Pro Sound Web: Every year, hundreds of musicians and audio techs suffer serious electrical shocks while on the job, and these incidents have the potential to be fatal. Therefore, it’s imperative to have a basic understanding of electricity to avoid possible electrocution, and further, this knowledge can help protect your equipment from going up in smoke.
6 comments:
It's interesting to look at the evolution of safety features as increases in technology allow us to make things safer, or our knowledge of the dangers of things makes us aware of potential problems. This is also a fairly clever, relatively simple way of making sure that people don't get electrocuted, and I think serves as a useful addition to a circuit breaker.
This article did do a very good job of explaining the concept of a GFCI protected circuit in a clear and simple manner. From experience, I've noticed that many people are not completely sure of the difference between a GFCI and a circuit breaker, so this article would be very useful for them. However, this article does not have an very clear purpose. Yes, it is educational, and eventually concludes with "don't touch GFCI's or you'll die," but it could provide a better context to more practical uses and implementations of GFCI's.
The most interesting part of this article is that it’s in a sound magazine. Audio receptacles typically utilize an isolated ground to prevent interference drain or ground loops in the system. The basic principal behind a standard GFCI outlet fundamentally defeats the purpose of a second isolated ground wire.
This article doesn’t mention that isolated ground GFCI receptacles do exist. These units are typically healthcare/hospital grade, and as such are very expensive.
All this being said, I think that many do not truly understand how important the “plugs with the red and black buttons next to the sink” actually are, and how much protection they offer.
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This article is one of the simplest I've seen to explain a GFCI, which is a good thing. It makes people understand why GCFIs are worth putting in and why they are actually required in some buildings/rooms. That being said, they don't actually talk about where you should use or are required to use a GCFI. One example of where a GCFI is always used are bathrooms since circuits have a high chance of coming into contact with water.
Though relatively simple, this article does a good job clarifying what a GFCI is and how it works for someone who doesn't quite understand it. For me it helped me better understand exactly what causes a GFCI to trip and what separates a GFCI from a circuit breaker. Having an understanding of audio systems it is unusual that this has become an issue in the world of audio, where it is typical to have a ground on all power cables to prevent power leakage.
I was really impressed with how this article explained how GFCIs work in clear and simple terms, so people who don't know anything about electricity can understand it. These devices are obviously really important and can save lives and prevent fires. I'm glad I read this article- I actually understand this concept a lot better now. Before, I just knew that those plugs with the buttons on them stopped you from getting shocked, but I didn't know how
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