Technical Definition of A GFCI Receptacle

As Promised.....Enjoy.


The Following is a basic description of something that is known to be in existence by most people but they don't technically know what it is or does. This is a rough 1st draft, for my Technical Writing Class. It is designed so that people who don't know what a GFCI is, can read this and understand what it is. Please comment and tell if you now know what a GFCI basically is, or tell me if it's hard to understand what I'm trying to say. Any feedback will be helpful for fine tuning it for my class.

Technical Definition of A GFCI Receptacle

A GFCI, Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter, is a device that monitors the flow of electricity or electrons (Same thing), if an abnormality occurs, the device will interrupt and stop the flow of electricity.

A Ground Fault is any electricity that strays off its designated path, and is capable of shocking someone, it's also known as a Short Circuit. An Electrical Circuit is the flow of electricity along a designated path, seeking its way to ground. If someone touches it at any point along the way, that person will be shocked as the electricity searches for a way to get to the earth via your body. That is why you get shocked when you stick a fork into an outlet. The Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter monitors the electron flow, when you stick the fork into the outlet, the flow becomes unbalanced and the GFCI will immediately cut off the power, in less than a couple milliseconds, and keep you from getting any major shock. (You'd probably only feel a very slight buzz in your hand, for a very brief time.)
The GFCI has two coils inside it which detects the electron flow, when the imbalance occurs the coils will expand and push a switch, which is inside the GFCI, causing the circuit to be interrupted, and shutting off the power to any devices down the line.
You may notice that in your house their are outlets that have two little buttons on them, those are GFCI's. The two buttons are mainly used for testing it to see if they are functioning properly, but they also serve as a sign of showing if they have been triggered or "Tripped".
When a GFCI is "Tripped", the Buttons "Pop" out and if you were near by you'd probably be able to hear it. This "Pop" means that a Ground Fault, "Short Circuit", has occurred. To reset a GFCI just push the "Reset button and the power should be restored but if it happens again, you could have a problem with your wiring or the GFCI has gone bad which does happen occasionally.

Getting into the Testing to see if a GFCI is working properly is beyond what this explanation is about, perhaps later I will expand upon this. Thanks for reading this , if you did. Now, I hope you know a little more about GFCI's.