Sometimes electrocution happens in utility and construction incidents, but these tragic accidents happen in homes, too. Before the widespread adoption of GFCI ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets, around people died annually in the United States.
Now, thanks largely to the proliferation of GFCI technologies, particularly in areas near water, such as bathroom sinks or in places exposed to rain or standing water, that number has dropped to around deaths per year [sources: Nickel Electric , Fish, at al. In short, GFCI outlets exist to protect people from electrical shock — it is completely different from a house fuse. The idea behind a fuse is to protect a structure from an electrical fire. If the hot wire were to accidentally touch the neutral wire for some reason say, because a mouse chews through the insulation, or someone drives a nail through the wire while hanging a picture, or the vacuum cleaner sucks up an outlet cord and cuts it , an incredible amount of current will flow through the circuit and start heating it up like one of the coils in a toaster.
The fuse heats up faster than the wire and burns out before the wire can start a fire. Catastrophe averted. Unlike a home's fuse, the GFCI is integrated in the outlet itself.
When you plug in an appliance, such as a hair dryer, the GFCI outlet monitors the amount of power going to the device. If you accidentally drop the appliance into sink full of water, the GFCI detects the interruption in current and cuts the power So how do you know if you're looking at an outlet equipped with GFCI capabilities?
You'll see a Test and a Reset button and perhaps an indicator light built right into the outlet. When you view a normal volt outlet in the United States, there are two vertical slots and then a round hole centered below them.
The left slot is slightly larger than the right. The left slot is called "neutral," the right slot is called "hot" and the hole below them is called "ground. Gallery Reviews Search. What are polarized electrical outlets? What does the ground do? Type your question here. All rights reserved. Contact us to obtain licensing. Located inside each socket are two pairs of metal strips that are designed to bend and flex, but return to shape when the pressure on them is released.
Each pair of strips is connected to one of your electrical lines either hot or ground. The strips in each pair normally press against each other, however, when you plug something into an outlet, the prongs on each plug wedge themselves between each pair of strips.
The friction between the strips and the plug is what holds the plug in place and likewise, these strips are what electricity passes through in order to reach your device. This is an important safety feature. Accidentally crossing connections and connecting a hot line to a ground like and vice versa can be extremely dangerous and result in fires, sparking, severe damage to electrical components and even potentially serious injury.
To solve this problem, electrical sockets have one larger prong socket usually on the left side of the plug and a smaller socket usually on the right. Some of the plugs attached to your electrical devices also have a larger prong that will only fit in the left-side hole. What about devices that have two different prongs that are the same size? First, electricity is brought to your home by a power plant and power lines.
This power is brought into your home and is distributed by a circuit breaker. An outlet has three holes. The third hole is the ground hole. The hot hole is connected to the wire that supplies the electrical current. The neutral hole is connected to the wire that brings the electrical current back to the breaker box. When you plug in a lamp and turn it on, the hot part of the outlet allows electricity to flow into the lamp, turning on the light bulb.
The circuit is completed when the current is brought back into the outlet through the neutral slot, and back into the circuit breaker.
A circuit breaker is one level of protection in a home. These outlets do not have a grounding wire within the electrical system. Because having a grounding wire and grounded three-pronged outlets adds an extra level of safety, newer houses and buildings are required to have three-pronged outlets with grounding wires. A grounding wire is connected separately to each outlet, and then is connected to the bottom of the breaker box.
This grounding wire neutralizes any dangerous electrical current into the ground. A grounding line is used to protect your appliances from surges or overvoltage problems.
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