220 GFCI

[wireday]

Ive used a 2 pole GFCI on 220 before, that was a panel feed. The GFCI worked well. I was wondering if a 220 2 pole GFCI would protect on a appliance with two hots, no neutral. I think it should.

 

[mbrooke]

Ive used a 2 pole GFCI on 220 before, that was a panel feed. The GFCI worked well. I was wondering if a 220 2 pole GFCI would protect on a appliance with two hots, no neutral. I think it should.

Yes- but you still need to connect the white pig tail to the panel neutral bar.

 

[Besoeker]

Yes- but you still need to connect the white pig tail to the panel neutral bar.

Can you explain why if the appliance has no neutral?

 

[GoldDigger]

Can you explain why if the appliance has no neutral?

GFCI and AFCI breakers use the neutral connection and one of the hots to power the internal electronics from 120V AC.
In a two pole 240V breaker there is no guarantee that there will always be 240 available from line to line. That depends on installation and use details.

We are taking about the connection from panel to breaker, whether there is any connection made to the feed through neutral terminal on the load side

Panels with a neutral bus connection do not need the pigtail.


Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[mbrooke]

Can you explain why if the appliance has no neutral?

The electronics in the GFCI are 120 volts and need the neutral connection to sense and trip the breaker.

 

[JFletcher]

Ive used a 2 pole GFCI on 220 before, that was a panel feed. The GFCI worked well. I was wondering if a 220 2 pole GFCI would protect on a appliance with two hots, no neutral. I think it should.

Some GFCI breaker for 240V do not have a place to land a load-side neutral. I would presume tho that an appliance like a dryer or oven does in fact need its neutral connected to a GFCI breaker. No idea if the bonding strap in the unit will cause problems; if there is any leakage to ground, above 6ma, it should trip a GFCI breaker. A true 240V 2-wire load like a water heater or HVAC unit should work fine on a GFCI breaker, unless there is a problem with the unit.

Are GFCI breakers required on 240V loads by the 2017 NEC? This state (VA) will not adopt that for some time.

 

[infinity]

GFCI and AFCI breakers use the neutral connection and one of the hots to power the internal electronics from 120V AC.
In a two pole 240V breaker there is no guarantee that there will always be 240 available from line to line. That depends on installation and use details.

I'm pretty sure that the test button on the breaker needs the neutral to create the imbalance needed to simulate current going outside of the straight 240 volt circuit when you press the button.