Your Resident Electrician for all your electrical questions!

[Brew12]

I scrolled thru just the first page now I'm a little embarrassed to even ask this question. I installed a new circuit last weekend GFCI 20 amp all the way into circuit panel. Didn't even tap off the circuit on the other side of the wall. Last night i was organizing and doing some wire management. So my power bar was on the outside of my cabinet for a short period of time. Murphys law struck and of course I spilled a small amount of water. Went to grab the power bar to wipe it down. Got shocked, okay not shocked but it was definitely a "tingle". Shouldn't my GFCI have tripped? Also the small LED light on the GFCI doesn't light up and doesn't even light up when i use the test button. probably trivial but thanks in advance. I have double checked the ground and wires aren't reversed.

Yup, that isn't good.

Does it trip when you use the test button?

Are you sure you connected the wires to the correct side of the GFCI? You may have connected them to the out going wiring side instead of incoming.

 

[SharkBait72]

Yup, that isn't good.

Does it trip when you use the test button?

Are you sure you connected the wires to the correct side of the GFCI? You may have connected them to the out going wiring side instead of incoming.

Yes, the circuit trips when I manually trip it. The reason I installed the circuit was so I wouldn't electrocute myself if something fails. to say the least it scared the hell out of me when both the GFCI or breaker in the panel didn't trip. Does the LOAD side come from the panel or go to the next outlet? Maybe I did this wrong but i thought I followed the instructions. I even did the pig tail so both outlets have the ground connected. Installed a double outlet, so i have four outlets in my cabinet. Black to brass...

 

[Brew12]

Yes, the circuit trips when I manually trip it. The reason I installed the circuit was so I wouldn't electrocute myself if something fails. to say the least it scared the hell out of me when both the GFCI or breaker in the panel didn't trip. Does the LOAD side come from the panel or go to the next outlet? Maybe I did this wrong but i thought I followed the instructions. I even did the pig tail so both outlets have the ground connected. Installed a double outlet, so i have four outlets in my cabinet. Black to brass...

The Load side should go to the next outlet. When you trip it, does it remove power?

 

[SharkBait72]

The Load side should go to the next outlet. When you trip it, does it remove power?

yes, power was removed. Like i said it was just a tingle I felt off the power strip. maybe the power strip was protecting the outlet? the power strip is older and should probably be replaced. Thanks for helping with this! Wife was actually standing behind me when it happened. She freaked out just a little. As she should....

 

[Brew12]

yes, like i said it was just a tingle I felt off the power strip. maybe the power strip was protecting the outlet? the power strip is older and should probably be replaced. Thanks for helping with this! Wife was actually standing behind me when it happened. She freaked out just a little. As she should....

The power strip shouldn't protect the outlet.
I can think of a few possibilities. One is that the tingle you got went through you and to neutral instead of ground. A GFCI won't detect that. Pretty unlikely.
It is possible that your tingle drew less than 5mA. Some people are much more sensitive than others.
The other possibility is that the GFCI is bad and the sensors either don't work or don't trip at the proper level.

You may want to consider something like this to verify it.

 

[Gablami]

Shouldn't my GFCI have tripped? Also the small LED light on the GFCI doesn't light up and doesn't even light up when i use the test button.

Im not an electrician by any means, but I always thought the green light on the gfci meant that it was working and “protecting” me. I didn’t know that the gfci outlet could have the light off and still supply power to the outlet. I feel like that could be an area to troubleshoot.

 

[Brew12]

Im not an electrician by any means, but I always thought the green light on the gfci meant that it was working and “protecting” me. I didn’t know that the gfci outlet could have the light off and still supply power to the outlet. I feel like that could be an area to troubleshoot.

Some GFCI have an amber light that turns on when they trip

 

[alton]

The following is from Jade Learning

1 mA you will feel a tingle
5 mA a shock felt and you should be able to let go?
10 to 20 mA you will have muscle contractions
100 to 300 mA will cause heart problems, spasms (hard to let go) and possible fatality
1000 mA will likely cause death
Amperage of 10 to 15 mA can be fatal if continued for more than a few seconds

1 mA = .001 amp and 1000 mA = 1 amp

That is why Mr. Brew12 says to use a grounding probe with a GFCI protection. A 3 milli-amp shock is a major zap otherwise.

