Is your power protected?!

A GFCI can be installed either at the wall outlet or the breaker box. A standard breaker protects against a circuit overload, not a leak. For example if you have a 15 amp circuit breaker and short across the line and neutral or line to ground the breaker will trip and shut down the current. If however you have the same 15 amp breaker and your hand touches the line lead and your foot is grounded, the breaker will not trip because the resistance of your body does not allow 15 amps of current to flow. But you will receive a severe shock (possibly fatal). Now lets put a GFCI into the picture. The GFCI actually monitors the current in the hot lead and compares it to the return current in the neutral lead. With no leaks they should be the same. A dead short this time, across the hot to neutral will NOT trip the GFCI since the current is the same on both leads. But it will trip the overload breaker. (the two devices can be built into the same unit or be seperate devices). A short to ground, with the GFCI will cause the GFCI to trip since the current from hot to neutral is different (not all of the current on the hot lead returned through the neutral line). The same will happen if your body touches either hot or neutral to ground. The GFCI will trip, as Diver said above before you can even feel it.

Marc - A power bar with a built in GFCI would protect you (and the tank) as long as any lead (short) occurs between the protected outlets of the power bar and the devices plugged into it. But if, as in what happend to me, the water splashes onto the wall outlet where the powerbar is plugged in, the CFGI is useless since it is "downstream" of where the leak occured.

Again I can't stress enough, if you don't have the skills, have a licensed pro do the job.

Also GFCI units usually have a 'test' button on them. Test them to make sure they trip. Do it at the same time you test all your smoke alarms. (you do test them don't you?;D )

Mike

 

Speaking of smoke alarms, you should replace them every 2 years IIRC. The sensor has a short life.

 

Where can I get a CFGI that I just plug in to the standard outlet? I live in an apartment and the electrical work they have is really screwey, so I tried replacing the socket with a CFGI socket, and all the lights in my living room stopped working...I'm an electical engineer, so I can figure most of the stuff out on my own, but the electrical work in my apartment is just really shotty and wired very oddly, so it's impossible to swap sockets. I thought I saw a yellow CFGI plug or something online somewhere...anybody know where I could get this?

 

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=145275-33536-30339011&lpage=none

Here is one from Lowes for less than $10.00

Jim

 

Thanks Jim, I will try and go to Lowe's and see if I can find one locally so I dont have to pay shipping.

Thanks again!
-Mike

 

They are a definite must!!! Also incase some of you don't know this, saltwater is an excellent conductor of electricity!

 

Lowes will definitely have them.

 

I got my at Home Depot. I got three plugs there. Two with one outlet and one with three outlets. I also got a big yellow powerstrip (one of the gfci came with it) It has the flexible flaps to cover the outlets on the strip and the strip is very heavy duty. I bought two of those. However, after what Michael has said I think I would like to see about having gfci installed at the wall.

Another question....With a gfic, when the power goes out is it suppose to automatically click off and therefore not come back on when the power is on? I have one gfic that doesn't come back on when the power does and I have to reset it. Is this one defective or is something going on that I don't know about? This is with the big gfic plug that has 3 outlets on it. The other one doesn't seem to trip when the power goes out.

Cindy

 

I haven't seen one that purposely tripped out just because the power was lost. I would see if you could get a replacement. I believe it may be defective.

Jim

 

I saw this same topic on another board when I was starting out, and decided to get a GFCI on the outlets I use for my tank. It has paid off several times already. These things can really be a life saver. If a hose busted or something and the house breaker didn't trip fast enough, a short could cause a fire, melt equipment etc.. Before I got my GFCI, I had one spill which melted three power strips, filled the room with smoke and had me running for the breaker box, on the other end of the house, because I was scared to grab the wet cords to yank them out of the wall. Since having the GFCI, the couple of times I spilled a little water, it tripped instantly, keeping all safe and secure. Now I still feel like an idiot when I spill the water, but like a genius when it causes nothing more than a few moments interruption in what I'm doing. Best $$ I have spent on the whole thing!!!