GFI Question

[Patch]

I have a GFI installed at our lily pool. The pumps are the only things running off it. I ran a line out to my tool shed and according to the instructions for the GFI, the shed should also be protected by the GFI. The other day I went out to the tool shed, the grass was wet with dew and I was just wearing house slippers, I suspect my feet were slightly damp. I grabbed the power cord of a battery charger to unplug it. Apparently mice had chewed the insulation on the cord and I grabbed the bare wire and got knocked on my butt. Why didn't the GFI protect me?

** Posted from **

[Phisherman]

You are still alive, right?

[terry]

The GFI works on the unbalance of current between live and neutral. Ground may not come into it at all (despite the GFI designation).

So suggestion: Maybe you touched both live and neutral wires that the mice had chewed so as be bare, simultaneously and electric current went through your hand but live and neutral currents being balanced, it did not trip the GFI?

However if current went from your hand through your body to the damp ground it's a good question; one would think that would be an unbalanced current that would trip the GFI?

Also could anyone comment on the amount of current through human body! Even a few milliamps, not enough or fast enough to trip the GFI could shock??????

Assuming, although not stated, for the moment this is typical North American/Mexico etc. 115 volts circuit etc. Not European style 230 volts etc.

[John Grabowski]

It might be defective. Try pushing the test button and see what happens. Did you wire the line coming from the GFI to the shed using the LOAD terminals?

[ransley]

Is it made in China?

[RBM]

Two possibilities: The GFCI is defective, or GFCI devices trip when a fault current is leaked to ground. If the hot and neutral wires were bare, and you touched only them, and no ground, you'll simply stand there and fry, and the GFCI won't do a thing for you

[HeyBub]

Did the GFI trip?

If so, it did protect you - you got a 4 msec jolt instead of lying there twitching until someone noticed you hadn't come down for breakfast.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 6/29/2008 9:39 AM Patch spake thus:

I can't believe nobody asked the obvious question here: is the outlet wired correctly? You say you "ran a line out to my tool shed" off the GFCI outlet, and everyone assumed you did this correctly; did you?

In order to protect things "downstream" of the outlet, those things have to be connected to the "load" connections of the GFCI device. If you just wired the shed into the "line" side, nothing on that line will be protected.