Fuse box flipping

[HayZee518]

Very interesting!!!

Are breakers at all designed to protect people if/when they are using their bodies (accidentally) as a short? I guess someone would still get enough current to be a problem before the breaker trips, right?

Do GFCI's offer this kind of protection... I mean if something down the line shorts, it will trip?

circuit breakers are used to protect wires and the circuits connected to them. they do not protect personnel! gfci receptacles and gfi breakers do. better yet afci breakers protect buildings. gfci units will detect 6ma of current which is enough to kill you!

 

[Montyj]

On my remodel I'm thinking about sticking in a few GFCI's and then running outlets down the line off of them. I don't know of any downsides to doing this other than GFCI's being a bit more expensive than regular outlets.

There really isn't a downside to doing it that way...until one begins to fail. Imagine watching the super bowl, it's tied up late in the 4th and your team is driving. Suddenly, someone turns on a lamp and the tv dies, along with everything else on that circuit. In a panic you run to the breaker box and flip the breaker a half dozen times trying to get the tv back on, to no avail. You finally remember the gfci outlet, behind the freaking couch! Crap! You pull out the couch, press the reset button, the tv comes on, and your team is celebrating in confetti.

GFCI's have a higher failure rate than breakers. They are much more reliable that they used to be though. Really, unless you have small children that are prone to sticking things in outlets, or an animal that chews cords, there is no real advantage to using GFCI daisy chained circuits in living areas other than baths and kitchens or outside outlets.

If your wife runs a cord over with the vacuum cleaner and cuts into the insulation, causing a short, the breaker will trip. If you cut into the circular saw cord, with the saw, the breaker will trip (you can trust me on that one )

The NEC only requires GFCI outlets in kitchens, baths, and anywhere water is present. Anything beyond that really is overkill and a waste of money.

If fire is your concern, you could do as Hayzee suggested and install an AFCI. An AFCI is an Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter. The NEC requires AFCI's for bedroom circuits, but not all states have adopted that rule. An AFCI detects arcs in an electrical circuit and trips out. The operation is complicated, but basically it measures sudden bursts of current and trips out if the current exceeds a set limit. The difference is that it does it much faster than a standard breaker. Keep in mind though that some installations require both an AFCI and a GFCI since an AFCI will not protect against electric shock.

BTW, I'm also an electrician...in case you were wondering

 

[Nifty]

Wow, great stuff, thanks guys!!!