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Message: [QUOTE="Waterbug, post: 97280, member: 2322"] If an electrician suggested a whole house GFI, first make sure you understood them correctly, and if true, find another electrician. If Uncle Ernie suggested it, hand him a beer and pat him on the head. It would be against code to have a whole house GFI. Some devices like a washing machine or a refrigerator can trip GFIs which leads people to do unsafe things like run an extension cord to another outlet. Today those devices require their own circuit and cannot be GFI according to code I believe. I'm not sure if other outlets, like a bedroom can have a GFI, but I'd check code before doing it. If you wanted to upgrade something you could consider adding Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) where allowed. These can help prevent fires. Or maybe they were talking about whole house surge protector? Sounds good doesn't it. They're find, do offer some protection. But they only protect against surges coming into the house. A lighting strike that gets to a water pipe, to a ground wire, no protection. It's possible for the surge to go from the ground wire to the panel before getting to a computer, TV, whatever, but that's just luck. Sometimes appliances can cause surges too. So even with a whole house protector devices still have to be plugged directly into a surge protector for true protection. That makes a whole house protector less helpful than the name may sound. But then they're not expensive so worth consideration. I personally wouldn't. One more thing to go wrong, I like simple. [/QUOTE]

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