GFCI Failures + Gadgets

[Richard Crowley]

What would be the reason for NOT protecting all ALL circuits? (Individually, I mean. A single GFCI on the main seems silly.)

[Gary Tait]

Safety, in that some circuits, that ordinarily would not pose an electrical shock hazard to people, or would be catastrophic if they were to be accidentalle de-powered, such as lighting, heating/coolling, food refrigeration, and fixed appliances in general.

[HA HA Budys Here]

We use linear circuits here in the USA. In many countries with 240v "mains", the circuits are "ring."

From a 40a breaker (1 pole) they'd run a #12 (good for 20a) out to the 1st receptacle, then to the 2nd, until the last receptacle on that "ring" is reached, then, continue on back to the SAME breaker.

The neutral does the same thing. All this without ever splicing or cutting the "ring main" conductor.

[Richard Henry]

Cost.

Some loads will trip a GFCI inadvertantly.

[ehsjr]

No.

Ok, so if I understand it, "whole house" really isn't whole house - its all the receptacle circuits in the house, in the context you use.

Does this "whole house" GFI trip at 5 mA fault current? For the record, I'm talking about ground fault protection for people. If the "whole house" protection trips at a level that could be harmful to people, then it is not the "best thing", as we are discussing in this part of the thread, which started with: "It would be incpnvenient to wait for the Poco to reset it. The best thing would be a whole house GFCI, as is oftern used in most of the rest of the world." from Gary Tait's post.

[Lou Scheffer]

This would be a great example for considering all the effects of a 'safety' improvement. Has there ever been a paper, or a summary of the field trials, published on this result? Something that said, for example, that each year, in the USA, X people get electrocuted by refrigerators. This could be virtually eliminated by requring GFCIs, but then Y people would die of food poisoning, and Y>X.

Or is it considered 'obvious' that this is the case? For example, refrigerators are usually grounded, so maybe X is near 0, and it would certainly be an inconvenience to have a GCFI breaker trip and spoil your food.

Basically, does anyone know of any formal study or review on this topic? I could not find any on-line, but such a study would probably predate the internet.

Thanks, Lou Scheffer

[mark Ransley]

I know of a study done , I put a gfi on my frige it blew, I took it off, study done.

[Michael A. Terrell]

Have you seen a new refrigerator or freezer without a grounded cord in the last 20 years? The metal skin is grounded unless the power cord is damaged, or the wiring is bad.

[ehsjr]

The National Electrical Code requires the metal case of refrigerators and freezers to be grounded, rendering the issue you raise meaningless.