> His daughter’s death could have been prevented by a $15 piece of equipment he could have bought at any hardware store. [Campion]
Not necessarily!
> This must have been an older home built before the current code. [Governor Dinwiddie]
Yes, many older homes don’t have a ground wire inside the wall itself (mine, built in the early 50s doesn’t). There’s no ground wire to connect the outlet to. (Catnipman, I assume you were able to connect all the needed lines. If there’s no ground wire running to the outlets themselves, GFI protection is an illusion.)
In two rooms I added a ground wire myself and ran it a short distance to an outdoor faucet metal pipe (there must be a good ground, and attached well. Ideally an electrician would make the connection.) I did that not for personal safety but to allow surge protectors to work properly.
Ordinarily a dry body won’t conduct 120 volts of electricity very well. I used to repair old radios and televisions, and through carelessness was shocked several times by 120v and considerably more. Any kind of moisture, though, and you’re in real danger. Even when just sweaty, I’m extremely careful.
“(Catnipman, I assume you were able to connect all the needed lines. If there’s no ground wire running to the outlets themselves, GFI protection is an illusion.)”
you assume correctly. the home was built in the 60’s, so all wiring was modern Romex with ground. Just no GFI breakers, which of course were a breeze to install.
The GFI works by sensing the return current. If the current into the cirucit doesn't match the current leaving the circuit, then it trips. It trips on unbalanced current. Someone using their body as a potentially lethal short to ground will disrupt the return current, thus tripping the GFI.
That's really one of the beauties of a GFI—that it can protect old wiring. But I agree that a three wire hot/neutral/ground wiring is beneficial too, but not having such wiring doesn't matter to the GFI.
I know nothing about electricity, but when I redid my bathroom and put in a CFCI outlet, there was nothing to ground it to, as my house is 67 years old, so I had to poke a hole in my wall and ground it to a pipe.
The circuit would trip constantly without that grounding. Now it doesn’t, so I assume I did something right.