New GFCI tripping when new fluorescent shop lights are plugged in

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Electron_Sam78

Electron_Sam78

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Location
Palm Bay, FL
Has anyone ever run across this problem before? This is a newly constructed buliding and the fixtures are new out of the box. There are 2 lights and 2 receptacles. Each light trips whatever GFCI it is plugged into. :? I haven't dug into it yet. I thought I'd check here first.
 
Have not heard of this.
I would check with known good lights. Could be poorly made ballasts
 
Everything I've ever heard about flourescent lights and GFCI's is don't do it! I wouldn't waste anytime troubleshooting them, I'd simply put them on a regular circuit breaker. You don't want some silly GFCI tripping randomly leaving you in the dark...

I don't usually mix my lighting with my receptacle circuits anyhow...
 
Cow said:
Everything I've ever heard about flourescent lights and GFCI's is don't do it! I wouldn't waste anytime troubleshooting them, I'd simply put them on a regular circuit breaker. You don't want some silly GFCI tripping randomly leaving you in the dark...

I don't usually mix my lighting with my receptacle circuits anyhow...
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I agree with Cow. Seperate your branch lighting and receptcale circuits. GFI's and flourescents dont "play well" together. :happysad:
 
stevebea said:
I agree with Cow. Seperate your branch lighting and receptcale circuits. GFI's and flourescents dont "play well" together. :happysad:
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Can't do that with cheap fluorescents that plug in if they are installed in an area that requires the receptacle to be GFCI protected.
 
A few years ago one of my customers found 6 of his very cheap florescent fixtures laying in his front yard when he got home. They had energized the ceiling grid and I personally did not like the results. One of those experiences that reinforce the lesson of opening an EG that happens to have current flowing on it at the time. Fiberglass ladders do not help when you are part of a series circuit.

A florescent in good working order should not trip a GFCI. If they do, take 'em back and pay more.
 
When I did my house, about 27 years ago, I put everything in the bathrooms on the GFCI. When I first installed them the 2 tube 4' fluorescent fixtures would cause the GFCI to trip when you turned the light off. This would happen a couple of times a week, but over time it happened less and less. Now maybe once a year. I never have found a reason.
 
The filter capacitor can be bleeding excessive current into EGC.

If it trips when you turn it off, then its an inductive kickback issue. Some ballasts do that.
 
ok well I'll ask if they can return them and get more expensive (hopefully better quality) fixtures. If not I'll have to run a circuit extension and install a couple new non-GFCI receptacles.
 
Electron_Sam78 said:
..If not I'll have to run a circuit extension and install a couple new non-GFCI receptacles.
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That may not be an option depending on the location of the receptacles and what edition of NEC applies. Dwelling unit garages, most accessory buildings, or unfinished basements will require GFCI protection with the 2008 NEC and I am guessing also in the 2011.
 
Some ballasts, even name brand ones had issues with tripping GFCI not just the one its fed from, but one elsewhere in the same branch or downstream of ballast.

Older Advance electronic ballasts REL-2P32-RH-TP, for example was notorious for this. It (along with many electronic ballasts from 90s and early 00s that weighed much as magnetic and as loud as one)used a line frequency tuned reactor-capacitor circuit to reduce harmonics.

They were worse than even glow-starter fluorescent. They will trip GFCIs when the ballast is powered down when even motors and glow starter fluorescents won't.

Must have been the way tuned LC front end kicks back.
 
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