That was normal at one time when those were the only two things that were GFCI protected.Originally Posted by Curt Harms
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That was normal at one time when those were the only two things that were GFCI protected.
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I had a house where the bathroom and garage were on the same GFCI (located in the bathroom). The first time the outlets in the garage didn't work, it took a while to figure out that the GFCI had tripped.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
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One place I lived was the exact opposite.
Master bath outlet, on second floor, would trip the GFCI in the garage...behind the freezer.
When SWMBO turned on a hair dryer it tripped
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It was designed that way to add pleasure to your life...and muscle structure each time you had to move the freezer to reset it.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
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And climbing the stairs a couple of extra times
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Never, ever, ever put outlets in series. The voltage will drop in the second outlet if the first is being used, and won't work at all if it's not.
But, I'll assume you mean parallel, as that's perfectly fine. A lot of people (including some professional electricians who should know better) don't fully understand the difference, and often call daisy chaining outlets the same as wiring them in series, when in fact, it's just a parallel wiring scheme. To truly wire and two outlets in series would require running the common from the first outlet to the hot of second and then running the common from the second back into the common on the main wire. So each outlet only has one one connection to the main wire in the walls, and a second wire that connects both outlets is not connected to the main wire in the walls.
What you'll often find on newer GFCI outlets is two sets of connectors on the back, one marked "line" and the other marked "load" . You hook up the incoming wire to the line, and the second outlet gets connected to the load. It's still in parallel, but there's a breaker in the first outlet that can also disconnect the second. So you don't actually need the second outlet in the chain to be a GFCI to get the benefits of GFCI. However, it'll still work if both are GFCI. But, having said that, GFCI outlets can be finicky and chaining two together can make them more likely to trip. Also, if one trips, often times the second will trip as well, so you often have to reset both each time one trips. And adding two GFCI outlets in a daisy chain doesn't make either safer, and usually costs more (because GFCI outlets cost more). So you add an annoyance, some cost, and don't gain anything in return. So it's typically frowned upon by people who know what they're doing. But, other than that, it's perfectly fine to do and not too uncommon.
And yeah, dimmers can sometimes cause issues with GFCI outlets, and a whole bunch of other things. I typically try to avoid them, as they also are prone to cause line noise and can shorten the lifespan of sensitive electronics plugged into the same circuit as one, and create unwanted noise and static (especially in analog equipment). But, there are different types of dimmers. And each type of dimmer works best with different types of lights. So if one is giving you problems, you could switch out to another and see if it works better. You'll just have to swap out both the dimmer and the bulb. You might also consider getting a smart LED light bulb with a dimmer function built into it, and control that via an app. That way the dimming happens on the DC side, instead of the AC, and you can avoid the whole interaction between the dimmer and outlet. The downside is, now you need to use the app to dim the lights, though a regular light switch will still turn them on and off.
Perfection is a direction, not a destination.
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That went away many NEC editions ago, it is no longer allowed.
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Tract homes are built as cheap as they can get, I refuse to say built to minimum code, it's the reason why homes were built with aluminum wiring in the 60's & 70's, and the reason copper clad aluminum alloy NM cable is returning to the market, cheap, cheap ,cheap is the guiding motto. AFCI's have also changed the game since most residential 120V circuits are required to have them, in some cases some are also to have GFCI protection, BTW, the exception allowing a residential refrigerator to omit GFCI protection in a kitchen seems to be gone.
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Our town uses N.E.C. 2023
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[OP]
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I remember reading in his autobiography that Luis Alverez worked in the electric lab at Uni of Chicago? The floor was marble so no chance of grounding and being electrocuted.
He also mentioned he spent days designing and building wood blocking to keep some powerful electromagnets from crashing together when they were energized. After it was all done and tested he realized the magnetic forces were repelling the poles so his blocking was never needed.
He did not get a Nobel prize for that one.
BilLD
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