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johnpaul
Jul 13, 2006, 11:33 AM
Hi, I want to put four receptacles in my basement, its an unfinished basement and I'll put in a
GFCI plug. My question is this: do I bond the metal boxes and Im not sure if I am supposed to ground the plugs that are fed off the GFCI? And I do ground the GFCI in the panel don't I? Thanks

tkrussell
Jul 13, 2006, 03:10 PM
You are correct in that all general purpose outlets in an unfinished basement need to be GFI. Any outlet for a refrigerator, freezer, sump pump, or any other stationary appliance does not need to be GFI.

Assuming you are using Romex cable, the bare wire needs to connect to the equipment ground bar in the panel, to the green screw on each device in the circuit, and if using metal boxes connect to each box with a machine screw.

In each box you will find a threaded hole for the machine screw. Do not wrap the bare wire around any wood or sheetmetal screw that is used to support the box. You can buy metal boxes that already have a green bonding jumper installed that you can splice onto the cable's ground wire.

I hope this answers your question, if not get back and we can go from there.

tkrussell
Jul 14, 2006, 06:27 PM
No any outlet for an appliance such as frig, freezer , sump pump never need a GFI, esp frig and freezer. Only general purpose outlets, which means all others.

So if you can plan where large appliances will go, you can wire separate circuit there and use regular outlets.

johnpaul
Jul 14, 2006, 10:42 PM
Thanks again tkrussell, for your answers. One little follow-up qestion? Why don't you put a fridge on a gfci? Just because if it did trip, you would have some melting or is something like the motor would trip the gfci? Just wondering, thanks!

tkrussell
Jul 15, 2006, 02:19 AM
Yes if the GFI trips, you stand to lose all the food from thawing.