Lately, I have had a number of trips of my GFIC in my greenhouse. I run output from a protected recepticle through a multi-outlet surge protector to a timer switch. The timer controls several pumps.
One possibility is that varistors my shunt some current to ground if there is some over voltage. It never seems to happen when I turn the override switch on and off.
Has anyone run into such a problem?
Bill
Its possible that the varistors are leaking (possibly nearing failure) enough current from phase to ground to cause the GF device to operate. Why are you protecting pumps and a timer with a surge protected outlet strip?
Do GFIC trips occur because of surges? Group: alt.engineering.electrical Date: Sat, Jun 18, 2005, 12:41am (EDT+4) From: snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net (Repeating=A0Rifle) Lately, I have had a number of trips of my GFIC in my greenhouse. I run output from a protected recepticle through a multi-outlet surge protector to a timer switch. The timer controls several pumps. One possibility is that varistors my shunt some current to ground if there is some over voltage. It never seems to happen when I turn the override switch on and off. Has anyone run into such a problem? Bill
No, I have had surges and flash outages in the past and my GFCI's have never tripped due to them., they maybe ready to fail or something connected upstream is affecting it...Roy
in article snipped-for-privacy@Hovnanian.com, Paul Hovnanian at snipped-for-privacy@Hovnanian.com wrote on 6/17/05 8:08 PM:
It is just a convenient extension from the socket to the timer. It lets me easily switch power to the timer without my unplugging. I am using a timer obtained from Harbor Freight. I changed surge protectors. I have had no more trips, but I do not have sufficient time to jump to any conclusion.
Bill
Yes, I have seen that problem with some surge protectors. Replacing it with a regular outlet strip may solve the problem. You don't need the surge protection anyhow.
Ben Miller
Really?
I would like that "line to line" protection would ALWAYS help (and shouldn't trip the GFCI.
"Common mode" surge portection could trip a GFCI.
It would be difficult to protect against common mode surges without tripping the GFCI.
I don't know if it's "legal" but one can imagine a "surge" ground wire being run through the GFCI sensing cores. Common mode surges shunted to that ground would not trip the GFCI.
That would defeat the purpose of the GFCI, may as well remove it.
Bud--
Depends. If the "surge ground" connecting goes thru the GFCI then I "ground fault" to the "surge ground" would not trip the GFCI. But a fault between either conductor and "real ground" still will. I suppose the GFCI would have to be integrated with the surge protector BUT I notice that lots of equipment seems to have a dedicated GFCI (my new air conditioner does.).
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