Some of you may have read my post in the contracting forum about changing elements in electric water heaters. All that talk about water heaters got me thinking about what would happen if the element had been bad.
I used to troubleshoot water heaters a lot when I worked in the middle east. (the plumbers would change the elements after I diagnosed the problem BTW) Anyhow there we had an European based system and a broken element would trip the RCD, which is basically GFP. So I got to thinking, wouldn't a broken element with no GFP cause some circulating current on the water and possibly cause a shock? Why doesn't the NEC require GFP (30 ma or something) for water heaters?
I used to troubleshoot water heaters a lot when I worked in the middle east. (the plumbers would change the elements after I diagnosed the problem BTW) Anyhow there we had an European based system and a broken element would trip the RCD, which is basically GFP. So I got to thinking, wouldn't a broken element with no GFP cause some circulating current on the water and possibly cause a shock? Why doesn't the NEC require GFP (30 ma or something) for water heaters?