DonHester's blog

You are suppose to test them monthly, AFCI’s and GFCI’s. New GFCI requirements.

Submitted by DonHester on Sun, 03/01/2015 - 10:01.

You are suppose to test them monthly, AFCI’s and GFCI’s. New GFCI requirements.

We all know no one does this, push the test button on GFCIs and AFCIs monthly. Heck I am not even that good at doing it myself, and I know better.

With that knowledge technology is coming to address this issue on GFCIs.

Back in 2005 the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) went to the electrical manufacturers of GFCI’s and asked them to develop self testing devices. The original scope was that the device would shut down if it did not pass the self test and hence create the safety that these devices are there to provide.

As a home inspector I find GFCI’s that are not functioning correctly fairly frequently on homes, most often on homes that are a little older.

GFCI that failed to trip when tested

So out of that request now comes a revision of UL 943 the “Standard for Safety for Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupters” (GFCIs). As of June 29, 2015 all GFCI’s will require a couple important new requirements.

A.) Auto-Monitoring/Self-Test function. The GFCIs will have a periodic automatic testing to ensure that the device responds to a ground fault. If during the Self-Test it detects a problem, the GFCI must deny power or provide visual and/or audible indication the device has failed.

B.) Reverse line-load miswire function. If the line (hot) conductor is wired to the load terminals (used for downstream protection of receptacles) the GFCI receptacle will have no power. This happens more times than people think. On some of the older GFCI’s they would still provide GFCI protection for load connected receptacles (back feed) but the receptacle itself would not have GFCI protection and still be live creating a potential shock hazard.

From Legrand-

“Self-test Duplex GFCI- Conducts an automatic test every three seconds, ensuring it's always ready to protect. If the device fails the test, the indicator light flashes to signal that the GFCI should be replaced. It also has our proven SafeLock™ Protection feature: if critical components are damaged and protection is lost, power to the receptacle is disconnected.”

So after June 28 all manufacturers will be required to meet the new standard for GFCIs produced to maintain UL certification. The older version will still be able to be sold till existing inventories are all used.

Here are a couple interesting links to documents on how the semiconductor circuits will work and perform the self test.

http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/NCS37012-D.PDF

https://www.fairchildsemi.com/datasheets/FA/FAN41501.pdf

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

Peter Drucker

NCW Home Inspections, LLC is a Licensed Washington State Home Inspection service located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Kittitas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington and the cities of Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Cashmere, Oroville, Cle Elum, East Wenatchee, Quincy and many more…

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www.ncwhomeinspections.com 509-670-9572

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DonHester's blog

You are suppose to test them monthly, AFCI’s and GFCI’s. New GFCI requirements.