Wall Outlets

[STANGGT40]

i dont understand having a gfci panel has to do with a.breaker having a gfci

Gfci breakers are not made for all panels; especially older panels. You can't just stuff any breaker into any panel; they're made for specific panels. Square D, Cutler Hammer, GE, etc all have different options for breakers. There are options for gfci breakers for some older panels (zinsco, federal pacific, etc), but they're a lot more expensive than newer panels and there are several panels that nobody makes a gfci breaker for at all.

[lincolnboy]

ok, so more or less your talking fitment issue. i recently had an inspection on a house im buying and the inspector mentioned that there was no GFCI any where in the house. he said either there should be one in the breaker panel or the outlets. that why i asked.

[STANGGT40]

ok, so more or less your talking fitment issue. i recently had an inspection on a house im buying and the inspector mentioned that there was no GFCI any where in the house. he said either there should be one in the breaker panel or the outlets. that why i asked.

Exactly, there are tons of old panels that haven't been made for 30+ years; well before gfci breakers came about. In those cases, gfci breakers aren't even an option. There are after market options for panels like federal pacific, but they're very expensive. A gfci outlet will cost between $10-$25, depending on where you buy it and which brand/model you buy. The cheapest gfci breaker will likely be in the $40 range, and the less common ones can cost $80 or more.

[projectPONY]

subscribing to this with a question:

how does one go about finding the first outlet in a circuit? I have the same dilemma with all the outlets in my house save for a few.

[lincolnboy]

processes of elimination.

[slow06]

processes of elimination.

How do you eliminate? Disconnect one and see if the rest go dead?

[lincolnboy]

yea, shut off breaker first. unless someone has another idea.

[STANGGT40]

The easiest way is to pull the ones you intend to change to 3-prong and, as Lincolnboy said, use the process of elimination to figure it out. If you see a receptacle with only one cable, then you've likely either found the last receptacle in a circuit or a dedicated receptacle. It's hard to say, though, because at any point in the last xx years, somebody could have made joints in the attic or even in a wall. You never know what someone has done to rig things up over the years. The standard procedure is to go to the first box and "daisy chain" them (jumping from receptacle to receptacle), until you get to the last one on a circuit. You could shut off the breaker that feeds the area that you want to change and try to find the closest receptacle to the panel that is dead...you should be able to rule several out that are in the middle of other dead receptacles. Either way, you'll need to disconnect the wires in the ones that you think are at the beginning and you'll eventually find the first one...if you leave all of the breakers off and work one breaker at a time, then you'll be able to tell when you disconnect one and others are still on. If none are still on, then you've found the first in line. Keep in mind that they could've hit the lights first, so you may have lights on, even when ypu find the first receptacle on a circuit.

[kingjason]

When I was pulling outlets at my house and jacking with electrical stuff around the pool, one of these little electrical pens came in very handy.

http://www.amazon.com/Contact-Electric-Voltage-Detector-90V~1000V/dp/B00563OE1M