Re: Keeping Things Hot (It's a Crock)

Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Wed, 07 May 1997 01:10:36 -0400 (EDT)

On Tue, 6 May 1997, Richard Sullivan wrote: > > I think that it implied
that you should wire it properly, it would be rather absurd to imply
otherwise. The GFI is not a fuse but measures the balance between the hot
and common. If they are out of balance then the current is going to
ground, which could mean YOU, and shuts down instantly, in nanoseconds I'm
told. It has to be upstream due to the way it measures the balance on the
two lines, it won't see any leakage before the device. My current darkroom
is still under construction but my darkroom in Van Nuys was GFI'd off of
the first box on the circuit and I can tell you that it that it was
triggered by any other outlet on the chain. Likewise why would a breaker
that was a GFI breaker work on any box the circuit. This is also the
anathema of TV studios I mentioned. Once the circuit was on a GFI anything
leaking on the circuit triggered the whole circuit bringing everything
down. A real mess if you go off the air because of it. The problem here is
that the equipment they use is "professional" meaning that the internal
grounding does not live up to the standards imposed on "consumer" gear,
and thus a little leakage is not a problem as far as their design goes.
But these GFI devices are sensitive to the slightest amount of ground
leakage and shut down. The other problem is you could have 100 electronic
devices on the line and not know which one is the culprit. Those of us who
are old enough may remember the old serial circuit Christmas tree lights
when one went out the whole string went down, and the only way to find the
bad one was to keep changing bulbs until the string went on. > > > Dick >

..... To Dick and Bob and the rest of the wonderful, brave
electrically-enabled folks who have addressed my fecklessness re the
hairdryer:

My profound thanks. I have taken your warnings to heart and plugged the
hairdryer into the receptacle on the floor under the Nu-Arc.... I had to
crawl in darkness and dust to do it, but it's done, away from the water,
but close enough to the sink to function passably. It isn't clear to
me how I would be electrocuted if I dropped the hairdryer into the tray,
since it would have been *dropped*, but I'm the girl who is afraid of the
toaster when it's unplugged for fear there's some electricity left in it,
so this is a test I can pass on.

Since the outlet I used at the sink is buried behind a huge bookcase
loaded with books -- I was accessing it by a little extension cord that
got hot when I used it, besides having a broken switch --- well, you get
the idea. It would be a day's work to reach the outlet with or without
GFI.....

I actually had an electrician in for several days a few years ago and we
put multiple outlets all over the place, but in truth you *cannot* forsee
where and what you'll need a plug for no matter how carefully you plan
(never have, never will -- and there's always another appliance, like an
aquarium heater, you didn't know you needed until suddenly you cannot do
without it), not to mention all that lack of wall space. (Nu Arc is
connected by coming up thru floor.)

I had an absolute plethora of outlets in the cellar darkroom once upon a
time -- and now every one of them has a 2 or 3-way plug or power strip in
it with all the units allocated... Like the computer I suppose, you think
you've got gigabytes to burn & then you suddenly need a memory upgrade.

Meanwhile, I envision an overhead electric outlet on a glide that you just
pull along to where you want it, like the trapeze artist -- with of course
a built-in GFI.

Cheers & thanks all,

Judy