GFCI input

[Prater]

I am curious to what everyone else has done with a dedicated circuit for their tank. Have you used the GFCI outlet or installed a GfCI breaker in the breaker box? I will be installing the outlets soon after the south wall is finished and have not decided what I am going to do yet. 4 GFCI outlets would cost about 3/4 the cost of 4 GFCI breakers.

 

[pwhitby]

i have gfci outlets.

Paul.

 

[Dtking]

heck do both hehehe

 

[captbunzo]

Don't do both. A GFCI outlet will protect all items on that circuit AFTER that outlet. Consequently, a single GFCI breaker will protect the WHOLE cirtuit.

That make any sense?

 

[TimV]

I have two GFCI based circuits in my fishroom and two non-GFCI circuits. All equipment that comes into contact with water are on the GFCI circuits. I assume you are attempting to spread your equipment across multiple circuits, so you could plan something similar.

T

 

[Prater]

Tim,

I have 4 outlets designated for the tank. Each will be on a seperate breaker. that way I can plug a quality surge protector into each and then have the amount of outlets I may need to run pumps, lights, or controllers. I am just trying to decide if I want the ease of reseting the breaker GFCI or getting to the wall outlet and reseting the switch in case anything happened.

 

[Russ Braaten]

You only need one GFCI outlet to protect your entire circuit. You just follow the wiring directions and use the GFCI outlet as the first outlet coming off the line. It is a LOT cheaper to use an outlet than a GFCI breaker. You don't need to protect the while line. That is not what a GFCI is for. It is to protect people and I guess fish from direct shorts before they blow the breaker.

Prater, you just saved a lot of money. hahaha

 

[Prater]

Russ, they are all independant circuits except the non gfci and the lights. Maybe a diagram will help.

 

[Prater]

Russ,

The problem for me is a when a GFCI trips, it cuts electricity to all the outlets on the line after it. They can go bad or a pump may trip it while I am gone. Anything past that line is now turned off until I notice the problem. I will most likely have other tanks running that I would hate to see livestock damage because I tried to save $60. Four GFCI Breakers would cost $120 or $60 for four GFCI outlets.

I am trying to thank this through before I invest heavily in livestock again. I lost several thousand dollars worth of livestock over $100 worth of snails. Dont want that to happen again...

I do however really need to get my RO/DI back running to help take care of some hair algea problems in my little 75 tank

 

[captbunzo]

You don't have to wire 4 circuits to have 4 separately GFCIed outlets. You could run from 1 circuit, but wire them in parallel, rather then in series....as in sort of branched, rather then in a row.

 

[JR719]

If I read your diagram correctly, you are running a dedicated circuit to each of 4 outlets? If you have 1 outlet per breaker, does not matter if you go with a breaker or outlet GFCI. The same thing will happen. The entire circuit will trip and shut down. The outlet is less expensive and on a side note, if the breaker trips several times, it starts going bad and trips more easily(so an electrician buddy says). Cheaper to replace an outlet than a breaker.

Something else to ponder... It was suggested to me to have GFCI on everything in the high humidity area, including lights and other outlets (might check code in your area). And for the breakers, just remember the 80% rule.

 

[Prater]

Paul,

They are seperate because each one will be running a multi outlet surge protector. If they are all wired together I may overload that particular circuit. I know that all I need to do is run one GFCI outlet and then wire it to all the other outlets and they will all be protected for GFCI but not an overload. I guess I am not coming off on the point that I dont care if it is expensive, as long as it wont cause me problems in the future.

 

[Prater]

JR, thanks for the info.

I think its a toss up on what goes bad the quickest. I was just curious to what anyone else has done with their fish room. I think I will just go ahead with the GFCI breakers because of the ease to reset instead of having to get to the plug that equipment may be covering.

 

[2ras]

Paul,

I like your electrical setup, how many tanks are you running?
I only have one tank. I dedicated one 20A circuit for my tank on one 20A GFCI receptacle behind the tank. Total watt caculation is 900W @ 120vac for everything, which is 7.5 amps.

Ray

btw...for those who might say the 20A breaker will not coordinate with a 20A GFCI.

YES it will, the speed of the GFCI will sense the fault long before the breaker in the panel.

 

[TimV]

I'd just wire it as you have in that picture, with the GFCI outlets rather than breakers (easier to reset and cheaper).

The only thing that is rather redundant is the ceiling lighting; just throw that onto the non-GFCI protected circuit since it is unlikely you'd pull any more than an amp from the lights.

T

 

[captbunzo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8943331#post8943331 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Prater
...I dont care if it is expensive, as long as it wont cause me problems in the future.

Definitely better to be safe then sorry....

 

[JR719]

2ras,

I was told the outlets were rated at 3 amps, guess I need to read some data. 3 seems a little low to me for an outlet, but I'm no electrician.

Prater,

The breakers would be easier IMO, as they are all in the same place with no obstructions. They are just more money. On mine, I'm going to go with TimV's suggestion of having GFCI outlets as mine will be very close together and easy to get to (otherwise, I'd go with breakers). Like you, I'm going one circuit per outlet for the same reasons.

 

[captbunzo]

3 amps for those outlets just HAS to be wrong. I have installed them before and certain that they are probably 15 amp capable, usually...

 

[TimV]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8951532#post8951532 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by captbunzo
3 amps for those outlets just HAS to be wrong. I have installed them before and certain that they are probably 15 amp capable, usually...

3 amps makes no sense since their predominate use is in bathrooms to prevent you from dying from dropping a hair dryer (or similar appliance) in the water. The typical hair dryer pulls a heck of a lot more than 3 amps.

There are both 15 and 20 amp versions of the GFCI outlets. The 20 amp versions are usually individually packaged.

For those of you with little electrical experience, if that is the only outlet on your circuit, you'll be playing with fire if you place a 15amp version on a 20 amp circuit.

T

 

[captbunzo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8952055#post8952055 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TimV
For those of you with little electrical experience, if that is the only outlet on your circuit, you'll be playing with fire if you place a 15amp version on a 20 amp circuit.

That is a REALLY good point Tim!