I’m remodeling my bathroom and rather than installing a GFCI recepticle near the sink I decided to intall a GFCI breaker at the panel to protect all the bathroom’s various lights, fans, etc. All the bathroom circuits are fed from this single GFCI breaker. I know this is out of normal sequence but it was somewhat of an afterthought to install the GFCI breaker and as a consequence it was installed after all other wiring in the bathroom had been completed. The circuit functioned normally with the old non-GFCI breaker, but after the GFCI breaker was installed the breaker “trips” as soon as I turn on anything in the bathroom. There are five different leads in the bathroom — three lights, a fan, and a (non-GFCI) recepticle. Can anybody offer some insight into common GFCI breaker wiring problems that might be applicable to this problem? Thanks in advance.
Len
Replies
There are two common problems:
1] You may have the GFCI breaker installed wrong. The neutral for that circuit goes to the breaker and the coiled white wire from the braker goes to the neutral bar.
2] Other than that, you could have a bare ground wire touching a neutral screw in one of the boxes. You can track this down by disconnecting the first or second receptacle or switch from the downstream ones and seeing if this works.
3] You may have a defective breaker but I doubt it.
4] Doh. You may have something plugged in which has a ground fault within it.
5] You can't have a shared neutral.
~Peter
What has Bush done about this plague of shark attacks?
Edited 6/28/2005 11:44 pm ET by PM22
Sledge and PM:
Thanks. Good info. It appears I do have the GFCI wired incorrectly. I left the neutral attached to the neutral buss-bar while attaching the coiled GFCI wire to the buss-bar as well. My incorrect wiring is apparently the problem. Tomorrow I'll make the change and if that doesn't correct the problem I'll look for the ground/neutral contact in the switch box as well as the shared neutral with another circuit.
BTW, the coiled wire on the GFCI doesn't reach the neutral buss-bar. Can I connect an additional piece of 12 ga. wire to the end of the GFCI neutral with a wire nut in order to reach the buss-bar without violating code?
Len
Yes. You can attach a length of white #12 wire in the panel to extend it.
disclaimer: as long as you don't take up more than 75% of the space.
Use a white wirenut and try to hide it behind other wires in the panel.
~Peter
Why hasn't the Supreme Court declared shark attacks unconstitutional?Because they're all lawyers.
3] You may have a defective breaker but I doubt it.
Looking into these breakers for my own home I came across a product recall for Square D GFCI Breakers (the ones with the curly white wire)
http://www.cpsc.gov/cgi-bin/recalldb/prodpr.asp
There have been a fair number of recalls. The ones for my box were recalled and my Home Depot at the time had boxes of the date code that was recalled and they claim they didn't know it.
Consumer Product Safety Council / Ground Fault Ciucuit Interrupt
Jerry
Shared neutral with another circuit. ?
Dollars to donuts you don't have the neutral isolated everywhere. BOTH the hot and neutral for all protected outlets must come ONLY from the GFCI -- you can't share a neutral with a circuit not on the GFCI.
... more good info. Here's another question: do the same restrictions against sharing protected and non-protected neutrals/hots apply to the installation of an AFCI breaker? Thanks for sharing you knowledge.
YES!!
It is considered bad practice to have outlets and lights on the same breaker. It would be nice if you could still see after you plugged something in that blew the breaker.