Posted by MarkB_MI on November 08, 2014 at 08:38:36 from (70.194.8.29):
In Reply to: GFCI dilemma resolved posted by George Marsh on November 06, 2014 at 15:23:22:
OK George, I found a GFCI receptacle in my electrical junk drawer and decided to waste an hour of my time this morning testing out your theories. I ended up moving into the house because all the outlets in my shop are protected by a GFCI breaker, which I kept tripping. Here are the results.
#1. Does a GFCI trip when you short neutral to ground on the protected circuit? You betcha! But as everybody has said, that's expected behavior. A GFCI that can't detect a fault on the neutral is no GFCI at all. No points awarded.
#2. Does a GFCI receptacle draw over 2 watts with no load on it? My Kill-a-Watt can't measure less than 10 milliamps (and I'd be suspicious of that), but it did seem to lock in on a power factor of around 0.3. My Fluke DMM reported a current draw of 7 milliamps. So that means the GFCI draws 120 x .007 x .3 = .25 watts. That's really nothing. Even if the Power Factor is unity, it would still be less than a watt per GFCI. Point to me.
#3. Is there significant voltage between neutral and ground? According to my DMM, there's 30 millivolts between ground and neutral in my shop. Note that my shop is 125 feet from the meter, with separate neutral and ground the entire distance. So your mileage may vary. Point to me.
#4. Is the voltage differential between neutral and ground responsible for the GFCI tripping when there's a ground fault on neutral? (This is the test I suggested you do.) I shorted the GFCI's source neutral to ground, thereby reducing the voltage between the two to zero. The GFCI would still trip. So B&D and I were wrong: Although the difference may be significant, it's not what trips the GFCI. My personal opinion is this behavior is BY DESIGN. (You seem to think it's a design fault.) At any rate, POINT TO GEORGE!
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