GFCI: Installation of wall outlet unit

[Reefugee]

As promised - here is some documentation on how I replaced standard outlet with a GFCI outlet. It's actually very easy to do, and it takes me about 15-20 minutes to do one.

Just as a disclaimer: Be very careful when working with electrocute. This post is not meant to be instructions on how to actually do it. You should follow the instruction that comes with your GFCI switch. If you are uncomfortable working with electricity, please hire an electrician to do it for you. (Sorry - just needed a CYA.)

Your installation may vary. Please read the instruction that comes with your GFCI outlet.
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Here is a list of tools I used: Needle nose plier, screwdriver (flat head), GFCI switch (Leviton are good brands), a outlet cover for the GFCI switch, GFCI outlet tester (the red plug thing - optional), and multimeter (optional). You can pick all of these stuff up at Home Depot. The GFCI switch will costs about $15, the cover is $2, GFCI tester $10, cheap multimeter $20-30. Note that there is a difference between a GFCI outlet tester and a plain old outlet tester. The GFCI outlet tester has a push button on top that allows you to test trip any outlet to see if it is GFCI protected. I stronly recommend a GFCI tester. You can use it to verify that an outlet is GFCI protected.



1. Verify that power is working on the outlet. I just plugged in my GFCI outlet tester. The light on the tester indicates that there is power, and that the wiring is done correctly. If you don't have a GFCI tester, simply plug in a light and verify there is power.



2. Go to your fuse box, and find the fuse for that outlet. Turn it off. Most of the time, the switch is turned off by moving the handle from one side to the other. Below is my circuit box. All the handle are in the up position. If I want to turn off a circuit, I pull the handle into the down position. Switch one switch at a time until you find the right switch for outlet you are working on. This may involve running from your circuit box to your outlet several times to find the right switch. I knew I found the right switch when the light on my GFCI tester was off.


As a safety precaution, once you turn off your fuse, put a note on the circuit box so that someone else does not think the circuit tripped and turn it back on while you are working!


2. Once you have confirmed that power to the outlet is off - remove the front faceplate to the outlet you are replacing. You only need to remove one screw.


3. Remove the outlet. The outlet will be held in with two screws - one on the top and one on the bottom. Just unscrew them.


4. Pull the outlet out. You will notice a bunch of wires attached to the outlet. You will have black (hot), white (neutral), and one green (ground) wires. You may have multiple black and white wires. Please note that in my wiring, my yellow wiring is the ground wire. Now is a good time to take a look at your outlet. You should noticed that the black wire is attached to one side of the outlet, and the white is attached to the other side. Also take note that the screws (brass color) that hold the black wires in is a different color than the screws (silver) that hold in the white wires. The screw that hold in the ground wire (green wire) is green. I remember it as the light color screw goes to light colored wire, and the dark color screw goes to dark color wire. For ever black wire, you will have a white wire. Please note that one set of black and white wire is feed LINE. A set is defined as one black and one white wire. The feed line is the line that provides electricity to the outlet. The other set will be called the load. The load provides power to additional outlet. If you only have one set of line, then it has to be the feed line.

[Reefugee]

5. Disconnect the wires from the outlet. Teh wires may be just screwed in place or they may be held in place with a teminal clamp. In this case, since I had so much wire, I just cut the wire right at the connection with the outlet. If you have only one set of wires (one black wire and one white wire) - then you can skip to step 7


6. Determine which set of wire is the feed line, and which set is the load. In this case, I just separated the wire out to pairs. I knew which black wire corresponded to which white wire because when looking inside the outlet box, you will see that they are paired in there. I separated out the pairs, and made sure no two wires were touching each other. I went to the circuit box, and turned the power back on. Then using a digital multimeter, I measure each set of wires for voltage. The one that measured 120 volts is the feed line. Once you find the feed line, turn off your power.



7. Open up your GFCI switch and take a look at the back. You will notice that there is a yellow tape over a pair of screws. Do not remove the tape at this time.


8. Connect your feed line to the pair of screws that is not covered by the yellow warning tape. Once again, you can either connect them to the screw or use the terminal clamp. You must make sure that the feed line is connected to the uncovered screw / terminal clamp.


9. To verify that I have the right wire connected, I simply plugged in my GFCI tester. Made sure that the GFCI outlet was set (press the Reset button). Run to my Circuit box, and turn the power back on. When I looked at my tester, the light was on - indicating that I did get the correct feed line. After you are done, make sure you turn off the circuit!


10. If you don't have any more pairs of wire, skip to step 11 . Now remover the yellow tape from the GFCI switch. The terminals/screws underneath are the source of power to other outlet downstream to this GFCI. Any outlet downstream to this GFCI switch will be GFCI protected as well. Connect the other wires (except for the green ground wire) to the correct terminal. Remember, light color (silver) screw gets the light color (white) wires; dark color screw (brass) gets the dark color wires (black).


11. Connect your ground wire. Remember, the ground wire is normally green. In this case, my wire is yellow. The wire should connect to a screw that is green.



