this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
771 points (99.0% liked)

Funny

6923 readers
722 users here now

General rules:

Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Denvil@lemmy.one 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We're Americans, we do things illogically here

In seriousness though, I'm not really sure. I would guess, like most things, money is the answer. The codebook we electricians use specifies what needs to be GFCI. You can always go above that, and make everything GFCI, but you don't have to. If you're bidding a job, you can estimate higher to have GFCI protected everything, but the customer is almost always going to go for the cheaper price, so why bother?

I am an electrician, but this is mostly my speculation and me talking out of my ass so uh... take it with a grain of salt.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Are not most other outlets required to be afci?

  • Gfci protects “wet” areas where you might accidentally short yourself to ground, to save your life
  • afci protects against arcs in the circuit, such as cut insulation, or a wire getting hit by a nail, generally to prevent a fire
[–] Denvil@lemmy.one 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Yes, kitchens, family rooms, dining rooms living rooms, parlors, libraries, dens, bedrooms, sunrooms, recreation rooms, closets, halways, laundry areas, and "similar areas" all require AFCI protection for homes. A bathroom would be GFCI protected, but does not have to be AFCI protected. A kitchen will be both. A hallway will be AFCI protected, but does not have to be GFCI protected.

Edit: should also clarify that this is according to the most recent version of the codebook, 2023. So this list only applies to brand new homes in areas where the 2023 version has been adopted. It's likely it's the same or similar for previous iterations, but I'd have to look back through a lot of versions of the codebook to see so uh... eh