ok I have 1 gfci in each bathroom and 1 in the kitchen and 1 in the masterbedroom and 1 in the laundry room.
is this a safe setup or should I go for more of a electrical gfci electrical breaker for better protection.
also how do you wire 2 gfci in order?
I tried to hook 2 inline for the kitchen countertop recptales near the sink but only 1 would work and the other wouldn't even though when I put replace the second gfci with a standard wall plug it works. . the house standard wiring white,black ground wiring. and the whole has is grounded as i have checked each recptacle.
If your intention is to do what Nec requires for new installations: All counter outlets in the kitchen, all bathroom outlets, all outlets outside, all outlets in unfinished parts of basements, and all wall outlets in garage, should be GFCI protected
I think both are safe solutions. So which ever you feel comfortable with.
In general you do not need to hook two GFCI's together with one downstream of the other. In effect you will have redundant protection. Note that only one GFCI will trip when a fault condition occurs. Which one will depend on the GFCI sensitivity. i.e. pretty much 50-50 probability which one will trip.
The advantage of the breaker way is that everything on the circuit is protected. Somethimes you do not want this. e.g. a fridge. Fridges should be not on GFCI circuits according to NEC code. GFCI receptacles allows you to have seperate stops for each appliance. I.E. if one thing trips a GFCI, the other appliances on othre GFCI's will remain powered up.
Note that you can use a receptacle GFCI to protect everything on a circuit. You have to wire the GFCI as the First one on that circuit. All other receptacles, which can be plain vanilla receptacles (non- GFCIs) which are downstream of that are protected.
You can google for GFCI info on the web. One site which takes a while to go through is the Leviton WebSite
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They have an ez- learn step by step on-line lecture guide on GFCI's. It takes a while to sign up etc. and sit through the demo. But I found it quite good.
One final tip is if you have not already got one, maybe you should also consider buying a Volt Tic.
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This senses when wires are live. It saved me a few times. About $US
Other maufacturers also make these, perhaps cheaper in the $US 15 range.
And btw, there are different ways to connect the next outlet, depending on whether you want it and the ones that follow to have gfi protection or not. Read the instructions.
Some guesses- A GFCI breaker also includes overcurrent protection.
A GFCI breaker is (normally) only available from the panel manufacturer
- no competition. (There is competition between panels, but GFCI cost is one of a number of comparison factors.) GFCI receptacles are available from a wide variety of competing sources.
GFCI receptacles are produced in very large numbers.
I prefer them at or close to the point of the fault. I hate having to run downstairs (or outside in our case) to reset a tripped GFCI. Sometimes it's cold and the neighbors complain when it's the bathroom circuit that's tripped. ;-)
The NEC has no such exemption. *Some* receptacles in garages and unfinished basements are exempted from GFCI requirements depending on
*where* they are located. Other receptacles, including kitchen counter, must be GFCI protected whether refrigeration is plugged in or not. And in a commercial kitchen, receptacles must be GFCI protected including those used by refrigerators and freezers.
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