ground faults/moisture detection and power outlets

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by teevee

my current plans are to add two circuits to my room for a total of three, one for the metal halides, one for all the other tank stuff (pumps, heaters...), and one for everything else (two computers, etc.). i am going to put 10 plugins enclosed in the stand itself.

how much moisture is required to trip a GFI? perhaps i should just be getting some type of alarm system rather than something that will shut off power. it's leaks onto my carpet i'm concerned about, not water getting into wiring.

I think we're kinda talking about two different things here.

For what you're talking about, yes, you can get a moisture alarm that will sounds if water gets on your floor.

Moisture is not going to trip a GFCI. A ground fault is what's going to trip a GFCI. What they're talking about with GFCI's, is to prevent fatal electrocution by sticking your hand into water with stray voltage .... and then you become the ground for the circuit. What happens is, and you need a ground probe for this to be complete, is that, voltage will leak into the saltwater, the grounding probe will pick this up ... and the GFCI will then click off the tank, thus hopefully preventing a bad situation (ie., a person comes along, decides to put their hand in the tank .. and ZAP!). With a GFCI, if you find your tank has been shut off, it means something tripped the GFCI. Then you have to go through the process of systematically finding out which device is giving you a problem.

As far as moisture in the air or something .... that's really a different situation. A fan can probably keep things in your stand dry. I have a fan in my 75g canopy that is on 24x7, and that seems to be enough to prevent any condensation forming on the lights and stuff.

HTH