Follow-up Billy Bob Electrical Question

In an earlier post, it was recommended the circuit be protected with GFCI.

Does it matter WHERE the GFCI is located?

My reason for asking: My house had a GF Breaker to protect bathroom & outside receptacles. ....Nuisance tripping would require a trip down to the basement breaker panel to reset the GFCI.

I replaced the GFCI breaker with a standard breaker, but all recepts on that circuit have been changed to (or fed by) GFCI"s.

I"m thinking a fault in Ultradog"s deer stand will require a walk back to the house to reset a tripped GF breaker (if installed there), whereas GFCI"s inside the deer stand will allow resets in the stand.

Is my thinking correct? ...Or, am I creating a different problem?

GFCI should be at the house in this situation.

Given what a GFCI is and does, it would be fine in the deer stand. Nothing needs protecting prior to that other than what the fuse protects. The other thing is that a long run can cause nuisance tripping.

2nd what farmer boy said.

If there were any leakage to ground in the underground run that would trip the gfi in the house, otherwise you wouldn't know it until it got bad enough to trip the 20a breaker. As far as safety is concerned having it in the deer stand would be fine. I too took the gfi out of my main panel and put gfi receptacles in my last house so I wouldn't have to make that trip down to the breaker panel.

Why do you say that? What is that remark based on? It is likely to nuisance trip more often over that distance.

As most know its been yearsssssss since I retired from active AC Power Distribution Design Engineering buttttttttttt back in my day when GFCI was required, it was permissible (in most situations, likely some exceptions I'm sure) to place the device EITHER in the panel OR out at the required location i.e. a GFCI receptacle.

My engineering anaylsis (albeit a tad rusty lol from what I recall from NEC study and seminars back then) of how the NEC treated and justified that was the overcurrent protection device was there to protect the feeders and prevent a fire while the GFCI purpose was for Life Safety (electrocution prevention). At the GFCI receptacle site if Billy Bob plugged in a defective appliance or heck even if Billy Bob Jr stuck his fingers in the outlet HE WAS PROTECTED while the overcurrent protection device at the panel protected the feeders and was for fire prevention. The GFCI, having to do with Life Safety, is concerned with LOCATION such as outdoors and within x feet of kitchen sinks and bathroom lavatorys etc. where Billy Bob has a greater chance of some part of his body being in contact with a potential fault return path whereby current could flow through his ticker and kill him dead.

Soooooooo wayyyyyyyyy back when I was current and had to attend NEC seminars and knew this stuff pretty well GFCI required "locations" were sufficiently protected by a GFCI receptacle orrrrrrrrr a GFCI breaker in the panel BUT NO WARRANTY THE NEC HASNT CHANGED SINCE THEN.

As far as "nuisance tripping" is concerned the greater distance of the circuit and the more splices and junctions and moisture is concerned, the greater the chances of a nuisamce trip, since it only takes something like 5 milliamps to trip the GFCI.

Ya gotta love when electrical or legal questions are asked here as everyone and their brother in law (including Billy Bob and Bubba) crawl out of the woodwork with opinions (some professional other strictly lay) and theres no finer group of gents anywhere all willing to try n help WHICH IS WHY I LOVE IT HERE and do my best to help when I can GOD BLESS YALL

NOTE there are "right" ways to do electrical installations and there are tonsssssssss of Billy Bob and Bubba non NEC approved and perhaps???? less safe ways that will still "work" and its your home and your familys lives at stake SO ITS YOUR CHOICE how to do them, DO NOT take any of my advice, consult local trained competent PROFESSIONAL Engineers and Electricians and local authority is my advice before you risk a fire or life by doing something Billy Bob (NO professional training or knowledge whatsoever) recommends........

John T Toooooo Longgggggggg retired EE

Might as well leave the GFIC in the house, be making lots of trips to get more beer anyhow, can reset it then.

If I understand, he's running 200 feet of 12 gauge wire in an effort to thumb his nose at authority, I don't see where a GFIC will be involved at all, its not about safety, its about showing the man.

Just having some fun.

Paul

The breakers were 44 dollars each GFI used to cost about 10-11 dollars so when a contractor wired a house it was cheaper to run several GFI requirements off the breaker. After the cost of GFIs came down [wire went way up] it was mostly done by a GFi at some locations then standard receptacles GFI protected on the load side of the GFIs. I see they are now made in China. At the house protects the whole line going out. But with all the nicks in the wire from the sleeving each piece of conduit the GFI is unlikely to hold as all pipes get filled with water.You run pipe then you pull wire. The only exception is in a factory that must stay running while controls are changed out . Then you have to prep up all you can ahead of time and may have rolled up wire at ends of uncompleted pipe runs.
Which is not a code violation.

I can see where you wouldn't want to get any building code enforcement related people involved in an issue like, for instance, running a bunch of individual strands of wire---some braided, some solid---through an undersized, underground conduit to add up to a single larger conductor. I might even be somewhat reluctant to ask that kind of question online---not because of paranoia about my local government, but for fear of being scolded and ridiculed by my peers. But the proper location of a GFCI appliance seems like something your local electrical inspector would be glad to tell you over the phone. I'd even be interested in finding out whether my local building department employed reasonable people and had realistic policies, or unreasonable people and unrealistic policies. If they told me that they couldn't even answer my question unless I had a permit to change a regular outlet to a GFCI, then I'd know, wouldn't I?

Stan

[i:654c4848f0]"but for fear of being scolded and ridiculed..."[/i:654c4848f0]

My father passed away years ago. Mother too.
I am not married.
There is no one whose scolding or ridicule I fear.