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Author Topic: Electrical Safety  (Read 40581 times)

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Offline Midwest Express

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #25 on: August 25, 2010, 15:00:34 »
I run multiple GFCI's on my setup.  My recirc pump is on the first GFCI as well as one heater and a power head.  The other daisy chained sockets are on another GFCI that have my power heads, fans, lights, and other stuff.  That way if my lights pop or something, I still have my recirc running.  No power strips for me... that is if I can help it!

I did have a friend catch his wall on fire cause he was using a power strip that shorted and lit his place up!  They also found out that they tank was on the same circuit of their window air conditioner on the other side of the house.

Gotta love old home's wiring! :o
"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."
Capt. James T. Kirk

slandis3

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #26 on: August 25, 2010, 15:58:14 »
I run gfci breakers on all my aquarium outlets.

Offline Midwest Express

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #27 on: August 25, 2010, 15:59:18 »
I run gfci breakers on all my aquarium outlets.

That is how it should be done!

I would actually like to see how they do it at the aquariums.  She how they handle their power.
"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."
Capt. James T. Kirk

Offline Midwest Express

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #28 on: August 25, 2010, 16:26:52 »
I had the same prob when I first moved into my house.  I called Ohio Edison and they came out and ran a power test on the transformer on the pole outside.  Come to find they had a prob they didn't realize (or care to fix until I complained) with their transformer.  They fixed it and magically I didn't have anymore power dips or power issues.  I got tired of my servers and PC equipment dipping out ever so often.

Doesn't work when you are hosting web space and trying to run a web server!  Let alone my fish tanks.
"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."
Capt. James T. Kirk

Offline cyberwollf

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #29 on: August 25, 2010, 16:30:22 »
Doesn't work when you are hosting web space and trying to run a web server!  Let alone my fish tanks.

Nobody really cares about uptime anyways
75G Mixed Reef w/ 30G sump/refuge

Electrical Engineers do it on impulse, with faster rise times, with more power, and less resistance at higher frequencies, without shorts, until it Hertz


Offline Midwest Express

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #30 on: August 25, 2010, 16:33:52 »
Nobody really cares about uptime anyways

Haha... yeah, thankfully it was just my site at the time, so not that big of a deal. It was my resume site I had for job huntin. The email server I was miffed about though!
"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."
Capt. James T. Kirk

Offline HUNGER

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #31 on: August 25, 2010, 17:10:29 »
I had the same prob when I first moved into my house.  I called Ohio Edison and they came out and ran a power test on the transformer on the pole outside.  Come to find they had a prob they didn't realize (or care to fix until I complained) with their transformer.  They fixed it and magically I didn't have anymore power dips or power issues. 
got to love that
SIZE DOES MATTER

Offline lazylivin

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #32 on: September 25, 2012, 00:32:29 »
:sSig_bump:

Offline rayviv

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #33 on: September 25, 2012, 11:08:09 »
Good Bump! and dont forget to REexamine often. ;D
The mind is a wonderful servant but a dangerous master!

Offline bbtm64

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #34 on: March 05, 2013, 19:46:09 »
Slandis, SquareD makes a breaker like that. Here's a link to their website. http://products.schneider-electric.us/products-services/products/circuit-breakers/miniature-circuit-breakers/arcfault-circuit-interrupters/

I'm an electrician, by trade. So if anyone has any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
Brent McCloskey

Offline eslatts11

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #35 on: February 06, 2019, 15:17:42 »
Sorry to dig up an old thread, but just wanted to get some fellow reefers opinions.

