holy sh$t i almost burnt the house down

StirCrazy · #1 09-13-2010, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reefermadness

Certainly when a powerbar gets wet current will leak to ground. Any ground fault and the GFI trips in 5ms.

nope, only if the hot gets shorted to ground. if the hot gets shorted to common, it is not a ground fault as the power in is the same as the power out. A GFI monitors power in and power out and if they are not jiving it trips. so you have to have a short to ground. If the power bar gets wet, depending on the surface the easiest path may still be the nutral bus which means you have a heat generating short because it would have to be a full 15 amps worth befor the pannel breaker will trip.

as for powerbar/outlet/breaker. there all good, but all need to be tested once a month. cheepest is probably the outlet as you can get them at home depot for about 17 bucks. a breaker.. well your looking at 80ish bucks for that, and they still need to be tested and replaced when they go bad. the advantage of the breaker is if you have a kitchen aplication where you have to have 4 or more outlets protected it may be cheeper to use the breaker.

powerbar.. well there just as good as the other two as they still have to meet the same standard, and a test of them a few months ago in one of my wood working mags showed them to be very reliable and function as designed. I just don't know how much they are.

Steve

reefermadness · #2 09-13-2010, 03:53 AM

I know how a GFCI works. If power from the hot or neutral side ground faults it will trip. 120v is very good at finding a path to ground. To have a situation where hot and neutral are shorted without any current leaking to ground is possible but unlikely. Especially unlikely when water is doing the shorting.

StirCrazy · #3 09-13-2010, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reefermadness

I know how a GFCI works. If power from the hot or neutral side ground faults it will trip. 120v is very good at finding a path to ground. To have a situation where hot and neutral are shorted without any current leaking to ground is possible but unlikely. Especially unlikely when water is doing the shorting.

in the last 8 years I have seen about 6 cases just like this one, so I would say the chance of it happening is small but possible and not that uncommon.

I do agree that it is not a normal, but alot of people think a GFI will trip no mater what, so I was just showing how a GFI which is working properly may not trip.

Steve

reefermadness · #4 09-13-2010, 05:39 PM

Not to stir up trouble (pun intended) but we don't know if this case is one of those cases (where hot and neutral are shorted).

IMO it is more likely that a)the gfci did not work properly; or b)gfci triped but water soaked the still energized power bar

Personally I find it unlikely that no electricy would leak to ground when a significant amount of saltwater is spilled onto a powerbar. To be perfectly isolated is not an easy task. 120VAC can pass through carpet, concrete and sometimes even wood. Also remember that the powerbar itself still has points of ground with in it just cm away from hot and neutral leads.

reefwars · #5 09-13-2010, 05:52 PM

Either way there's a lesson to be learned update your equipment because salt dies funny things, mount nothing on the floor ,use proper gfi outlets for your bar.......the result I can guarantee.......fire!!! I can tell you one thing this gas me re thinking my power for my new tank build, I'm gonna be making a housing for my powerbar that water can't get into