GFI Question

[swedish steel]

I have an electrician coming to wire my aquarium room in a week or two. I told him I thought it best to put GFI outlets throughout, but he thought the pumps should not be on GFI since flow is so important to quality of life. Shouldn't all outlets, including the pump outlets be GFI? I will be running a ground probe in the sump as an added safety precaution.

 

[Freed]

That's a toughy. You really only need one GFCI if you have just one circuit going to one breaker. If you have more than one circuit you would then need a GFCI protecting each separate circuit. One GFCI will protect all other outlets down line if the GFCI is wired properly. If you are concerned that your return pumps are on the same circuit as other items such as lights, PHs, etc. that may trip the GFCI and not come back on then you may want to have the pumps on a separate circuit altogether BUT being that we mix water with electricity and the pumps for some reason or another may have a ground fault in them at some point due to faulty internal wiring, etc. I would put it on it's own circuit with its own GFCI. Chances are that the pumps would never trip the GFCI, just like any other item that is operating as it should but I wouldn't take the risk

 

[bertoni]

I think that using multiple GFIs is the best approach. Better for my safety. Call me selfish. Also, the GFI can save the tank, with the ground probe, if a piece of equipment starts leaking.

 

[crumbletop]

When you wire up GFIs, you don't have to put it in _series_ with the circuit. Freed is right that if it is placed in series it will protect all outlets that are down stream. If you wire individual GFI outlets in parallel, then each one only protects the stuff that is directly plugged into it. Mine are wired that way so that pumps and lights are on different GFIs (same circuit).

One other thing to consider: Since you are having the electrician do the wiring for you, make sure you have enough circuits (to the breaker box) run to handle the load you either currently have or plan to have. Each standard circuit handles 15 amps (really 80% of that is what you should go for -- or 12 amps), so if you are going to have more than that, then have him wire up additional circuits.

Jack

 

[swedish steel]

Thank you for your responses. I printed and then showed them to my electrician. I believe the electrical part will be right now. Thanks again.