cgfi breakers keep tripping

[FishTruck]

I upgraded three 20 amp breakers to gfi breakers. The circuits were working fine and tested fine with ground tests.

Anyway, all three breakers tripped as soon as I restored power. I had to go around and unplug every single thing in every outlet to get them to reset.

Then, if I plug in any lamp, turn on any switch, they trip again. All three on three separate circuits.

Could I have three bad breakers? I did get them at Home Depot.

Thanks

Ryan.

[Riderxusa]

FishTruck, it sounds as if you may have installed them incorrectly. Highly unlikely you could have 3 "bad" breakers at the same time. How did you install them? The white wire on the breaker goes to to the neutral bar (the one in the panel that has a bunch of other whites, possibly some green or bare copper also) Then the white wire from the "3 circuits" is landed on the breaker, one white per breaker, usually there is a terminal screw just above the "curly" white wire on the breaker or has a dot of white paint. Keith

[FishTruck]

WOOPS!

I hooked the curly white wire to the neutral bar and just moved the black, hot, wire from each circuit to the new breakers.

I did not go find the neutral wire from each circuit to put it on the new breakers. I just left them hooked to the neutral bar.

I guess this makes sense... I need the white wire from each circuit connected to each breaker and then each breaker grounded to the neutral bar...

I will re read the instructions.

Thanks so much.

[FishTruck]

Bah! Shared neutrals on all circuits. Cannot use gfi breakers on this setup. Will have to go to the outlets.

Another one learned the hard way (at least not with a shock though).

[cannarella]

So there are not home runs for each circuit in the house? You should see where the romex comes into the circuit panel and follow the hot lead to the commone romex to identify it. I would like to know more of what you mean by shared neutrals.

[BeanAnimal]

Originally posted by FishTruck
I upgraded three 20 amp breakers to gfi breakers. The circuits were working fine and tested fine with ground tests.

Anyway, all three breakers tripped as soon as I restored power. I had to go around and unplug every single thing in every outlet to get them to reset.

Then, if I plug in any lamp, turn on any switch, they trip again. All three on three separate circuits.

Could I have three bad breakers? I did get them at Home Depot.

Thanks

Ryan.

GFCI breakers are NOT a real good idea for your fish tank. You would be much better off using the money to purchase several GFCI receptacles. You could get at least (9) for the price of the 3 breakers. Place (3) on each 20A branch circuit. That way a single faulting device does not bring other devices down with it.

With the GFCI breaker, any faulting device brings all of the other devices on that circuit down. This is not desirable

[RicGio]

I agree with Bean! Go with the GFCI outlets.

[kgross]

I agree with Bean also, with some more info. Many items will cause nuisance trips of GFI breakers, including many lighting systems and large pumps. You could end up with a full circuit tripping every time your lights come on.

Kim

[cannarella]

Yea, what Bean said.

[BeanAnimal]

Who is this Bean cat anyway?

[kgross]

That is a good question we would all like to know who Bean is. I think he is the off screen version of Mr Bean...

Kim

[BeanAnimal]

Nah... more like the off screen version of Mr. T


I pitty the fool...

[cannarella]

Oh sorry, I was going to start calling you Dr. House. I forgot.

[five.five-six]

Originally posted by FishTruck
Bah! Shared neutrals on all circuits. Cannot use gfi breakers on this setup. Will have to go to the outlets.

Another one learned the hard way (at least not with a shock though).

you can use GFI breakers, is your system single phase or 3 phase? just make sure you are sitting down when you see the price is your system wired in type NM THHN? if not you you are probably have flex, either way a GFI receptacle is cheaper and easier. if you are having "nuisance trips" then you have a problem that needs to be addressed. GFIs don't just trip for no reason

[kgross]

Many items can cause "nuisance trips" Cap start motors, Cap start lighting systems. When the cap is first charging the current in does not equal the current out so the gfi trips. That is why refrigerator circuits do not have to be GFI in the NEC .

[kgross]

Many items can cause "nuisance trips" Cap start motors, Cap start lighting systems. When the cap is first charging the current in does not equal the current out so the gfi trips. That is why refrigerator circuits do not have to be GFI in the NEC .

[slathrum]

It is very common for home runs to share a neutral. Most homes have two 120 volt phases coming in, and two circuits not on the same phase can share a neutral. The Romex used would basically have two hots, a neutral and a ground.

[BeanAnimal]

I rarely see it in residential wiring, other than in the (2) required kitchen small appliance circuits.

I see it in commercial all the time... (4) (6) or even (8) circuits on a common neutral. The neutral simply has to be sized to carry the worst case imbalanced load.

[funman1]

Yeah I don't much see it in residential.
But I use it everyday in Commercial (One of my Day Jobs)

Most commercial stuff is 3 phase so we can have 3 hots share a neutral if "Phased" correctly.

We use a "Round Robin" which means: 1 White, and 3 DIFFERENT colors (Not green, white, or gray)

And a "Full Boat" is: 1 Green, 1 White, and 3 DIFFERENT colors (Not green, white, or gray)

[RicGio]

In data centers also. They oversize the neutral BIGTIME for unbalanced loads and harmonics from the lighting and Computer loads.

[BeanAnimal]

I have a harmonics problem to deal with next week. It is burning up a LOT of equipment. We are going to put an analyzer on it next week and see just how bad it is.