Imbalance? and 4 to 5 milliamps flowing from where to where?
It's a Ground Fault detector. Current difference between hot and neutral lines MIGHT be going through a person's hands to GROUND. AC line current going to ground is a FAULT.
The purpose is to prevent current from the toaster to the bath water
(in case your toaster has been sitting there with the hot wire shorted to the case for the past few months)
If current isn't being diverted to some other path the GFI won't know it.
If a device draws more current because of a short then the breaker current limit has to be exceeded.
Not trying to argue but don't mislead people into thinking they are safe when they might not be.
Some of the protective devises people could rely on and what they actually do:
Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI) -detect a small current differential, possibly a short to ground, maybe even through a person.
Arc Fault Interrupter Circuit (AFIC) detects the high pulse current of an arcing short circuit, like an electric blanket with an arcing short circuit.
Surge protector, a fast acting short circuiting device applied across the hot and neutral lines to short out high voltage pulses to keep them from being passed on to sensitive electronic circuits and damaging them.
All of these are nice ways to prevent electrical fires, damage to equipment, and personal injury, but they won't prevent a device from failing. An e-cig on a charger, drawing just a few watts can short out, start drawing 100 watts and glow like a space heater and none of these would stop a fire once a device overheated. None of them could anticipate a failure before it happened either.
In the original post, the 'charger' or wall wort USB supply blowing a capacitor would not have triggered any of these devices (a surge protector would have prevented a power line spike from damaging the circuit). An e-cig 'charger' plugged into a 5 volt USB supply, be it wall wort, cigarette lighter adapter, USB port in your Smart car, or computer USB port is protected by the power limited source. If the charger or the e-cig shorts out the USB limits the current. That may kill the source (wall wort, blow a fuse in the car, fry part of yur laptop mother board) but will not likely trip a GFI, AFIC, or main breaker.
A GFI circuit breaker would be a good idea if you are vaping on a pass through in the bath tub
Think of the person charging an e-cig from a laptop USB port hooked up to a charger/power supply connected to the AC mains.
It's a Ground Fault detector. Current difference between hot and neutral lines MIGHT be going through a person's hands to GROUND. AC line current going to ground is a FAULT.
The purpose is to prevent current from the toaster to the bath water
(in case your toaster has been sitting there with the hot wire shorted to the case for the past few months)
If current isn't being diverted to some other path the GFI won't know it.
If a device draws more current because of a short then the breaker current limit has to be exceeded.
Not trying to argue but don't mislead people into thinking they are safe when they might not be.
Some of the protective devises people could rely on and what they actually do:
Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI) -detect a small current differential, possibly a short to ground, maybe even through a person.
Arc Fault Interrupter Circuit (AFIC) detects the high pulse current of an arcing short circuit, like an electric blanket with an arcing short circuit.
Surge protector, a fast acting short circuiting device applied across the hot and neutral lines to short out high voltage pulses to keep them from being passed on to sensitive electronic circuits and damaging them.
All of these are nice ways to prevent electrical fires, damage to equipment, and personal injury, but they won't prevent a device from failing. An e-cig on a charger, drawing just a few watts can short out, start drawing 100 watts and glow like a space heater and none of these would stop a fire once a device overheated. None of them could anticipate a failure before it happened either.
In the original post, the 'charger' or wall wort USB supply blowing a capacitor would not have triggered any of these devices (a surge protector would have prevented a power line spike from damaging the circuit). An e-cig 'charger' plugged into a 5 volt USB supply, be it wall wort, cigarette lighter adapter, USB port in your Smart car, or computer USB port is protected by the power limited source. If the charger or the e-cig shorts out the USB limits the current. That may kill the source (wall wort, blow a fuse in the car, fry part of yur laptop mother board) but will not likely trip a GFI, AFIC, or main breaker.
A GFI circuit breaker would be a good idea if you are vaping on a pass through in the bath tub
Think of the person charging an e-cig from a laptop USB port hooked up to a charger/power supply connected to the AC mains.
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