GFCI tripping on overload?Sump with no pump!Problems with GFCI outlets recently installedLosing ceiling fans...
Does the length of a password for Wi-Fi affect speed?
C# TCP server/client class
Are the related objects in an SOQL query shared?
Write The Shortest Program To Check If A Binary Tree Is Balanced
Why are there yellow dot stickers on the front doors of businesses in Russia?
In MTG, was there ever a five-color deck that worked well?
Did Logical Positivism fail because it simply denied human emotion?
Is there a way to improve my grade after graduation?
Why wasn't interlaced CRT scanning done back and forth?
…down the primrose path
How easy is it to get a gun illegally in the United States?
What license to choose for my PhD thesis?
Can a Hogwarts student refuse the Sorting Hat's decision?
Is there a command-line tool for converting html files to pdf?
Why is the Vasa Museum in Stockholm so Popular?
What's "halachic" about "Esav hates Ya'akov"?
When using the Proficiency Dice optional rule, how should they be used in determining a character's Spell Save DC?
Getting an entry level IT position later in life
Repeated! Factorials!
Why should I "believe in" weak solutions to PDEs?
Can I use my US callsign to transmit while in El Salvador?
Is the first page of a novel really that important?
How to check a file was encrypted (really & correctly)
Properties: Left of the colon
GFCI tripping on overload?
Sump with no pump!Problems with GFCI outlets recently installedLosing ceiling fans after the lightest thunderstorms. How to ascertain the cause?Bathroom light tripping GFCI?Sealing crawl space vents in Pacific Northwest?advice on sealing crawlspace vents to outside airLeviton GFCIs constantly trip on shaded pole motorsGFCI Breaker Serving GFCI Receptacles Tripping in Extreme Fog and ColdTroubleshooting GFCI Outlet TrippingPower tripping out
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty{ margin-bottom:0;
}
We called out the contractor who did our crawlspace encapsulation because the GFCI receptacle that serves the crawlspace loads (dehumidifier, sump pump, and two humidistat controlled fans) trips occasionally - I think this happens during the rainy season when humidity is high during the rainy season, but since the battery backed pump sounds an alarm when it loses power we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping.
The contractor is putting forth the theory that since it is a 15 A circuit (14 AWG NM cable and a 15 A breaker) there may be an overload if all of the devices startup at about the same time and this may cause the GFCI to trip. That makes no sense to me because I don't think GFCIs work that way - but he is adamant that he has seen this happen.
I'm thinking that we must be seeing some leakage from one of the fans or the humidistat - but I don't want to be going off half-cocked, my years as an electrician are long past and I never did residential work.
Could startup loads from the motors down there be the cause of the GFCI tripping?
electrical gfci crawlspace
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
add a comment |
We called out the contractor who did our crawlspace encapsulation because the GFCI receptacle that serves the crawlspace loads (dehumidifier, sump pump, and two humidistat controlled fans) trips occasionally - I think this happens during the rainy season when humidity is high during the rainy season, but since the battery backed pump sounds an alarm when it loses power we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping.
The contractor is putting forth the theory that since it is a 15 A circuit (14 AWG NM cable and a 15 A breaker) there may be an overload if all of the devices startup at about the same time and this may cause the GFCI to trip. That makes no sense to me because I don't think GFCIs work that way - but he is adamant that he has seen this happen.
I'm thinking that we must be seeing some leakage from one of the fans or the humidistat - but I don't want to be going off half-cocked, my years as an electrician are long past and I never did residential work.
Could startup loads from the motors down there be the cause of the GFCI tripping?
electrical gfci crawlspace
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
add a comment |
We called out the contractor who did our crawlspace encapsulation because the GFCI receptacle that serves the crawlspace loads (dehumidifier, sump pump, and two humidistat controlled fans) trips occasionally - I think this happens during the rainy season when humidity is high during the rainy season, but since the battery backed pump sounds an alarm when it loses power we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping.
The contractor is putting forth the theory that since it is a 15 A circuit (14 AWG NM cable and a 15 A breaker) there may be an overload if all of the devices startup at about the same time and this may cause the GFCI to trip. That makes no sense to me because I don't think GFCIs work that way - but he is adamant that he has seen this happen.
I'm thinking that we must be seeing some leakage from one of the fans or the humidistat - but I don't want to be going off half-cocked, my years as an electrician are long past and I never did residential work.
Could startup loads from the motors down there be the cause of the GFCI tripping?
electrical gfci crawlspace
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
We called out the contractor who did our crawlspace encapsulation because the GFCI receptacle that serves the crawlspace loads (dehumidifier, sump pump, and two humidistat controlled fans) trips occasionally - I think this happens during the rainy season when humidity is high during the rainy season, but since the battery backed pump sounds an alarm when it loses power we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping.
