GFCI protection is much more significant than you would get by simply grounding the can. Using the toaster as an example GFCI protects the Darwin Award contestant who sticks a fork in there to retrieve a stuck piece of toast. Sinks and other water sources was where they began but standing barefoot on a tile floor in a house built on a slab is every bit as bad. The first thing I had to fix in this house was the grounding electrode system because the grounded equipment was carrying "tingle" voltage on the EGC, hence the can. Tingle is actually an understatement. It knocked the snot out of me the first morning I lived here. I was wide awake by the time the coffee was done.


Greg Fretwell