With Cooper Devices - Visual indicator lights give quick notification of a tripped or “end of life” condition

 

[Plecosam]

1000mA likely cause death, interesting, you get 100mA across your heart and ventricle fibrillation and death will occur unless you get help.

 

[Paul B]

Drew got it right when he said you could have gotten a small shock from contacting the hot wire and the neutral. The GFI won't trip if that happens and will just "think " you are a heater, pump or table lamp.
Also basically if an item is plugged in to a wall outlet, it is not covered by any code. The code ends at that outlet and anything you feel you want to plug in is up to you to determine if it is safe.

You can install a nuclear reactor connected to a wind turbine along with a submarine in your living room and as long as it is only plugged in and not hard wired, your good to go as far as the code is concerned.

Thats why my generator is plugged in rather than hard wired as the code does not apply.

 

[Plecosam]

A GFI will trip if you touch active and neutral, or "how" which I assume you mean hot, remember unless you are above earth potential your body will be a path to earth and trip the GFI. GFI are not sentient and cannot think, the device purely tests outgoing current to incoming current and if a difference of their trip rating is detected they will trip all current flow.

 

[Brew12]

A GFI will trip if you touch active and neutral, or "how" which I assume you mean hot, remember unless you are above earth potential your body will be a path to earth and trip the GFI. GFI are not sentient and cannot think, the device purely tests outgoing current to incoming current and if a difference of their trip rating is detected they will trip all current flow.

It could go either way. If you are wearing rubber sole shoes or standing on dry hardwood the odds are good you won't have enough of a path to ground to allow 5mA of current flow to ground. If you touch a hot wire with one hand and the neutral with the other, odds are very good a GFCI will not trip unless you are barefoot on concrete. You have much less resistance than most paths to ground.

 

[Paul B]

If you touch a hot wire with one hand and the neutral with the other, odds are very good a GFCI will not trip unless you are barefoot on concrete.

Exactly. A GFI as we call them in the trade doesn't know you from a heater or blast furnace. As long as there is no current to ground, the GFI will do nothing.

Levitan electric sent me to school for them when they were invented.
(Master Electrician fifty years)

 

[MLaura]

After 25 years experiance on the field and 15 years at the office, as an electrican I think I can answer most of your questions.

Thanks to my fellow electricians for helping answering your question's.
And the team is:

Myself and
anemonekeeper



:wink:

Thank you so much for the offer I actually need your help, I'm building a stand-on-the-back refugium for chaeto on my nano tank , is a very small refugium (25cm:7cm:20cm) and I don't have a lot of money to spend on this. So, I was looking at eBay and found this:
Do you think is good enough?
Thank you in advance

 

[Plecosam]

You do not need to be barefoot on concrete to trip a GFI.

 

[MLaura]

You do not need to be barefoot on concrete to trip a GFI.

Hi, I'm not a native english speaker... I'm actually portuguese so I don't get what you said
(I may be a bit dumb as well...) I think this lamp is really bad isn't it? 18w maybe a bit too low

 

[MLaura]

How about this?

 

[joe berkman]

Does anyone have experiance with linear actuator control. Id like to control 4 dc actuators on 4 togle switches with one 110 plug. Could it be as simple as a dc (inverter?) and some marine trim tab switches, and if so how would i choose the right power brick. Also two of the acuators would be for a light lift so id like to control them both in tandem and individualy. Progressive automations has an all in one unit but i dont want a remote.

 

[Futuretotm]

@Brew12

Hey I want to extend the the power cord for this small DC pump as my reservoir is a bit further.
Any ideas? I had thought of using a smaller gauge wire and splicing it in with heat shrink, any other easier alternatives come to your mind?

Any ideas? I had thought of using a smaller gauge wire and splicing it in with heat shrink, any other easier alternatives come to your mind?

 

[Futuretotm]

Would something like this work?
(1) will it drop the voltage too much due to additional length
(2) Since DC, polarity wont be reversed due to new plug