Your GFCI could kill you!

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jxofaltrds

jxofaltrds

Inspector Mike®
Location
Mike P. Columbus Ohio
Occupation
ESI, PI, RBO
If you need a good laugh today then read this:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1482390/trusting-your-gfci-test-button-could-kill-you-

Just a part of what he says:

"Are there any situations where a GFI will not protect me from a dangerous shock?

GFI's are not effective in certain circumstances. As mentioned earlier, they work by measuring the difference between the electrical current going INTO an appliance and the current going OUT of the appliance. This assumes that the person being shocked is grounded. If you were ungrounded and touched the hot and neutral wires at the same time, there would be no drop in current detected, so the GFI would not activate. Then, you would be at the mercy of the fuses or circuit breakers, which may or may not stop the current before its too late!

A second situation where a GFI will not protect you is when a second, unprotected circuit is involved in an accident. This can happen when a wire is accidentally drilled into or a metal screw penetrates a wire hidden in the wall. Unless this second circuit is also protected, you are at full risk of electrocution, even if the tool itself is on a protected circuit!"


I love his source: http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infelectrical/infgfi.html#7
 
Let me make this clear right now, we are not going to have a thread just to goof on home inspectors. So please think before responding to this thread.
 
In summary:

GFCI's will not protect from line to line contact or contact with another, non-GFCI protected circuit.

OK, Bob, close the thread now and save us the trouble. :grin:
 
iwire said:
Huh? not following you there.
Click to expand...

That comes from this quote from the OP:

....This can happen when a wire is accidentally drilled into or a metal screw penetrates a wire hidden in the wall. Unless this second circuit is also protected, you are at full risk of electrocution, even if the tool itself is on a protected circuit!"
Click to expand...

How it works is, say you're using that drill on a gfci protected circuit, and you drill into the hot wire of another non-gfci circuit. Even if the gfci the drill is plugged into trips, you're still gonna get the shock from the non-gfci circuit which of course won't trip off until the current flow exceeds the circuit's OCPD.

In that case the source of the shock current is from the non-gfci circuit, so of course the gfci wouldn't help out in this case.
 
jxofaltrds said:
His blog makes it sound like if the EGC is missing you will die or not be protected.
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I see in the blog link he makes a big deal about the ground and the hazards of not having one. A bit of over-kill, pardon the pun. You really are supposed to label the ones without a ground.

The splat about the reversed neutral and hot is valid enough.

I don't see what you quoted as being that far from the truth, even if the wording was bad.
 
I haven't done much residential. I always seem to find some ground.

My digital meter trips the GFI to the ground terminal pretty quick.

Does the same thing happen if there is no EGC?
 
RETRAINDAILY said:
I haven't done much residential. I always seem to find some ground.

My digital meter trips the GFI to the ground terminal pretty quick.

Does the same thing happen if there is no EGC?
Click to expand...
No, because the current is all dressed up with no place to go.
 
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