Renaissance House Playlist:
   • Renaissance Project House  
This will be updated as segments are added.

Electric Shock or Electrocution due to Ground Fault – this is when an electrical current “Leaks” out of a line to the ground. Anytime electricity makes contact with water (in a kitchen or bathroom, near a pool or spa), the current “leaks” into the water. The current leak could be enough to kill someone in contact with that water but still not be large enough to trip a circuit breaker. Standard circuit breakers guard against overloads and short circuits. They’re not designed to protect people from electrical shocks. Hundreds of preventable electrocutions happen in and around homes every year. Electrical outlets in wet areas (kitchens, bathrooms, outside near pools, etc) pose the greatest hazard.

Electrical Fire due to Arcing – this is when a current “Jumps” through the air from one place to another, causing a free and uncontrollable flow of electricity. That uncontrolled electricity can start a fire inside your walls that can literally burn your house down from the inside out. Our segment featured a “Jacob’s Ladder” – it looks like a contraption from Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory – to illustrate arcing from one wire to another. Arcing can occur with damaged or frayed extension cords. It can happen if an electrical outlet is improperly installed or gets damaged. It can happen if you drive a nail into a wall to hang a picture and you pierce a wire hidden in the walls.

Damaged or destroyed electronics due to Surges – This is when the voltage in an electrical system “Spikes” or “Swells” as it travels through wiring into everything plugged into that wiring. Lightning storms cause major surges (up to 6000 Volts or more). Utility companies cause controlled surges as they alter systems to meet demand. Motors on appliances like the fridge or the AC cause mini-surges (1000 volts or less) when they turn on & off. That can slowly break down wiring insulation, leading to faulty operation or failure of appliances. The average home experiences hundreds of these small surges every day.

All these problems can be solved at the Breaker Box – electricians call it the “Load Center”.

Let’s first take a look at a standard circuit breaker:
A Circuit Breaker is a safety feature that interrupts the flow of electricity (“breaks the circuit”) whenever it senses trouble within your home’s electrical system. Most circuit breakers have a thermo-magnetic function. The thermal part of the breaker senses any overloads that can heat up an electrical line. If you plug too many appliances into a single circuit, that overload will heat up the wires in that circuit and that buildup of heat will trip the breaker. The magnetic part of the breaker senses a short circuit and trips the breaker to cut power to that circuit.

A short circuit means that the power has found its way to ground in an unintended manner (if two wires in a wall switch accidentally touch for example). The power has been short-circuited and will trip the breaker, interrupting the flow of electrical current.

Surge Arresters plug into the breaker box just like a standard circuit breaker. It works like the surge protector you plug your computer into, but it senses and stops surges throughout the house. It not only protects the electronics you’d protect with a plug-in surge protector, but it will protect the hard-to-reach appliances (like a wall-mounted microwave) that you might not be able to reach with a plug-in surge protector.

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI) also plug into the breaker box just like a standard circuit breaker. Your house should already have GFCI receptacles anywhere in the house where water is present (bathrooms, kitchens, outside near the pool, etc.). GE’s GFCI breakers work better than GFCI’s on individual receptacles because one GFCI breaker will protect all the receptacles connected to that circuit. For example, if you have 7 outlets connected to a single circuit in a bathroom and one of those outlets experiences a ground fault, the GFCI breaker in the breaker box will shut power to all 7 outlets.

Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters (AFCI) – Because arcing occurs at levels lower than conventional circuit breakers or fuses are designed to detect, sporadic arcs can go undetected for extended periods. As heat from arcs climbs to 5,000 degrees Celsius
and higher, wire insulation and other nearby materials grow more susceptible to fire.

You cannot prevent an arc fault from occurring inside your walls, but you can stop that arc. An AFCI breaker electronically detects any arc faults and stops the flow of electricity to that circuit in a fraction of a second. No electricity means no heat, and no heat means no fire. By tripping a breaker on a specific circuit, that AFCI breaker helps you identify the source and location of your arcing problem right from the load center (the breaker box).