Indoor GFIC strip keeps tripping with only light plugged in?why?

[daddyfatsax09]

my 15 amp gfic powerstrip keeps on tripping, i wait 15 min hit reset it does it again... what does that mean? does that mean the wire has a short somewhere or something..


i tryed it with the fan and light tripped it.. then light on gfci strip in one outlet, then fan on another outlet across the room,fan kept workin but light tripped... its a 1000 jd lighting on 50 percent..4.74 amps then 1 for the fan.. .that's no where near 15

I plugged in my light with my 42 inch LCD on a diff powerstrip across the room and my fan on the gfci and on diff outlet and the set up works fine,my home circuits didn't flip...any answers on why?

 

[derek420colorado]

I was having the same problem at first with my power strip. I had both of my 1kw HID ballasts plugged in and tried to plug a fan in it tripped it everytime, I moved one of my lights to a different plug and it worked fine. It has to be overloading the powerstrip IMO, even though with what you have plugged in shouldn't overload it that sounds like what is happening. I know this probably wasnt very helpful lol but I am sure you probably already thought that might be the case. Sending good grow karma your way

 

[Muddy]

Most likely it's a faulty power strip, especially if it's one of those inexpensive Chinese made ones. Also look at what else is on the circuit that the power strip is plugged into. It's common for one circuit to be split over several rooms of the house. There could be something else on that circuit with a big draw. Keep in mind that by code, the maximum you should draw on a circuit is 80% of it's rating. So the max on a 20 amp circuit is 16 amps and on a 15 amp circuit, 12 amps. The extra 20% is there as a safety margin. Many devices are rated for initial and continuous draw. A lot of lights, again mostly the cheaper ones, often have a high initial draw when they first start up.

 

[daddyfatsax09]

wouldn't the home circuit breaker trip,especially with my TV and room light? I read that gfci outlets trip with ballasts a lot because of their warm up,maybe pulse start...

But its an expensive tripplite plug in gfci..
I have it setup now my TV(175w) ,cable box ballast on same power strip,idk what brand it is but it has a 14awg ..but that's maybe 6.5 amps most ..and on the other side of the room on the gfci strip I just have my fan on low setting on controller...

its been on for like a hour to now cause my room was cold and its been working fine..nothing tripped or anything

 

[Muddy]

No, that GFI is between the things plugged into it and your circuit breaker, so once it trips it stops the excess load from hitting the circuit breaker. In essence, it's doing it's job. It very well could be the initial start up on the ballast is the problem. On it's specs, does it list it's start up and continuous draws?

 

[daddyfatsax09]

Yea 3 amps for 6 sec and 4.72 at 50 percent.. That's half of what the strip can handle and 1 amp for fan at most ..that's 8.72 no where near enough to make it trip

 

[Getgrowingson]

Gfi trips when current going through the one side is higher then the other returning. You have some sort of problem with leaking current or a ground fault problem with something. They arent meant to be like a breaker..they detect faults quickly to prevent personal injuries. Maybe the gfi is toast or one of those things you have plugged in is the problem. There is a difference between a gfci and a breaker on these power bars

 

[Getgrowingson]

Gfi trips when current going through the one side is higher then the other returning. You have some sort of problem with leaking current or a ground fault problem with something. They arent meant to be like a breaker..they detect faults quickly to prevent personal injuries. Maybe the gfi is toast or one of those things you have plugged in is the problem. There is a difference between a gfci and a breaker on these power bars

 

[Getgrowingson]

Sorry double post. Capacitors can have problems with leakage current. Is your ballast digital or magnetic? If magnetic your ballast might be going on you..

 

[steelrat]

When you get repeated trips like that but it resets fine it's most likely not a fault in the GFI, the problem is likely downstream.

You have to disconncet and reconnect everything in the stream one at a time and trip-test.


steely