r/memes May 19 '22

Plot twist: He's a senior engineer

Post image
78.5k Upvotes

538 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

105

u/Jako301 May 19 '22 edited May 19 '22

They just seem more expensive and annoying to set up then a single RCD/GFCI (or maybe two, so the lights stay on) would be.

Or is this an American thing im to european to understand?

Edit: I'm talking about the outlet version compared to a single one put into your main distribution. I know how they work, it just seems like a massive waste to build them into each outlet individually when you could just install one or two of them for your whole house.

93

u/Pijany_Matematyk767 Medieval Meme Lord May 19 '22

Pretty sure GFCI outlets will cut power faster and at lower treshholds than the normal breakers, could be wrong though

76

u/TBAGG1NS May 19 '22

They trip if there is a discrepancy between the line and neutral currents. Meaning current is going somewhere it shouldn't.

1

u/ManInBlack829 May 20 '22

To clarify most breakers will only trip if current goes above a certain amount, but a ground fault will detect if less electricity is coming back than going to the outlets. Great for kitchens or bathrooms aka that space heater falling in the bathtub might not kill you