I'm at work, having a brain cramp and can't remember the answer to this question:
If a GFCI breaker trips, can you tell if it tripped due to a ground fault or due to an over-current situation just by looking at it?
Is there any way to tell which situation caused it to trip?
I don't believe GFI's trip due to overcurrent. They trip due to a fault. What is plugged into it?
No, the tripped position is the same for both situations
I'm talking about a GFCI *breaker*, not a receptacle.
I'm trying to determine if you can tell which "part" of the GFCI breaker tripped.
Thanks.
As a troubleshooting technique could I wire/pigtail a temp GFCI outlet right outside the breaker box and see if it trips?
Would I need to move the circuit to a standard breaker so as not to have 2 GFCI's in series?
Thanks.
As a troubleshooting technique could I wire/pigtail a temp GFCI outlet right outside the breaker box and see if it trips?
Would I need to move the circuit to a standard breaker so as not to have 2 GFCI's in series?
If you want to determine if it's tripping due to overload or ground fault, you could replace the GFCI breaker with a standard breaker, the connect it to a GFCI outlet
Correct. More specifically, they trip when the current in the Hot wire is x mA more/less than the Neutral wire. I forget the actual mA ranges. In reality, the earth ground has nothing to do with it; GFCI's can also be used on 2-wire, ungrounded systems and work fine. I think the "ground fault" in the name is because in order to have an imbalance in the Hot/Neutral, the missing current has somehow gone into the ground (fault condition) at some point other than the device itself. e.g. inside conduit, junction boxes, frayed insulation, bad fixtures, miswires, etc. etc. etc..
HTH,
Twayne`
,
re: "Correct"
No, he is not correct, at least not in this situation.
As per the subject line of this tread, the question was related to GFCI *breakers*, not GFCI receptacles.
A GFCI *breaker* will trip for both over-current and fault situations.
I believe Cuttler Hammer has an AFCI breaker with LEDs telling you why it tripped. Maybe they will extend that to GFCIs. Some of their breakers also have a 5ma GF protection built into the AFCI.
For now all you get on most GFCI breakers is a trip.
This is the inside of a SqD.
a CFCI BREAKER trips from overload, otherwize it is not a breaker and your circuit is not overload protected. A GFCI OUTLET does not trip from a balanced overload.
Hmm, The purpose of GFCI breaker is dual fold tripping on overload or current leakage. Watt is amount of energy, the OP's question is flawed to begin with.
Some of the newer GFCI and AFCI breakers have trip indicator LEDs that indicate which type of fault caused the trip. Most of the earlier basic GFCI breakers have no trip indicator.
Please give me a link to one "GFCI" circuit breaker that has a trip indicator showing what caused the trip
Please tell us what is flawed with my original question.
I can't wait to hear this one.
Hmm, I betcha that one is VERY intelligent with micro processor built-in. GFCI breaker in my house has a little button which pops out when tripped. It does not tell why.
Is that the answer to why you think my original question is flawed?
On Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:42:31 -0500, "RBM" wrote Re Re: GFCI Breaker Question:
In a way, yes. Watt is originating from James Watt who invented steam engine. It relates to Horse Power. In Ohm's law symbol of Watt is P which means power. P=E x I, P=I^2 x R, P= E^2/R Amount of P is depending on current and/or voltage. So if either one is high over the limit any breaker will trip. Watt used for real work is consumed by resistive load. Lost false Watt is used by inductive, capacitive load. (Remember impedance Z?)
ote:
Thanks for all that fine information.
Now tell me why you think my original question is flawed.
Tip: It might help if you tell me what any of that has to do with the question I asked *in this thread*.
Hi, Let me ask you one question. Is the breaker rated by Watt? Over and out/
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