GFI Outlet?

Question

I have a old two wire (non grounded) electrical system in my house and i heard about these GFI outlets. How do they work and are they just as good as a ground?

Answer 1

You can install a GFI outlet on a two wire system but it must be labeled to indicate that it is not grounded. It will detect a ground fault and trip just as though it were grounded.

Answer 2

You'll need to have a ground wire to properly install a GFI outlet.

Answer 3

GFCI-Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter-A device intended for the protection of personnel that deenergizes a circuit when current to ground exceeds 4ma to 6ma.
This is just as good as a ground.
A non grounded receptacle shall be permitted to be replaced with a groundingtype receptacle supplied through a GFCI.It Shall be marked GFCI Protected and no Equipment ground.These covers should be available at the hardware store.

CA. State Certified Elect over 27yrs exp.

Answer 4

A GFI outlet is designed to shut itself off if anything disrupts the circuit. In newer homes and rentals you should see them any time the outlet is within a few feet of any water source, like near your kitchen sink. If for example, you dropped a hair dryer, plugged into a GFI outlet, into a full bath tub the outlet would immediately shut itself off to help prevent electrocuting yourself.

If you only have a 2 wire system in your home, you will need to have a licensed electrician install any GFI outlets you may need, to insure they are properly grounded.

Answer 5

A GFCI Outlet is a ground for the area in which you install it. It causes that specific outlet to be properly grounded and safe for use as a three prong outlet. Helps your chances of getting shocked or damaging electronics or fires. It looks like a regular outlet, but.. with three prongs and a usually a red reset button. We just bought our first home, and we too have an older home, circa 1953 which are common in having ungrounded 2 prong outlets. My husband installed them himself. We purchased them at walmart and paid $11.74 each, and did like one at a time. I do not recommend you doing it yourself however, have a skilled trained electrician to install them or a real handy buddy or something.

Answer 6

The simple answer is that a GFCI Receptacle on an ungrounded circuit will be safer than a standard receptacle on the same circuit in terms of life safety. The GFCI device measures the current flow into and out of an appliance and if it senses an imbalance exceeding 6 miliamps, it turns off the power.

Example: If you are standing in a puddle of water in your bare feet using an electric drill with a short in it, the GFCI device will sense that the current is flowing through your body to the earth ground rather than through the neutral conductor and turn the power off before it electrocutes you (even though if you were doing this, some might say you deserved what you got).

The National Electric Code requires GFCI protection on receptacles in bathrooms, kitchens and outdoors. Devices installed on non-grounded circuits should be indentified as such.

Answer 7

if you install a GFCI outlet on a ungrounded electric system it will not be safe to the ground fault and not trip properly it will work but will not be safe for the user pluging anythinig into it

Answer 8

Agree with "Pleasure" . GFCIs are not a ground. The purpose of the ground related to personal safety is to cause a fuse or breaker to trip in case normally unenergized parts become energized. The current flow through the ground is high enough to cause the breaker or fuses to open instantly.

In the absence of the equipment ground, a GFCI is used that electronically detects when the abnormal case above exists and opens the circuit at around 5ma (harmless to humans) protecting the person using the circuit.

Some of the confusion here may be the lack of understanding the difference between the nuetral and ground in the circuit, both of which are grounded. The grounded nuetral is the "white" wire in the 120V circuits but should never be used as an equipment ground.

Circuits protected in this fashion must be labelled.