History of the GFCI in a home

Great list Scott, I think I'm going to start including some of that info in the boilerplate of the GFCI section of my report.  By the way, why did you stop at 1999?

I heard from an electrician friend of mine that within a year or two it is going to be required that all circuit breakers be Arc Fault protected. Have you heard that same rumor?

The last major change was the 2008 NEC. It affects ALL 15/20  amp circuits.

Only goes into effect if codified.

Scott,

Great information, thanks for sharing. You are correct about not being able to grandfather safety. Without some of these safety upgrades, we may never get to be a grandfather.

Kevin

Now for something funny!

Look at the above picture. The washering machine recp. is within the 6'. Now move that recp. to the left outside the 6' and in does not have to be GFCI protected. Yet the washing machine that you would touch is still within 6' of the sink.

Go figure.

Heres one for you Scott. I did an inspection for a realtor who works for a company that also has their own new construction side of the house. As a matter of fact they are one of the biggest builders of new homes in our area. At the inspection I pointed out that all of the kitchen counter outlets were not GFCI (which at the time the house was built it was not required). The realtor TOLD me that only the outlets within 6 feet of the water source , blah, blah, blah. When I turned in the report to her the following day I had printed your timeline out plus some other information to back it up. She freaked and got the head of the new construction side of the house and showed him the info. Apparently their contracted electrician has been going by pre 1996 codes. Now the scary part, they have had hundreds if not thousands of homes built and sold during that time and apparently every single one of them has "passed" all the building inspections. Makes you wonder how big the payroll actually is! 

As of the 2000 IRC all kitchen countertop receptacles must be GFCI protected. There is no six foot rule. There is a six foot rule for wet bar sinks.

Here is my source from the IRC.

E3802.6 Kitchen receptacles. All 125-volt, single-phase, 15-

E3802.7 Bar sink receptacles. All 125-volt, single-phase,

The 2006 IRC added laundry rooms to wet bars.

Time to update the list.

A very interesting list, but I'm in Canada (montreal, Quebec).

Re there any AR's out there with knowledge like this, or interested in finding out?

Hello Scott - Thanks for the GFCI history lesson.  Have a great 2010!

Hi Scott, Yes still working and still getting results. I used it to prove a point the other day with a client that said the home was built before the codes went into effect. He was wrong.

Thanks for the information.

Clint McKie

Hello all,

An addition to the list, I think it was in the 2008 NEC but could be earlier, all hard-wired pool pumps both 120v and 240v.

In Florida we were given an exemption from this for several years but as of March this year the exemption has been removed from State code. Our electricians are wondering "how do we do this if there's no neutral on the 240 units?". I'm told by an ME that protection is still increased over a standard 2pole breaker because the GFCI also monitors the differential between each pole even if it can't read the neutral. Do you Know is this correct?