Any area in a building with internal metal structures, or areas with water and plumbing should have these safety devices in place. GFCI outlets are designed to protect you from dangerous ground faults and prevent you from unintentionally becoming part of a completed circuit. When these outlets sense an electrical imbalance of five milliamps or more, or a surge of excess current, they will shut off power within milliseconds in order to prevent electrocution. Any person that makes contact could also become a part of that path. What is a Ground Fault?Ī ground fault is when a conductor outside of a closed electrical system suddenly becomes a path for current into the ground through any grounded appliance or device. A specially designed outlet for protecting against the effects of sudden surges and shocks through contact to ground. GFCI stands for ground fault circuit interrupter.

Dangerous ground faults are slowly becoming a thing of the past, thanks to the advent of these special outlets. GFCIs are becoming more and more ubiquitous in modern homes. This is not a common mishap, and has been largely eradicated due to the advent of color-coding the wires, but it can occur when home builders, electricians, or DIY-ers rush their work or don’t pay attention to what they are wiring.Īlways take your time when installing any electrical outlet and take precautionary measures like disconnecting the main breaker and, assuming all the wires are equally dangerous and require equal attention. With reverse polarity as you may have already assumed, the black wire has been connected to the silver side and the white wire to the brass side, therefore reversing the poles. This will be where the ground wire connects. On the bottom right, you’ll see a single screw that is typically green. The black or “hot” wire connects to one of the screws on the brass side, and the white or “neutral” wire connects to a screw on the silver side. The screws on the other side are plain metallic or silver-colored. On one side, the screws are brass-colored. You’ll notice a set of two screws on each side. When you remove the outlet from the wall and turn it around, you will usually see five screws. Most outlets you see on your wall(usually 120v) have three slots on the receptacles for hot(small slot), neutral(larger slot), and ground(sideways “D”-shaped slot at bottom).

This is usually the green-coated, or naked wire.Īll these wires work together by providing a path from the main breaker to your outlet, through your device and back to the panel, while dissipating any excess charge by sending it to the ground. The grounding wire serves as a bit of extra safety, by protecting you from getting shocked by charged objects such as plumbing or metal-cased appliances by sending any excess current into the ground. The wire that carries this current away from the outlet is the neutral wire, which will usually be white, but can sometimes be gray. The outgoing current returns to the neutral ground tie block behind the main panel.

This is referred to as the “hot” wire, which is always black. One wire is responsible for the incoming electrical power. When wiring an electrical outlet in a modern home, you have at minimum, three wires that need to be connected. What Does “Hot,” “Neutral,” and “Ground” mean? Hot Devices plugged into a reverse outlet can become shorted and damaged, and can also become a potential shock hazard. This can cause devices both simple and complex to become energized even when the power switch is in the off position. This unfortunate mixup can occur either downstream from the breaker at the outlet, or upstream from the outlet at the breaker.

Reverse polarity is a situation in which an electrical outlet’s hot and neutral wiring has been reversed.

Reverse polarity outlet