Classification Of GFCI
Modernization has made each one of us fully relied upon the electrical appliances. This dependency has made some of us very careless towards handling the electricity. Well, GFCI is the only solution to prevent the day to day electric injuries like electrocutions, fire and the electric shock. If the current flowing through the circuit differs by small amount of the current that is returning to the circuit, GFCI switches off the power to that circuit.
National Electric Code has passed a law to install the GFCI at every homes for the safety. GFCI has gained a lot of popularity overtime. Because in previous times, these were used only at outlets near water. Today, we find them at all the places like bathroom, kitchen, basement, garage, and outdoor circuits.
There are three types of GFCI in the market these days and they are receptacle type, circuit breaker type and the portable type.
Receptacle type GFCI is just like an electrical switch outlet. It has two small buttons on its panel. They are marked test and reset buttons. When the test button is pressed, GFCI trips and cut off the supply to the appliance plugged in it.
Circuit breaker type of GFCI are installed in a panel box and protect the selected area. This type of GFCI have dual functions. It not only shuts off the power supply in case of ground fault, but also get tripped if a short circuit or overload takes place.
Lastly, the portable type GFCI outlets. As the name suggest, these are not fixed in the wall or the panel box. Rather, these are enclosed in the plastic case. The back side contain plug in blades so as to fit in any of the electric outlet. Whereas the front side of it consists of receptacle slots so s to fit in the device in the GFCI.
One more type of portable GFCI are available in the market that consists of an extension cord attached with the GFCI. This look like an adapter where the plug is connected to the adapter and not to the protected device.
As electricity is not a place to experiment, call in an expert to install these at your place. Also, take care that you carefully check the working of the GFCI once in six months.