ChakJ
New Member
Hi-
I am struggling with an electrical issue and would be glad for some advice.
I am trying to get an outlet into a new boathouse for a boat lift rated at 11 amps. So, I got 250 feet of 12/3 cable, put in a 20 amp breaker in the house, and ran the cable through pvc conduit (outside) buried about a foot deep. (Ended up using about 220 feet of the wire with all the turns, though the distance is only about 140 feet.) I put a GFI outlet at the first of the three outlets to ensure GFI protection.
Carefully connected all the outlets and the outlet tester confirms correct....
The problem is that the GFI breaker in the outlet pops about a second after the breaker is turned on.
Tested the voltage at the end of the line before the outlet, and it exactly matched the house reading 121.1 (if I remember correctly.) The outlet tester shows everything wired correctly. And a normal outlet works fine.
I tried putting a 20 amp GFI breaker on the main panel, but it also trips instantly when powered on. (Although both its lights come on indicating arc fault and ground fault…) (This is a siemens box, with siemens breakers.)
Any advise about why the GFI might be tripping? I read that they will trip at anything more than a 4 milliamp loss, or if the neutral and ground wires are touching, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.
The cable was intact and undamaged since we touched about every inch of it feeding it through the conduit….
Thanks
I am struggling with an electrical issue and would be glad for some advice.
I am trying to get an outlet into a new boathouse for a boat lift rated at 11 amps. So, I got 250 feet of 12/3 cable, put in a 20 amp breaker in the house, and ran the cable through pvc conduit (outside) buried about a foot deep. (Ended up using about 220 feet of the wire with all the turns, though the distance is only about 140 feet.) I put a GFI outlet at the first of the three outlets to ensure GFI protection.
Carefully connected all the outlets and the outlet tester confirms correct....
The problem is that the GFI breaker in the outlet pops about a second after the breaker is turned on.
Tested the voltage at the end of the line before the outlet, and it exactly matched the house reading 121.1 (if I remember correctly.) The outlet tester shows everything wired correctly. And a normal outlet works fine.
I tried putting a 20 amp GFI breaker on the main panel, but it also trips instantly when powered on. (Although both its lights come on indicating arc fault and ground fault…) (This is a siemens box, with siemens breakers.)
Any advise about why the GFI might be tripping? I read that they will trip at anything more than a 4 milliamp loss, or if the neutral and ground wires are touching, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.
The cable was intact and undamaged since we touched about every inch of it feeding it through the conduit….
Thanks