SELF TESTING GROUND FAULT CIRCUIT INTERRUPTER (GFCI) WITH END OF LIFE (EOL) DETECTION THAT REJECTS FALSE EOL INFORMATION

摘要

A self test (ST) ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) provides improv ed end of life (EOL) detection by rejecting false EOL information. A processing device receives fault detection signals indicating when faults are detected, and input signals indicating when contacts used to interrupt power to a load are closed. The processing device rejects the fault detection signals when they fail to meet a selected condition and the contacts are closed, and declares end of life (EOL) when the selecte d condition is met. The fault detection signals can correspond to pulses at an output of a gated device between the processing device and a GFCI chip, and the select ed condition can be a selected integer number of pulses.