through the heart (of course, there are lots of other ways this
can happen, but holding onto item A with one hand and item B
with the other -- realizing an electric potential between them -- is
a surefire way to tempt fate!)