Quote:
Originally Posted by The real Leigh
Not sure what "physical law" is being violated here, since the GFCI is just measuring current at two points in a series circuit.
- Leigh
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The one about capacitors passing AC.......... So many things have significant capacitive leakage, which is to some extent "normal"...... so the GFCIs have to be desensitized to where they actually only "sort of" act as people protection for 120V circuits, or 230V overseas.
The GFCI will pass a lot more unbalanced current than it really takes to kill you. It's basically playing the odds, protecting some, and, yes, failing to protect others. Whoever it saves is happy, and the others were dead without it anyway.
The principle is fine, theory says it works, and it DOES work. But it can't be made to work as well as it ought to because of the physical laws that present problems.
With balanced current such as the heaters are probably getting, the capacitive leakage from one 120V half should be balanced by similar leakage from the other. Leakage would act like load current, and if reasonably equal, will be rejected.
The fact that there is STILL tripping of the GFCI suggests that there is either am unbalanced heaters issue, or a genuine problem.
if, for instance, the heater setup varies the number of heaters, and their connection, for different settings, that might cause it. If that adjustment is not balanced, one setting may pop the GFCI due to unequal leakages.
if, for another instance, one heater element in a series/parallel setup is not working, the effective capacitance may be changed, and the formerly balanced leakage is now unbalanced, again potentially popping the GFCI.
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