Safety Tidbit 4.27 - Surge Protector vs GFCI

Safety Tidbit 4.27 – Surge Protector vs GFCI

A GFCI works based on current (i.e. the number of electrons), it detects if the amount of current being sent down one wire doesn't match the amount coming back down the other. An imbalance indicates that electricity is probably going somewhere it shouldn't.

A surge protector works based on voltage. If the voltage on a wire gets a lot higher than it's supposed to be then the surge protector will work to prevent that voltage spike from affecting your stuff.

A "ground" is simply a place that a lot of electricity can go. Generally, things that are connected to ground are things that are not supposed to be energized, and the ground works to keep them from being energized if something bad happens. So, for example, if a wire in your stove breaks and touches the metal body, the fact that the metal body is grounded means that electricity will go to the ground instead of trying to go through you the next time you touch it.

In the case of a faulty wire touching the metal body of a toaster, what happens if:

·       You only have a GFCI, no ground, no surge protector.

In this case, I would guess that at the time the wire touches the metal body, nothing happens, but as soon as a human touches the toaster, the electricity will want to go through the human. But, because it won't be going back into the system, the GFCI will cut off power?

·       You only have a surge protector, no ground, no GFCI.

In this case, I guess nothing protects you? The current goes through you, but there's no actual voltage difference, so the surge protector doesn't care? How does the surge protector 'know' to only care about voltage, and not about current? Or: is it that current going through a human won't be too much current overall?

·       You only have a ground, no GFCI, no surge protector.

So here, as soon as the wire touches, the ground gives it a path to follow, so that causes a short circuit and we blow the fuse/trip the circuit breaker as soon as the wire hits?

Hope this was helpful and thank you for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have a new safety or health question, please let me know.