The contractor is putting forth the theory that since it is a 15 A circuit (14 AWG NM cable and a 15 A breaker) there may be an overload if all of the devices startup at about the same time and this may cause the GFCI to trip. That makes no sense to me because I don't think GFCIs work that way - but he is adamant that he has seen this happen.
I'm thinking that we must be seeing some leakage from one of the fans or the humidistat - but I don't want to be going off half-cocked, my years as an electrician are long past and I never did residential work.
Could startup loads from the motors down there be the cause of the GFCI tripping?
electrical gfci crawlspace
electrical gfci crawlspace
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
edited 9 hours ago
dlu
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
asked 12 hours ago
dludlu
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
2341 silver badge12 bronze badges
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Overloads don't trip a GFCI. Period. If there was an overload, it would trip the actual circuit breaker. Since this is a GFCI/receptacle (as opposed to a GFCI/breaker) and the GFCI trips, that is a GFCI problem - 100% - and not an overcurrent situation.
14 AWG raises the question of the size of the breaker. If it is 15A then everything is good. If it is 20A then the breaker is oversized for the wires. If that is the case, the breaker should be changed to 15A. That is a general (fire) safety issue, unrelated to the GFCI issue. But even if it is 14 AWG on a 20A breaker with 18A flowing through (therefore over the allowed safe current for the wires but not enough to trip the breaker), it would cause overheating of the wire and potentially a fire - but would probably not trip the GFCI.
Now back to the real problem. Something is tripping the GFCI. Most likely that is some current leaking to ground. That is what GFCI is designed to protect. That also perfectly matches when humidity is high during the rainy season. When water gets in places in electrical devices that it shouldn't, electricity can move in unwanted pathways. It takes a lot of current to trip the regular breaker. It only takes a little to trip a GFCI or to injure or kill someone.
The good news is that it sounds like you already found the problem: "we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping." If that's a consistent/reliable fix then the problem is either in that fan or the wiring going to it.
As far as startup loads: anything is possible. GFCI and AFCI both have sophisticated electronics. A GFCI should be relatively simple and immune to anything except actual current leakage, unlike AFCI which is trying to detect some relatively hard-to-detect problems and could be "confused" more easily by motors 'n things. However, newer GFCIs with automatic testing have more sophisticated electronics - and therefore are more susceptible to problems from other causes.
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "73"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fdiy.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f170635%2fgfci-tripping-on-overload%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Overloads don't trip a GFCI. Period. If there was an overload, it would trip the actual circuit breaker. Since this is a GFCI/receptacle (as opposed to a GFCI/breaker) and the GFCI trips, that is a GFCI problem - 100% - and not an overcurrent situation.
14 AWG raises the question of the size of the breaker. If it is 15A then everything is good. If it is 20A then the breaker is oversized for the wires. If that is the case, the breaker should be changed to 15A. That is a general (fire) safety issue, unrelated to the GFCI issue. But even if it is 14 AWG on a 20A breaker with 18A flowing through (therefore over the allowed safe current for the wires but not enough to trip the breaker), it would cause overheating of the wire and potentially a fire - but would probably not trip the GFCI.
Now back to the real problem. Something is tripping the GFCI. Most likely that is some current leaking to ground. That is what GFCI is designed to protect. That also perfectly matches when humidity is high during the rainy season. When water gets in places in electrical devices that it shouldn't, electricity can move in unwanted pathways. It takes a lot of current to trip the regular breaker. It only takes a little to trip a GFCI or to injure or kill someone.
The good news is that it sounds like you already found the problem: "we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping." If that's a consistent/reliable fix then the problem is either in that fan or the wiring going to it.
As far as startup loads: anything is possible. GFCI and AFCI both have sophisticated electronics. A GFCI should be relatively simple and immune to anything except actual current leakage, unlike AFCI which is trying to detect some relatively hard-to-detect problems and could be "confused" more easily by motors 'n things. However, newer GFCIs with automatic testing have more sophisticated electronics - and therefore are more susceptible to problems from other causes.
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
add a comment |
Overloads don't trip a GFCI. Period. If there was an overload, it would trip the actual circuit breaker. Since this is a GFCI/receptacle (as opposed to a GFCI/breaker) and the GFCI trips, that is a GFCI problem - 100% - and not an overcurrent situation.
14 AWG raises the question of the size of the breaker. If it is 15A then everything is good. If it is 20A then the breaker is oversized for the wires. If that is the case, the breaker should be changed to 15A. That is a general (fire) safety issue, unrelated to the GFCI issue. But even if it is 14 AWG on a 20A breaker with 18A flowing through (therefore over the allowed safe current for the wires but not enough to trip the breaker), it would cause overheating of the wire and potentially a fire - but would probably not trip the GFCI.
