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Comment by oceanplexian | Hacker News Reader

> The fact that the GFCI is wired wrong doesn't matter--until it does and then things are expensive

Then don’t do it wrong.

Perhaps use the unprecedented access to information in all of human history that anyone with a smartphone has access to.

You know how many times I’ve hired a contractor or an auto mechanic and they did something dangerous or completely incorrect? Hundreds of times. If you can watch a YouTube video and follow instructions, you too can achieve screwing in three wires and watching a green LED come on.

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To agree, Trust in professionals is often misplaced in my experience.

Ie, I'm in a builder grade house, most screws aren't tight -including on switches that used push in wiring - and the terminal screws were close enough to the adjacent switch that they arced. Door handle and hinge screws also weren't tight, a 5 minute task tightening things will make them last years longer.

The problem isn't skill, it's liability.

If the insurance company doesn't see someone with a license doing the work, at best they'll screw you sideways with higher premiums and at worst refuse to insure you.

If the local government doesn't see someone with a license doing the work, they won't let you do anything else (eg: sell the house) until you get someone with a license to (re)do the work in a liable way.

That depends on the local government, I guess. Where I live, I don't have to pull a permit to run a new GFCI outlet, and if I happen to do it wrong and my house burns down, the insurance company won't know who did the work.

Regardless, your post illustrates the entire point here: people are afraid to do their own work for nebulous "liability" reasons. It's sad, really.

I'm probably much more likely to die in a car crash than because of some botched DIY electrical work. Humans are terrible at assessing risk.

Which is why you hire an electrician to come look it over. That's been the recommended route for electrical DIY since I've been searching stuff out on it.

This depends heavily on the city. My city (Atlanta) allows homeowners to pull permits and do their own work.

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