I have heard a very wide range of opinions on this topic. When to use a GFCI breaker or a receptical GFCI? Plug in all fish tank room equipment  to GCFI or on only certain things? I have heard others who don't use them at all as the possibility of them tripping when nothing is actually wrong is too much of a risk? :hmmmm:

I am currently wiring in my 20 amp breaker and multiple outlets for my fish tank room which is why I ask, thanks!
-Slatts

Offline CoralBeauties

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #36 on: February 06, 2019, 15:31:37 »
I believe any wiring in a basement should be gfi protected.  You can put a gfi in the very first outlet and wire it to protect all wiring outlets that follow it then all outlets will also be protected.  If I remember right there are instructions with the gfi that tells you how to wire it that way.  Or you can buy a gfi circuit breaker for the entire circuit.  As much water as we are exposed to in this hobby I dont think I would run without a gfi.
Jeff

Offline dbjonesjr

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #37 on: February 06, 2019, 15:32:56 »
I think I have a reasonable answer for you. The difference is close to NONE. They all just shut off the circuit when there is a short circuit (I.E. water creates a circuit with essentially no resistance therefore an overload of current). You only need to have ONE on each circuit as a single receptacle would shut down the entire circuit (in theory). In your case if it is a dedicated fish room circuit I would see nothing wrong with putting a GFCI breaker in and possibly running some wavemakers to an emergency outlet running on a differenct circuit (to continue circulation in case of a power outage). Not sure if that will help answer your question but I hope!
EDIT: Got beat to the punch!

Offline cbell56

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #38 on: February 07, 2019, 06:50:25 »
the choice is simple and required by code. If the outlet is an area with water it must be gfci. The choice between a gfci outlet or breaker is also simple. if you will have more than one gfci outlet on the circuit then cost would dictate a gfci breaker. if you only have one outlet in a wet application on that circuit then it is cheaper to use the gfci outlet

Offline eslatts11

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #39 on: February 07, 2019, 18:30:44 »
Thanks for all the great input guys, much appreciated! I believe I will go with putting a 20amp GFCI breaker in! I have a couple outlets near the tank that are on the existing 15amp basement breaker with no GFCI, so I can plug a power head or two into that for the possible emergency where the GFCI trips but nothing is actually wrong.
-Slatts

Offline lazylivin

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #40 on: February 07, 2019, 23:54:07 »
If an item is plugged into a gfci outlet and the outlet trips then it is a bad device. I see online, folks that say we shouldn’t use gfci because they falsely trip. However that is extremely rare. I have never in my hobby history had a gfci falsely trip. If it trips something is wrong. There was a guy on R2R not long ago that had a gfci that kept triping. He removed the gfci and than almost died. He has a permanent heart valve issue now. Never go without a gfci, even for things like lights that are not in the water but around it. Good choice with adding it to the panel. That is best but for those that can’t do that sort of thing I plead you use a plug in gfci.

For those that don’t know. This below is not a gfci and will provide no protection to you or your livestock from a electrical shock


Offline dbjonesjr

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #41 on: February 08, 2019, 06:08:11 »
That protects the equipment not the person! :)

Offline lazylivin

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #42 on: February 08, 2019, 14:33:48 »
 :th_ShowLetter:

That protects the equipment not the person! :)

Offline Miles

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Re: Electrical Safety
« Reply #43 on: February 08, 2019, 15:35:25 »
So, I can tell you that I have a GFCI outlet in my house that randomly trips. I installed a GFCI outlet when I first setup a tank and it ended up tripping when I was out of town, wiped out most of my fish. I have since upgraded aquariums and moved to a different location in the house with a new GFCI outlet. I let the old one in place and it randomly trips with nothing plugged into it, and as far as I know the only other thing on the circuit is the light and ceiling fan in the living and a couple other outlets that also have nothing plugged into it.  I'll come home maybe once a month to the living room light not working due to the GFCI tripping. Maybe the light has a problem... or maybe its just a really crappy GFCI outlet.....

That being said, I have taken measures to make sure that an accidental trip doesn't crash my tank again. I have one powerhead on a battery backup in the main tank, and in my basement I have an airpump that is on a UPS that will run if I lose power down there.   

I have had equipment that has gone bad over the years that has tripped the GFCI. I've had a few pumps that started tripping GFCI and they immediately got tossed in the trash.

Having said all of that... I believe that GFCI is important, but be prepared if it does trip.

 

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