427.1 Heating systems ?

[Davebones]

We have a Anodizing area that has dipping tanks . Each of the tanks that are heated have a temperature controller that picks up a contactor that then powers over the side immersion type heaters . These are 4000 watt 480 volt heaters . These were installed in the early 90's . Management is talking about upgrading this area . " 427.22 says GFI Protection Of Equipment " . Does this apply to this situation ? The panel these are fed from I don't think they even make 480 volt GFI breakers for ...

 

[iwire]

We have a Anodizing area that has dipping tanks . Each of the tanks that are heated have a temperature controller that picks up a contactor that then powers over the side immersion type heaters . These are 4000 watt 480 volt heaters . These were installed in the early 90's . Management is talking about upgrading this area . " 427.22 says GFI Protection Of Equipment " . Does this apply to this situation ? The panel these are fed from I don't think they even make 480 volt GFI breakers for ...

427.22 Equipment Protection. Ground-fault protection of equipment shall be provided for electric heat tracing and heating panels. This requirement shall not apply in industrial establishments where there is alarm indication of ground faults and the following conditions apply:

(1) Conditions of maintenance and supervision ensure that only qualified persons service the installed systems.

(2) Continued circuit operation is necessary for safe operation of equipment or processes.

Maybe you already know but this is not looking for a GFCI, this is about GFP.


Here are the article 100 definitions.

Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). A device in-tended for the protection of personnel that functions to de-energize a circuit or portion thereof within an established period of time when a current to ground exceeds the values established for a Class A device.

FPN: Class A ground-fault circuit interrupters trip when the current to ground is 6 mA or higher and do not trip when the current to ground is less than 4 mA. For further information, see UL 943, Standard for Ground-Fault Cir-cuit Interrupters.

Ground-Fault Protection of Equipment. A system in-tended to provide protection of equipment from damaging line-to-ground fault currents by operating to cause a discon-necting means to open all ungrounded conductors of the faulted circuit. This protection is provided at current levels less than those required to protect conductors from damage through the operation of a supply circuit overcurrent de-vice.

If you cannot get a GFP breaker for your panel you may need an external controler with GFP.