Gfci ......

[reefermadness]

A GFI is firstly a personal protection device. It is designed so that a if a person completed a ground fault (short to ground) the GFI would trip so fast that the person would sustain no injury. A GFI is designed to trip with 5mA of stray electricity in less than 25ms.

Having said that many fires can start as a gound fault (short to ground). A GFI would help in preventing these fires. Remember that electicity can easily stray to ground in many many ways. If you have have every been shocked it is most likely that the electricity passed though you to ground....even though you may have been standing on wood floors or carpet. If you were not grounded you would be isolated and in that case you would not feel a shock at all.