Square D homeline GFI breaker nuisance tripping 😑 (not a dual function)

Roger9

Member
Location
Tampa
Occupation
Electrican
I’m back and I have another stumper once again so I’d greatly appreciate any feedback. I wired up a covered pergola a couple weeks ago. 4 ceiling fans and 1 Receptacle. The whole circuit is fed from a subpanel and instead of making the receptacle GFI protected I protected the breaker. I did this because the receptacle is up high in the ceiling so if it ever trips they don’t have to get on a ladder to reset the GFI. The problem is the breaker is randomly tripping, it holds when I’m there troubleshooting but it seems to be tripping either late at night or early morning. This is not a dual function breaker it’s a SD homeline GFI breaker.

The customer didn’t want the fans switched so basically I hit my receptacle first and then out of that to the fans constant power. And they’re controlled by remotes. The customer bought pull chain fans thinking they came with remotes so instead of returning the fans she bought universal receivers and remotes.

I was by there recently and opened up every box and took down every fan I didn’t see any damaged wires or any wires touching. I ran 12/2 UF in the ground and everywhere else, all PVC and Arlington outdoor fan boxes. Everything is properly weather protected and up to code.

I wonder if this GFI breaker is bad? Or maybe I need to throw in a regular breaker and GFI at the receptacle.
 
regular breaker and GFI at the receptacle.
Regular breaker and required disconnect switch, in place of GFCI receptacle, may correct code violations with 422.31, but wont answer cause of nuisance trip without GFCI, no longer required for lighting without receptacles.
 
What is your distance of the UF cable?
You could try anew GFCI.
Condensing Humidity?
Meg the underground section.
Nuisance trips caused by untrained person’s —code & listing violations— are less interesting than troubleshooting the xFCI.
 
How long is the circuit?

Longer it is the more capacitive leakage it may have and if it exceeds the 4-6 mA needed to trip the GFCI then it is certainly can trip.
 
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