Would a GFCI outlet work as an overload breaker? I have a refrigerator and chest freezer in my attached garage along with the garage door opener and an outside outlet box. All are on one circuit. Occasionally, the circuit breaker trips even when I am not in the garage. This causes defrosting of the fridge and freezer, besides making the garage door inoperable. When I discover the outage, I have to make a trip to the basement to reset the breaker. I occasionally run a small compressor in the garage which may cause an overload, but the compressor is plugged into a power strip which trips instead of the main breaker. I suppose that I could put power strips on all the outlets, but I'd rather just change the outlets to ones that have a breaker built in. Would a GFCI work, or is there some other outlet that would trip upon an overload?
- posted
14 years ago