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

R

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.
 
Roger9 said:
regular breaker and GFI at the receptacle.
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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.
 
ptonsparky said:
What is your distance of the UF cable?
You could try anew GFCI.
Condensing Humidity?
Meg the underground section.
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Nuisance trips caused by untrained person’s —code & listing violations— are less interesting than troubleshooting the xFCI.
 
What is the receptacle for? How important is that load?

You could use a standard breaker, and not use the load-side terminals?
 
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.
 
The first thing that you need to rule out is actual leakage to ground making the GFCI trip.

My _guess_ is that you have a combination of capacitive leakage in the underground run (this is normal and expected, and the reason that GFCIs cannot be used to protect long runs) and leakage caused by condensation in the fans from temperature changes.

I suggest that you use a normal breaker (not GFCI), take the fans off the GFCI protection, use a normal receptacle (not GFCI) and provide GFCI protection for the receptacle with a 'blank face' GFCI that is easy to reach.
 
ramsy said:
Nuisance trips caused by untrained person’s —code & listing violations— are less interesting than troubleshooting the xFCI.
Click to expand...

ramsy said:
Nuisance trips caused by untrained person’s —code & listing violations— are less interesting than troubleshooting the xFCI.
Click to expand...
I’m trained been doing this for 12 years did it exactly how the boss wanted as well. Only thing I could see that’s not code complaint is the fans not having a switch, they’re controlled by a remote.
 
LarryFine said:
What is the receptacle for? How important is that load?

You could use a standard breaker, and not use the load-side terminals
Click to expand...

We hit the gfi first than the fans. Not much room on the pergola to do it anyway else. Fans are controlled by remotes. I think I’m going to do a regular breaker and line side the GFCI. I understand the fans don’t need to be GFI protected. It’s just weird cause I’ve wired hundreds of homes and we usually do duel function breakers on every circuit to eliminate installing GFI receptacles throughout the home and we never have issue with outdoor fans on a remote etc
 
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