Wherever you’d like protection for appliances or, more importantly, yourself, family members, your tenants, or any maintenance workers that are working around the home, you can easily change outlets to the safer automatic breaker systems of the GFCI, or ground fault interrupter

It is not difficult to install a GFCI outlet in place of the current standard electrical outlet. Wherever you’d like protection for appliances or, more importantly, yourself, family members, your tenants, or any maintenance workers that are working around the home, you can easily change outlets to the safer automatic breaker systems of the GFCI, or ground fault interrupter.

IMPORTANT: Any electrical work should be performed by a professional electrician due to the danger of possible electrocution factors.

First, be sure that you intend to install an outlet to replace the existing outlet. Installing a GFCI breaker is a different application and requires different instructions. A GFCI outlet will simply replace the existing outlet and will only work in that area.

Next, shut off the power to the house at the breaker box before you attempt to change out the outlet or do any electrical work. Use an ohmmeter to be certain that there is no current running through the lines where you are working.

In an outlet that is on the end of the electrical system line, there will only be 3 wires. Take the existing outlet out of the wall and you’ll see that there are either 3 or 6 wires. A six wire serves more than just that outlet. This article describes the stand alone circuit only.

Then check the wiring. Three wires-neutral, white; hot, black; and ground wire. The black wire should be going to the breaker and the white will be neutral if the outlet is wired correctly. If you have an older house that you didn’t wire, be sure to check this step.

Last step is to connect the GFI outlet just as the standard outlet was wired in. Put the GFI properly into the wall. Turn the power back on and test the GFI outlet using the button provided on the front of the outlet. Most GFI’s have the test and reset buttons marked with T and R in case you aren’t certain which is which. If installed properly the outlet will trip and shut off. Then you’ll need to press the reset button to place it back into service.

If any of these instructions prompt questions or you are uncomfortable at any point in this installation, it’s best to call a professional for your safety. All work on electrical lines, no matter how simple it may seem, can still be quite dangerous.

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