There’s a simple device in your home that may save your life one day. It’s a GFCI – a ground fault circuit interrupter. These devices are required to be installed on any electrical outlet found in a room with a water source, since water is typically involved in residential electrocutions. A GFCI is designed to cut the flow of electricity to a power outlet when there is an imbalance. They can react as quickly as one-thirtieth of a second. This is good news, because a person can die if exposed to just 10 milliamps of current for as little as two seconds.
It’s important to make sure the GFCIs in your home are working properly, and you can do this by testing them regularly. Plugging a simple lamp into the outlet, turning it on, and then pressing the “TEST” button on a GFCI is all it takes. If the lamp turns off, the GFCI did its job.
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