Ground Fault (GFCI) plugs
Has anyone found a GFCI plug that will work with a PC? I have my pump and fans under the house so I wanted them on a ground fault circuit. This works fine. Only problem is when I add the PC to the circuit the GFCI trips on occasion. If I leave the PC off the GFCI circuit I run the risk of the pump shutting down with PC still running. Thanks, ...Rich
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So, you have a cooling system that is GFCI'd, but the GFCI should not be your safety-- a temperature triggered shutdown device is what you need, with software that will shut down the O\S also.
John Danielson.
Do you know where you can buy a temp trigger? Thanks, ...Rich
Basicly, if you have all the computer gear using one cord into GFCI and the pump using another cord into GFCI, you can get a grounding potential problem if the grounds are not perfect and beyond capacity needed. Plugging a device that is grounded itself and grounded with GFCI can cause an earthing or grounding potential problem.
I will give you an illustration:
We had a GFCI circuit in the house,and someone stuck an outdoor light on that circuit-- but two bathroom circuits and a computer\fax\answering machine in a microoffice were on the circuit.
When a fax came in while dad was shaving, the GFCI outlets all blew. When the outside light was on and I used a hair dryer, the GFCI outlet in my bathroom AND the GFCI breaker blew. We now have 4 GFCI circuits. Now the one for the dock light outside only blows when someone leaves the flap on the outside outlet on the light post open and it rains.
If you said the pump is on or underground, you could try what me electrical contractor grandfather did with the emergency sump pump that kept not pumping under the crawlspace. He put it on a rubber sheet and stuck that on a piece of big plywood and made sure nothing metal connected to it went to anything except the grounded outlet. And stuck it on its own circuit. I would make sure that the two things were ground isolated from each other.
Different potentials can cause GFCIs to blow at apparently random times, whenever the differences in ground potential vary-- even from outlet to outlet in a circuit.
If your pump is chassis grounded you have the potential for two ground routes whenever the ground is damp if it is on the ground-- wet pump, mateal pump touching earth itself, both will do this.
And a GFCI outlet will protest that possibly also. If you want a safety chassis ground, make sure only the pump is on the GFCI. In your case, you have not said this happens with only pump on, so I think you are getting a potential-difference-induced flow across outlets(two in a duplex) that is triggering it at least in large part.
Computer can be off the GFCI or on a separate one, or a breaker might be used instead of a duplex outlet-- unless you are using metal-fiber-reinforced hosing. The story behind that fact is not repeatable in detail, and involved someone powerwashing a house barefoot with an old rented electric power washer. Suffice to say the ending was a ground flow that was not supposed to happen and the GFCI never chopped. The power washer was grounded-- AND shorted, via the metal reinforcing in and fittings fastened onto both ends of the hose. Wrong hose-- air compressor line.
Unless GFCIs are old and corroded, it has to be a grounding potential problem or a wiring problem with neutral and ground crossed somewhere in the circuit or the things hooked to it.
John Danielson.