Understanding GFCI Outlets: Why They’re Essential in Every Home

Electricity powers almost every aspect of modern life. It’s such a key part of our homes that it’s easy to forget its dangers. A malfunctioning outlet or appliance can easily give you a nasty shock. In extreme cases, one might cause electrocution or a fire. The good news is that there are ways to improve the safety of your home’s electrical system. One is to deploy GFCI outlets in your home strategically. Here’s everything you need to know about GFCI outlets and why you need them.

What Does GFCI Mean?

GFCI stands for ground fault circuit interrupter. It’s an electrical device that detects when electric current flows where it shouldn’t. Then, it disconnects the offending circuit to prevent shocks. GFCIs are the brainchild of Charles Dalziel, an electrical engineer who invented the technology in 1961. The device was the result of his pioneering research into electrocutions. Among other things, it found that the duration of a shock played a significant role in its outcome. In other words, the longer a person gets exposed to electrical voltage, the worse the potential harm. GFCIs mitigate harm by shortening the duration of any possible shock.

How Does a GFCI Work?

To understand how a GFCI works, you need to know how electricity works. The first thing to understand is that electrically powered devices don’t use electricity. Electrical current merely carries a flow of electrons whose energy devices convert into other forms. For example, your television converts those electrons into heat and light. The energy itself is neither created nor destroyed in the process. So, when you think of your home’s electrical system, it’s appropriate to picture it like a circular plumbing system. In it, electrical current flows through fixtures and outlets and returns to where it came from. That’s why your outlets have two primary prongs. One is for incoming current flows and the other is for outgoing current flows.

In a standard modern outlet, however, there are three prongs. The first prong carries the incoming electrical current. The second connects to a neutral wire. That provides the default path for the current to return to its source. The third round prong connects to a dedicated ground wire, giving the current an alternative route to its source. It’s a failsafe if something interrupts the current’s path to the neutral wire. If you were to check beneath your electrical panel’s face plate, you’d see all your home’s ground wires connected there. Then, the panel itself has its own ground wire running to a grounding rod outside your home. That’s where your home’s electrical system sends stray voltage to prevent shocks and overloads. When you plug something into an outlet, you extend the current loop through the electrical device. The current flow, however, still returns to its source through the neutral wire.

A GFCI cleverly takes advantage of the circular path of electrical current flows. It exploits the fact that the electrical current’s amperage should remain equal on both sides of a circuit. That is, incoming current should always match outgoing current. If it doesn’t, the current must have found another path outside the circuit to follow. That either means it’s flowing to the ground wire or through an object or person. Since either represents a malfunction, the GFCI cuts power to the outlet in that case. Most GFCI outlets can detect faults and react within 1/40 of a second. That’s fast enough to prevent any major injury if you’re unlucky enough to be in contact with the current.

Where You Should Use GFCI Outlets

If it were practical, adding GFCI protection to every outlet in your home would be preferable. However, GFCI outlets aren’t inexpensive enough to make that realistic in most homes. However, there are some specific places where GFCI protection is essential. In short, you should have them anywhere an outlet may come into contact with water. That’s because water is a common cause of short circuits. It can also form a current path that leads to electrocution. So, all the outlets serving your kitchen counters should have GFCI protection. So should outlets in your bathrooms and laundry room. You should also have GFCI protection for any outlets on your home’s exterior. In fact, the current National Electric Code calls for GFCI outlets in all those places and more.

If you own an older home with two-pronged outlets, GFCI protection is even more helpful. You can replace the two-pronged outlets with GFCI outlets to make them safer. By doing so, you’re providing the protection a ground prong offers and then some. While upgrading your home’s wiring to grounded three-wire lines is preferable, GFCI outlets are a less expensive compromise.

How To Tell if You Have GFCI Outlets

If your home is relatively new or has undergone electrical modernization, you likely already have GFCI outlets around your home. You can spot them by looking for the telltale test and reset buttons on their face. Some GFCI outlets feature a black test button and a red reset button. Others have buttons that match the color of the rest of the outlet. Occasionally, GFCI outlets have status LEDs to let you know they’re working.

You may also encounter ordinary outlets with small labels indicating GFCI protection. That suggests an outlet wired downstream from a GFCI outlet. Every outlet drawing power from a GFCI outlet inherits its protection in that configuration. You can test them by pressing the test button on the nearest GFCI outlet. If the labeled outlets no longer have power, you can assume the nearby GFCI protects them. If someone has replaced two-pronged outlets with GFCI, the outlet will also have a sticker. It should read “NO EQUIPMENT GROUND GFCI PROTECTED.” That lets you know the outlet only has hot and neutral wires attached.

Your home may also have some GFCI protection built into its electrical panel. There are specially designed circuit breakers that extend GFCI protection to entire circuits. They’re also easy to spot if your home has any of them. GFCI breakers will have a test button on their face. Pressing it will create a short circuit and activate the GFCI, tripping the breaker. In place of a reset button, you can reactivate a GFCI breaker by switching it back on.

GFCI Protection Experts

If you want GFCI outlets installed in your Milford, MA, home, Tingley Home Services can help. We’ve served local home and business owners since 2003. Our staff of expertly trained electricians can help you plan appropriate GFCI upgrades. That includes identifying which outlets might benefit from GFCI protection and how best to apply it. We can do it all, whether it’s strategic outlet replacements or upgrades to GFCI circuit breakers. Plus, you can count on us to perform other electrical services you may need, from repairs to installation.

When you’re ready to add GFCI protection in Milford, call our team at Tingley Home Services immediately!