Guest Suite Requirements

[iwirehouses]

220v gfci breaker?

220v gfci breaker?

I never understood how a 220v gfci breaker would work without a neutral. I put in a jacuzzi thats around 10 amps, 220v. I just ran 12/2 romex. The instructions show a 2 wire hooked to a 2 pole gfci breaker with no neutral. So I figured it was somehow possible and ordered the breaker. Its a 220v 20 amp, murray gfci breaker. At the bottom, it has a connection for Load, Neutral, Load. Then it has the white wire coiled up to go to the neutal bar. Will this breaker work without a neutral? Is there a different breaker I can get?

 

[LarryFine]

As long as you connect the GFCI breaker's pigtail to the supply neutral bus, it doesn't matter if the load requires a neutral. If not, leave that terminal unconnected.

The GFCI works as long as the supplying system has a grounded conductor, which is how shocking current gets back to the source outside of the circuit conductors.

A GFCI device won't work on an ungrounded supply for the same reason that an ungrounded supply isn't a shock hazard in the first place (theoretically, anyway).

 

[LarryFine]

To add, it doesn't matter that one of the line conductors of a 120v GFCI device is grounded. That only means there's only one circuit conductor that's a direct shock hazard.

A 2-pole GFCI breaker merely has two conductors that present a shock hazard. The hazard is between any line conductor and earth or other nearby grounded surface.

As long as the supply has a grounded conductor, the GFCI device can detect the amount of current returning to the source without passing back through the device.

Keep in mind that a GFCI device cannot detect, nor protect us from, a line-to-line or line-to-neutral shock, because all of the current passes through the device.

 

[cowboyjwc]

If no one has, I would check with your local AHJ before I spent to much time and money on this project, it may not even be allowed.

 

[iwirehouses]

Ooppsss.....that was suppose to be a diffeent thread/topic all together. It is a completly different job. I honestly have never installed a 15 amp 220v jacuzzi before. They are all 110v and I put a GFCI for it to plug into. When they decided to use a 220v instead of 110, I shrieked at the price of the breaker. I just wanted to make sure it was doable and I wasn't wasting money.

I was always under the impression that gfci's work on the neutral. Thats why they recommend putting a gfci in place of a 2 prong receptacle with no ground. I see what your saying about the 220 though. thank you