Santa Posted September 6, 2009 Share Posted September 6, 2009 Well I am another newbie and working on meeting the electrical needs for the controllers. I have a question with regards to the installation of Ground Fault Circuits. Would it be better to install the circuit breaker as the ground fault or have the GFCI at the plug level. My concern would be if there were to be a incident where the circuit did have something that triggered the GFCI, would it also fry the circuit board it the GFCI was at the circuit breaker vs. the plug level. Perhaps the plug level would help to protect the LOR board. Or maybe I am worrying for no reason at all.Thanks - Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 6, 2009 Share Posted September 6, 2009 Chuck,A GFI recepticle or breaker is no difference. One advantage is that a breaker is inside and warmer to work on that a recepticle that is outside. But the cost difference is 3 or 4 times more for a breaker than a recepticle.I just noted that you are in FL. so warmth should be no big deal to you. ha ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwaldrep Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 as stated above, a GFCI break is more then just the receptacle.I just added 4 20 amp circuits yesterday. A 20 amp GFCI breaker for my panel is $37, verses a 20 amp GFCI receptacle is $10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 The GFCI isn't really about protecting the electrical hardware. It is about protecting things that unintentionally come into contact with the circuit, and some foreign voltage potential, most commonly ground. Having the GFCI at the breaker or the outlet won't have any impact on the controller one way or the other.One benefit of having them separate is that generally a GFCI event will trip the outlet, and an over current will trip the breaker, so you have a better indication of where your problem lies. At least in the past I have seen GFCI breakers where you could not tell which reason tripped them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad02 Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 I agree, it is better to have a GFR trip and know where the problem is then to have a GFCI trip and no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 If you want to have the GFCI inside where it's warm, you can install a regular GFCI outlet inside, and run the "load" (or "slave") terminals to the ordinary outlet(s) outside. This also protects you if the outside socket is mounted in a box that gets flooded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Shelby Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Steven wrote: If you want to have the GFCI inside where it's warm, you can install a regular GFCI outlet inside, and run the "load" (or "slave") terminals to the ordinary outlet(s) outside. This also protects you if the outside socket is mounted in a box that gets flooded.I have also seen where "blank faced" GFCI's were installed under the electrical panel, then ran to outlets in the yard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 James Shelby wrote: I have also seen where "blank faced" GFCI's were installed under the electrical panel, then ran to outlets in the yard.Lowe's was having a clearance sale on those a few weeks ago, so I bought 2 for less than $9 each. The nice thing about these is that they have a light that turns on when the GFCI is tripped, so you can see exactly what happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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