{"id":406,"date":"2019-07-08T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/?p=406"},"modified":"2019-07-08T08:25:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T12:25:01","slug":"upgrade-gfci-outlets-in-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/electrical\/upgrade-gfci-outlets-in-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Upgrade to GFCI Outlets in Your Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Many vintage homes in Western New York have outdated electrical systems with fuse boxes and two-pronged, non-grounded outlets. For any home with this type of electrical technology, we strongly recommend calling for our electrical services in Buffalo, NY<\/a> and the surrounding areas. Our electricians can make vital upgrades to grounded outlets and a new electrical panel that uses reliable and convenient breakers while also matching the higher electrical demands of a modern household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you already have a breaker panel and grounded outlets,\nthere may be another important electrical retrofit for you to schedule: replacing\na number of key outlets with GFCI outlets. This dramatically improves\nelectrical safety in homes\u2014and it\u2019s a basic job our professional electricians\ncan have done in a short time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s a GFCI Outlet?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may have never heard of GFCI outlets before, but you\u2019ve\nalmost certainly seen them in hotels or other commercial buildings. These are\nthe outlets that have a set of rectangular buttons between the sockets. If you\nlook closer, you\u2019ll see the buttons are marked \u201ctest\u201d and \u201creset.\u201d This might\nsound like it controls a circuit breaker of some kind. That\u2019s pretty much exactly\nwhat it does\u2014a GFCI outlet is designed to cut off power to its sockets in case\nof emergency conditions to prevent people in a house from suffering a high\nvoltage shock. The electrical panel in a home protects the electrical system,\nwhile the GFCI outlets protect people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How a GFCI Outlet Operates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The standard outlet socket has three slots: the ground slot,\nthe hot slot, and the neutral slot. When an item is plugged into the outlet, electrical\nvoltage runs in a complete circuit from the hot slot, through the appliance,\nand then back to the neutral slot. What a GFCI outlet adds is a monitor for the\nhot and neutral sides to detect when there is a difference between the two of\nthem. Under normal circumstances, the two sides should be equal because the voltage\nis moving in a circuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if the neutral side has less voltage, it means\nelectrical voltage has found a way to reach the ground rather than complete the\ncircuit. And that<\/em> means the voltage is flowing through something it shouldn\u2019t\u2014usually\na person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the GFCI outlet detects any difference between the hot\nand neutral sides, it immediately trips a breaker to cut off voltage. This happens\nin milliseconds and prevents a person from suffering a dangerous shock, such as\nfrom dropping an electrical appliance into a sink they\u2019re using. The \u201creset\u201d\nbutton can be used to restore the outlet after the danger has passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GFCI Outlet Recommendations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Any modern home should have GFCI outlets installed in the kitchen,\nthe bathrooms, and any room where people regularly sleep. This significantly\nincreases the safety of a home. Call for our professionals to handle making\nthese upgrades, or any other upgrades you may need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We guarantee your satisfaction: you don\u2019t pay until your\nhappy with the work we\u2019ve done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call on Western New York\u2019s Favorite Electrician! Serving the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Area since 1995.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The electrical panel in a home protects the electrical system, while the GFCI outlets protect people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[87],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}