Why You Need A GFCI Outlet ?
If you’re buying an older house, or making upgrades to your current home, you must think of replacing a standard outlet with a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) outlet. It has an inbuilt circuit breaker that prevents an electrical shock and also put a stop on shorting of related circuit breaker.
Kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, outdoor locations, wet bar locations, unfinished basements, garages and crawl spaces are some places where GFCI outlets are used. In short a prime location for a GFCI outlet is anywhere where water or dampness is an issue.
Fuse plays an important role in preventing a fire in house due to any electrical disorder. However, a GFCI outlet opens its local circuit breaker present inside it and prevents any mishap. One more advantage of a GFCI outlet is that, it prevents the shock in other outlets also that are present in same circuit breaker.
When you work with any electrical device at a place where water flows, chances of electric shock increases as water is a good conductor of electricity. In kitchen and bathroom, installation of GFCI outlet is must. A GFCI outlet will detect an imbalance in current flowing from the hot wire to the neutral and shut off the circuit in that case.
Normally a GFCI outlet has 3 holes in it. Out of these three, one hole present in mid is for ground wire, one with small slit is for neutral wire and one with larger slit is for hot wire. They are very useful for us as they quickly detect any problem and protect us from an accident.
A GFCI constantly monitors the flow of electricity between the two sides. As long as everything is working and stable, there are no problems. But as soon as there is a deviation in the current flow, the GFCI trips out and cuts the flow of electricity.
Installation of a GFCI electrical outlet is not very difficult. You just need to follow some safety precautions before installing a GFCI electrical outlet. Most important is to turn off the circuit you are working on. Secondly, use tools with insulated handles to avoid any shock. After that, follow all the installation steps for properly installing it.
Now, importance of a GFCI outlet must be cleared in your mind. Therefore, replace your standard outlets with GFCI outlets for securing your house. Prefer to do the replacement yourself as a professional electrician will ask for huge money and it’s not so difficult that you can’t do it.
Scott Rodgers is an author with great experience in electricians work all over the country. His exemplary guidance has created business opportunities for a lot many Tunnel Hill Electricians (Need one? click here!) and White Electricians (Need one? click here!).