Patent ID: 8072717

Claim:
A protective wiring device for use in an electrical distribution system, the device comprising: a plurality of line terminals including a line hot terminal and a line neutral terminal; a plurality of load terminals including a plurality of feed-through load terminals and a plurality of receptacle load terminals; a fault detection circuit coupled to the plurality of line terminals, the fault detection circuit being configured to provide a fault detection signal in response to detecting at least one predefined perturbation in the electrical distribution system; an actuator assembly coupled to the fault detection circuit, the actuator assembly being configured to provide an actuator stimulus in response to the fault detection signal or in response to an electronics test failure state being effected; a reset mechanism including a user-accessible button coupled to a mechanical linkage; a circuit interrupter coupled to the actuator assembly and the reset mechanism, the circuit interrupter including four sets of interrupting contacts that are configured to provide electrical continuity between the plurality of line terminals and the plurality of load terminals in a reset state and configured to interrupt the electrical continuity in a tripped state, the reset state being effected when the circuit interrupter is engaged by the mechanical linkage in response to a user actuation of the user-accessible button, the tripped state being effected when the circuit interrupter is disengaged from the mechanical linkage in response to the actuator stimulus; a test facility including a testing circuit configured to periodically generate at least one first test signal without execution of software instructions, the at least one first test signal being configured to induce a simulated fault corresponding to the at least one predefined perturbation, the test facility further comprising a manual test circuit being configured to generate a second test signal; a test monitoring circuit operating without execution of software instructions and coupled to the fault detection circuit and the actuator assembly, the test monitoring circuit being configured to effect an electronics test verification state in response to receiving the fault detection signal corresponding to the first test signal and effect the electronics test failure state in response to not detecting the fault detection signal corresponding to the first test signal within a first predetermined period of time, the test monitoring circuit being configured to effect an end-of-life detection state if the circuit interrupter fails to effect the tripped state in response to the electronics test failure state or in response to detecting a failure in the actuator assembly; and an end-of-life circuit assembly coupled to the test monitoring circuit, the end-of-life circuit assembly being configured to permanently decouple the plurality of line terminals from the plurality of load terminals in response to the end-of-life detection state.