The GFI Notify Story
A Problem Worth Solving!How It All Began
George and Christine returned home from a wonderful two-week vacation. Needing some food for dinner, Chris went to the freezer that was in their garage. She opened the door and noticed that the light was off. She then quickly noticed that the freezer was warm; all of the food was warm and totally spoiled.
Chris then went to the refrigerator also in their garage and observed the same exact thing: the light was off; the food was warm; the odor was terrible and the food was totally spoiled.
They had to throw away about $900 worth of food. What happened?
The GFI outlet in their garage had tripped. The freezer and refrigerator that had been plugged into outlets on that GFI circuit therefore lost all power.
George thought that it would have been great if he had known when that GFI had tripped while they were away. He could have called his trusted handyman to go into his garage to try to reset the GFI outlet. If it didn’t reset, the handyman could have plugged the freezer and refrigerator into live electrical outlets in their house using long extension cords.
Because of this experience, GFI NOTIFY WAS BORN!
GFIs trip more often than you think!
Since 1971, the National Electrical Code requires for safety reasons that Ground-Fault-Interrupter (GFI) outlets must be installed in: Bathrooms, Kitchens, Basements and Garages.
GFI outlets can trip for a number of reasons:
- Ground fault occurrence
- Moisture in the receptacle box
- Overloaded circuit
- Electrical fault
- Faulty GFI outlet
- Worn out insulation on electrical wires
- Electrical wiring deterioration
- Conductive dust or debris
- A close lightning storm