jccaclimber
Supporting Member
I'm still here in SF with my fish in DFW, TX. Yesterday my wife was kind enough to notice the 50 gallon that I use as an ATO had run low. Our internet was out, so I hadn't gotten a notification. She refilled, and apparently spilled some water. An hour later the puddle had migrated to the water alarm, but when she went to look it was a thin film, more like condensation than a puddle.
Fast forward a couple hours and the GFCI trips. Half the lights go out and take the return pump and skimmer with them. The other half are on an independent circuit. Some trouble shooting later we determine that unplugging the skimmer allows the GFCI to be reset, and it trips again when plugged in. Unfortunate as I won't be home for 2 weeks and will be out $300 for a new skimmer pump, but things will live.
My skimmer is a long way away from the EB8, which is mounted above the tank (where all unsealed electronics should strive to be, ie out of the drip, overflow, and splash paths). As a result there is an extension cord going from the EB8 to the skimmer, and I foolishly did not mount that well. It had fallen to the floor and as you might have guessed by now, the creeping puddle of water picked up some salt and wicked in to the extension cord connection. Apparently the GFCI trips faster than the breaker (this is not a surprise), because it tripped first.
This afternoon I had her find that connection and clean it with fresh water, dry, and reassemble. Sure enough the skimmer is no longer tripping the GFCI.
Once the internet came back up I pulled the EB8 power data and found this:
I suspect some interference because any of these should have tripped either the breaker, or eventually the one on the EB8.
Observations:
1) The GFCI allowed me to detect a hazardous situation before it resulted in a hazard to human life by electric shock or fire.
2) To emphasize it, this may have prevented a fire. I've definitely seen high resistance shorts that resulted in burnt or melted plugs without actually drawing enough current to trip a breaker. If you put 230 W across a plug it will absolutely melt it, but you're still only drawing 2 A, which isn't nearly enough to trip a 15 A or 20 A breaker.
3) A reminder that non-waterproof electrical connections should be in an area that is not at risk of water exposure, including salt mist.
4) Had there not been a GFCI this should have tripped either the EB8, or the main breaker. Having the GFCI there is nice as you don't have to walk to the garage to flip the breaker.
5) In the event that I had a partial short, but not enough to trip a breaker over-current monitoring could detect it, and shut off the outlet as well as send an alarm. Once I'm up and running post move with the new Apex and an EB832 I should put over-current shutoffs and alarms in addition to under current ones.
5) Backups are good. I'm already out of town for several weeks. Had she been gone as well I wouldn't have known due to the internet outage. It turned out something went wrong with the coax connection outside the house, so it didn't come back on until a new cable was run from the curb, which would not have happened without someone being there. I would have assumed it was just an internet issue, so it would have been a day or two before one of my fish sitters checked in. I run redundant circuits, so I would still have had half of my lights, as well as circulation pumps in the display and sump (also frag system), and some of the heaters. None of the second circuit heaters are in the sump, I should fix that. I also will be putting a redundant return pump on the next setup.
6) Backups are still good. Had this been a single circuit system I would still have gotten a half day of circulation from the backup batteries on the circulation pumps.
Fast forward a couple hours and the GFCI trips. Half the lights go out and take the return pump and skimmer with them. The other half are on an independent circuit. Some trouble shooting later we determine that unplugging the skimmer allows the GFCI to be reset, and it trips again when plugged in. Unfortunate as I won't be home for 2 weeks and will be out $300 for a new skimmer pump, but things will live.
My skimmer is a long way away from the EB8, which is mounted above the tank (where all unsealed electronics should strive to be, ie out of the drip, overflow, and splash paths). As a result there is an extension cord going from the EB8 to the skimmer, and I foolishly did not mount that well. It had fallen to the floor and as you might have guessed by now, the creeping puddle of water picked up some salt and wicked in to the extension cord connection. Apparently the GFCI trips faster than the breaker (this is not a surprise), because it tripped first.
This afternoon I had her find that connection and clean it with fresh water, dry, and reassemble. Sure enough the skimmer is no longer tripping the GFCI.
Once the internet came back up I pulled the EB8 power data and found this:
I suspect some interference because any of these should have tripped either the breaker, or eventually the one on the EB8.
Observations:
1) The GFCI allowed me to detect a hazardous situation before it resulted in a hazard to human life by electric shock or fire.
2) To emphasize it, this may have prevented a fire. I've definitely seen high resistance shorts that resulted in burnt or melted plugs without actually drawing enough current to trip a breaker. If you put 230 W across a plug it will absolutely melt it, but you're still only drawing 2 A, which isn't nearly enough to trip a 15 A or 20 A breaker.
3) A reminder that non-waterproof electrical connections should be in an area that is not at risk of water exposure, including salt mist.
4) Had there not been a GFCI this should have tripped either the EB8, or the main breaker. Having the GFCI there is nice as you don't have to walk to the garage to flip the breaker.
5) In the event that I had a partial short, but not enough to trip a breaker over-current monitoring could detect it, and shut off the outlet as well as send an alarm. Once I'm up and running post move with the new Apex and an EB832 I should put over-current shutoffs and alarms in addition to under current ones.
5) Backups are good. I'm already out of town for several weeks. Had she been gone as well I wouldn't have known due to the internet outage. It turned out something went wrong with the coax connection outside the house, so it didn't come back on until a new cable was run from the curb, which would not have happened without someone being there. I would have assumed it was just an internet issue, so it would have been a day or two before one of my fish sitters checked in. I run redundant circuits, so I would still have had half of my lights, as well as circulation pumps in the display and sump (also frag system), and some of the heaters. None of the second circuit heaters are in the sump, I should fix that. I also will be putting a redundant return pump on the next setup.
6) Backups are still good. Had this been a single circuit system I would still have gotten a half day of circulation from the backup batteries on the circulation pumps.
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