Now back to the real problem. Something is tripping the GFCI. Most likely that is some current leaking to ground. That is what GFCI is designed to protect. That also perfectly matches when humidity is high during the rainy season. When water gets in places in electrical devices that it shouldn't, electricity can move in unwanted pathways. It takes a lot of current to trip the regular breaker. It only takes a little to trip a GFCI or to injure or kill someone.
The good news is that it sounds like you already found the problem: "we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping." If that's a consistent/reliable fix then the problem is either in that fan or the wiring going to it.
As far as startup loads: anything is possible. GFCI and AFCI both have sophisticated electronics. A GFCI should be relatively simple and immune to anything except actual current leakage, unlike AFCI which is trying to detect some relatively hard-to-detect problems and could be "confused" more easily by motors 'n things. However, newer GFCIs with automatic testing have more sophisticated electronics - and therefore are more susceptible to problems from other causes.
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
add a comment |
Overloads don't trip a GFCI. Period. If there was an overload, it would trip the actual circuit breaker. Since this is a GFCI/receptacle (as opposed to a GFCI/breaker) and the GFCI trips, that is a GFCI problem - 100% - and not an overcurrent situation.
14 AWG raises the question of the size of the breaker. If it is 15A then everything is good. If it is 20A then the breaker is oversized for the wires. If that is the case, the breaker should be changed to 15A. That is a general (fire) safety issue, unrelated to the GFCI issue. But even if it is 14 AWG on a 20A breaker with 18A flowing through (therefore over the allowed safe current for the wires but not enough to trip the breaker), it would cause overheating of the wire and potentially a fire - but would probably not trip the GFCI.
Now back to the real problem. Something is tripping the GFCI. Most likely that is some current leaking to ground. That is what GFCI is designed to protect. That also perfectly matches when humidity is high during the rainy season. When water gets in places in electrical devices that it shouldn't, electricity can move in unwanted pathways. It takes a lot of current to trip the regular breaker. It only takes a little to trip a GFCI or to injure or kill someone.
The good news is that it sounds like you already found the problem: "we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping." If that's a consistent/reliable fix then the problem is either in that fan or the wiring going to it.
As far as startup loads: anything is possible. GFCI and AFCI both have sophisticated electronics. A GFCI should be relatively simple and immune to anything except actual current leakage, unlike AFCI which is trying to detect some relatively hard-to-detect problems and could be "confused" more easily by motors 'n things. However, newer GFCIs with automatic testing have more sophisticated electronics - and therefore are more susceptible to problems from other causes.
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
Overloads don't trip a GFCI. Period. If there was an overload, it would trip the actual circuit breaker. Since this is a GFCI/receptacle (as opposed to a GFCI/breaker) and the GFCI trips, that is a GFCI problem - 100% - and not an overcurrent situation.
14 AWG raises the question of the size of the breaker. If it is 15A then everything is good. If it is 20A then the breaker is oversized for the wires. If that is the case, the breaker should be changed to 15A. That is a general (fire) safety issue, unrelated to the GFCI issue. But even if it is 14 AWG on a 20A breaker with 18A flowing through (therefore over the allowed safe current for the wires but not enough to trip the breaker), it would cause overheating of the wire and potentially a fire - but would probably not trip the GFCI.
Now back to the real problem. Something is tripping the GFCI. Most likely that is some current leaking to ground. That is what GFCI is designed to protect. That also perfectly matches when humidity is high during the rainy season. When water gets in places in electrical devices that it shouldn't, electricity can move in unwanted pathways. It takes a lot of current to trip the regular breaker. It only takes a little to trip a GFCI or to injure or kill someone.
The good news is that it sounds like you already found the problem: "we disconnected one of the fans which stopped the tripping." If that's a consistent/reliable fix then the problem is either in that fan or the wiring going to it.
As far as startup loads: anything is possible. GFCI and AFCI both have sophisticated electronics. A GFCI should be relatively simple and immune to anything except actual current leakage, unlike AFCI which is trying to detect some relatively hard-to-detect problems and could be "confused" more easily by motors 'n things. However, newer GFCIs with automatic testing have more sophisticated electronics - and therefore are more susceptible to problems from other causes.
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
edited 10 hours ago
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
answered 11 hours ago
manassehkatzmanassehkatz
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
15.9k1 gold badge22 silver badges49 bronze badges
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Home Improvement Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fdiy.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f170635%2fgfci-tripping-on-overload%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