12. Put the GFCI outlet back into the wiring box. You may need to do some cramming to make it fit. Screw the two screws to hold the GFCI outlet in place.


13. Put the face plate on. This time, the face plate takes two screws.


14. Now go to your circuit box and turn the power back on.

15. Plug in something to make sure the outlet works. If it doesn't press the "reset" button on the GFCI. If it still doesn't work, then there was a mistake in the wiring.

16. Press the test button. The power should go off.

17. Press the reset button, and power should come back on.

[michaelm2431]

Good Job.

[Wee-Reef Master]

Great job Minh!!!

[Justin74]

-Justin

[audioaddiction]

saving this thread for when i finish the upstairs garage at home, future home of a nice tank

thanks

[Avalanche Wolf]

Would ask this thread Get stickied ! It is a saftey upgrade all reefers should do if they dont have it already !

Get walk through Minh !

[Brian Prestwood]

Thanks Minh

[mpoletti]

That is a great post. Just remeber about GFCI's that when the power goes off, you have to manually reset the trip switch. Which means no power when you are not home until you press the button if the power goes out. If possible, run 95% of yourpower through a gfci and I leave one pump in a regular outlet for oxygenazation...?

[D&KSac]

they also make now surge suppression strips that have a gfci build into it. which is great for folks who dont want to mess with live electricity. i got one at walmart for even closer protection. One thing about gfci's you can protect multiple outlets off of one gfci but you cannot put multiple gfci's on the same circuit. If any of you need some electrical help drop me a msg im a Journeyman electrician.

[mpoletti]

Originally posted by D&KSac
they also make now surge suppression strips that have a gfci build into it. which is great for folks who dont want to mess with live electricity. i got one at walmart for even closer protection. One thing about gfci's you can protect multiple outlets off of one gfci but you cannot put multiple gfci's on the same circuit. If any of you need some electrical help drop me a msg im a Journeyman electrician.

Thanks for the offer. I just got a new chiller and I want to run a new 20 amp dedicated circuit for my tank...I'll crawl under the house if you do the hookin' up...

[Reefugee]

With the GFCI that I have, you only have to manually reset it when it's tripped by a short. Power outages have not caused my GFCI to trip. If a power outage is causing your GFCI to trip - it might be time to buy a new one. I use the Leviton brand, and have not had any problems with them.

Originally posted by Marko9
That is a great post. Just remeber about GFCI's that when the power goes off, you have to manually reset the trip switch. Which means no power when you are not home until you press the button if the power goes out. If possible, run 95% of yourpower through a gfci and I leave one pump in a regular outlet for oxygenazation...?

[Reefugee]

I am curious why you can't put multiple GFCI on the same circuit. Granted - the circuit downstream will be protected by the one upstream. But is a reason or code as to why you can't put multiple GFCI on the same circuit?

Those surge suppressors with built in GFCI are great. I keep them around for situation where I cannot install a GFCI (such as my office) or for situation where it is on temporary.

Originally posted by D&KSac
they also make now surge suppression strips that have a gfci build into it. which is great for folks who dont want to mess with live electricity. i got one at walmart for even closer protection. One thing about gfci's you can protect multiple outlets off of one gfci but you cannot put multiple gfci's on the same circuit. If any of you need some electrical help drop me a msg im a Journeyman electrician.

[D&KSac]

If you wire in additional outlets on the load side of a GFCI all outlets downstream from the GFCI will be GFI Protected. As for why you cant wire in multiple GFCI's inline with eachother has something to do with the way the device works i.e. sensing the ground fault. The only way to do be able to add additional GFCI's to the same circuit is to do what is called "pigtail" the first GFCI. not run your incoming feed through the GFCI, and your load off the load side of the GFCI. Does that make sense?

[mpoletti]

Can you install a GFCI in an older houes that is not grounded. I heard that you can, but I am just curious. Thanks.

[D&KSac]

You can but for obivious reason's your not going to get all the protection out of the GFCI. What i would do if your house isnt slab is go to home depot buy some #12 awg green wire. Route it under the house between the electrical panel ground bar and the outlet you need grounded its really pretty easy but you really should have a GFCI grounded.

[D&KSac]

oh yeah 12AWG is rated for 20 AMPs.

[funman1]

Yep, in fact that's what you need to do if you don't have grounded outlets, GFCI's will work very well and are recomeneded.

[Impala1964]

I'll give this one a bump it worked for me

[mkent]

Thanks for posting this - been meaning to do this for a while - currently have the plug in GFI in the socket.....

[Reefugee]

bump. A lot of new members in our club who might find this info useful.

[jthao]

thanks minh!!!

I actually just ran a dedicated 20A breaker to my tank yesterday.
where the wire comes into the house, I split it into two GFCIs. So basically I have two 15A GFCIs running parallel and not series. it works great this way cuss if one 15A GFCI trip, the other one still works.

[funman1]

Yep that's the way to do it!!!

[danorth]

Planning to do this, thanks for the write up!



If it doesn't work, I'm going for deep pockets!

[Auntbeez]

Thanks guys for the info.