this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Shouldn't that be standard everywhere? My flats here in Germany all had one central switch for that wired before the actual circuit breakers so that any outlet should be protected.
Is there a reason to only put that on select outlets?
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Breakers work when you draw too much current through the circuit and a metal strip heats up, expands and flips the circuit off. It's meant to stop you from plugging in too many devices and heating up the wire inside of your wall. It takes a bit of time activate.
GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt. If any current is detected going across one of the current carrying wires and the grounding wire, it immediately turns the circuit off.
PSA, please, please don't rip off the grounding prong on your outdoor water fountain pump because you can't find a grounded extension cord.
I think you misunderstood. he meant in Germany the gfci is wired between where the electricity comes into your home and the breakers, so every outlet is protected, not just the ones in the bathroom.
Except in old buildings, like the one i'm living in, where there is no grounding wire and ground fault protection is done by bridging ground to neutral and hoping that enough current flows through the fault to trigger the breaker.
It depends honestly. Here in the states, we GFCI kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, garages, crawl spaces underneath houses, and exteriors, basically anywhere it could be reasonably expected to come in contact with water or an unexpected grounding/earth source. From there, you can either do a GFCI breaker or receptacle. Both will protect everything downstream from the device, but the choice comes down to convenience of operation. I'll generally do GFCI breakers for dishwasher, disposals, refrigerators, etc, just so that if the GFCI trips you can reset it in the panel so you don't have to pull the equipment out to get to it, but I'll do kitchen and bathroom counter convenience plugs as a GFCI receptacle (and daisychain all downstream kitchen receptacles from the GFCI receptacle) to be able to reset it right there at the point of use.
You could in theory GFCI protect an entire house/flat, but it likely comes down to cost saving and avoiding nuisance trips. Motors as they age tend to leak current and trip GFCIs, and any number of delicate electronics can be finicky, so that's typically why we only use them in wet locations.
We're Americans, we do things illogically here
In seriousness though, I'm not really sure. I would guess, like most things, money is the answer. The codebook we electricians use specifies what needs to be GFCI. You can always go above that, and make everything GFCI, but you don't have to. If you're bidding a job, you can estimate higher to have GFCI protected everything, but the customer is almost always going to go for the cheaper price, so why bother?
I am an electrician, but this is mostly my speculation and me talking out of my ass so uh... take it with a grain of salt.
Are not most other outlets required to be afci?
Yes, kitchens, family rooms, dining rooms living rooms, parlors, libraries, dens, bedrooms, sunrooms, recreation rooms, closets, halways, laundry areas, and "similar areas" all require AFCI protection for homes. A bathroom would be GFCI protected, but does not have to be AFCI protected. A kitchen will be both. A hallway will be AFCI protected, but does not have to be GFCI protected.
Edit: should also clarify that this is according to the most recent version of the codebook, 2023. So this list only applies to brand new homes in areas where the 2023 version has been adopted. It's likely it's the same or similar for previous iterations, but I'd have to look back through a lot of versions of the codebook to see so uh... eh