We have a house built in 1965 that I'd like to install GFI receptacles in as an added safety precaution for our 15-month old. We have three-prong grounded outlets with copper wiring, but on many of the receptacles I cannot get the outlet cover off (they are metal and there is a center screw). Are these likely just painted on, or did they make a one-piece box and cover. Assuming the former, any suggestions for separating the cover from the receptacle?
Thanks.
In alt.home.repair on 4 Aug 2003 13:47:56 -0700 snipped-for-privacy@juno.com (Neil) posted:
IIUC a GFI trips, disconnects the hot wire, if the ground wire is bad, no longer connected to a ground.
Let's assume at the start the ground is good. This means if you are using an electric drill with a metal case, and internally the hot wire inside the drill touches the case, which will be connected to the ground prong on the plug, the current will go through part of the case to where it connects to the ground wire, instead of going through you.
And if the ground wire in the receptacle becomes bad, the receptacle or the circuit breaker will trip and there will be no power to the drill in the first place. Even if it has no internal short.
Unless your baby is using power tools or other apppliances with a metal case, and a 3-pronged plug, I don't think a GFI will help him. What you want is that he not put something metal in the hot slot of the receptacle.
My brother and I never did that. Maybe we weren't allowed to have metal things small enough to go in. We had no plastic covers. No one did. But it's good to be cautious and I think those would be better, and cheap, and easy.
Meirman
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It disconnects the hot AND the neutral.
You don't seem to know what a GFCI does. A GFCI detectcs the difference in power going to the appliance and coming back, and if there is a set difference, it trips, breaking the hot and neutral.
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