Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters should be installed in circuits which are located in potentially wet areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, garages, workshops and outdoor locations. Although they are now required by code in such areas, older homes were built without them. They are inexpensive, easy to install and they may save your life!

• Electricity always wants to find a ground, and it attempts to reach that ground in the shortest route possible. A ground fault is a short circuit in which current travels through a path you don't want it to in order to find a ground. The path could be you! Being wet causes you to be a better electrical conductor, and this is the reason damp locations should have a GFCI receptacle at the beginning of the circuit. GFCI's monitor the current going to and coming from the receptacle. Within a fraction of a second of detecting a current imbalance, a properly installed GFCI shuts that circuit down. You may get shocked, but you should be safe from electrocution. All receptacles installed in line after the GFCI are also protected.
  
  
• GFCI's have test and reset buttons. Once the circuit has been broken, the receptacles in line after the GFCI will not work until it has been reset. So, in the room you are trying to protect, install the GFCI in the receptacle closest to the service panel end of the house. Hopefully, this will be closer to the beginning of the circuit. Then, to determine which receptacles are protected by the GFCI, restore the power and push the test button. The GFCI receptacle and any others that follow it in the circuit will be dead. If you are lucky, that will include all of the other receptacles in the room. If the other receptacles you wish to protect are still active, turn off the power to the circuit, remove the GFCI, and install it in place of another receptacle on the other side of the room. Retest as before.