You only THINK they are disconnected. There is a wet path to the normally hot conductor somewhere in the line. Some insulation scrape, some lousy splice, something.
GFI protecting outdoor floodlights
- Thread starter Donald
- Start date
Oh, factorytuned must live in New York too.....Stooopid electrical code state !!!! I'm upset with Pablo now 
" some lousy splice, something". Is it not acceptable to strip the ends, mix hot and neutral on a 2 wire orange Chinese cable DBC run, just twist and tape the copper together and use a ton of electrical tape to seal it all up ? Call me the 50 yr Ruby Goldberg Electrician too..YAY Mind you, none of the wire was rated for DBC. The cheapest junk I could find on Scamazon. Although, it is copper ( looked like copper anyway, maybe copper painted wire ? )
" some lousy splice, something". Is it not acceptable to strip the ends, mix hot and neutral on a 2 wire orange Chinese cable DBC run, just twist and tape the copper together and use a ton of electrical tape to seal it all up ? Call me the 50 yr Ruby Goldberg Electrician too..YAY Mind you, none of the wire was rated for DBC. The cheapest junk I could find on Scamazon. Although, it is copper ( looked like copper anyway, maybe copper painted wire ? )
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- Jul 28, 2024
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110-120v still feeds the fixture. Whatever the step down be 12/24v for the LEDs is done inside the fixture. That doesn’t appear to be low voltage landscape lighting powered by an external transformer.
Wire touching soil can easily leak ( conduct ) enough current to trip a ground fault.
If code and situation permits, relocating the ground-fault very close to the device can do away with tripping it from cable leakage. But then the cable feeding it could be a danger if not properly ran.
I saw one case where a ground fault was required on water heating elements of a huge tank that people cleaned items in. The heating elements leaked current even when replaced with new ones. The power had to be supplied by passing it through an isolation transformer ( not cheap, because it had to be big enough to handle a lot of power), that fed a ground fault near the tank to make it safe and not have the ground-fault trip.
If code and situation permits, relocating the ground-fault very close to the device can do away with tripping it from cable leakage. But then the cable feeding it could be a danger if not properly ran.
I saw one case where a ground fault was required on water heating elements of a huge tank that people cleaned items in. The heating elements leaked current even when replaced with new ones. The power had to be supplied by passing it through an isolation transformer ( not cheap, because it had to be big enough to handle a lot of power), that fed a ground fault near the tank to make it safe and not have the ground-fault trip.
Walk around in my yard with a voltage leak detector. I guarantee you'll find a bunch of leaks. But, All jokes aside, when it comes to INDOOR work, I go above and beyond the spec's. Not gonna burn the house down using a 99cent outlet or cheapo switch. Gotta draw the line in the sand somewhere.
I once saw a 25 ft. outdoor rated power cord that looked perfectly fine, trip a ground-fault if it was laid on the ground, even when nothing was plugged into it.
It does not take a lot to trip a ground-fault. We're only talking about mili-Amps here.
It does not take a lot to trip a ground-fault. We're only talking about mili-Amps here.
My outdoor GFCI outlets go bad every 4-5 years and they are in the outdoor weather enclosures. They trip with nothing plugged into them, I replace then and all is good again. I'm 5 blocks from salt water though.
See what I mean ? Why have a WR rated GFCI outdoors id they're gonna do nothin but trip anyway. The WR stands for Water Resistant, not water proof. Just doesn't make sense. That's why whenever I buy a house, I replace them with regular outlets. Then when I sell the house, I put the WR back to pass electric CO. They're gonna get damp from just humidity/rain/snow and trip.
Our main garage (boss's car place, etc, not my shop) had two GFCI circuits. One went faulty and shut down our water purification apparatti . WTAF!! Outta here.
The other has our freezers. Hahhhahaha GONE. Not taking that chance. Used industrial outlets.
Yell at me if you want.
OH I forgetted one of our baffrooms had a GFCI CB and GFCI outlet(s) - dobbleganger!! Took the outlet one away. CB one seems solid.
The other has our freezers. Hahhhahaha GONE. Not taking that chance. Used industrial outlets.
Yell at me if you want.
OH I forgetted one of our baffrooms had a GFCI CB and GFCI outlet(s) - dobbleganger!! Took the outlet one away. CB one seems solid.
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WR means weather resistant not water resistant
My plan is to forget the outdoors outlets in these floodlight bases. Put a blank cover on both sides and use a heavy duty wire wrap to hold the blank covers on. Then just use the bases for the floodlights.
I cannot verify the integrity if the UF wire underground but at this point both ends of the red wire are not connected to anything. Just a bunch of bare wires not touching anything.
I cannot verify the integrity if the UF wire underground but at this point both ends of the red wire are not connected to anything. Just a bunch of bare wires not touching anything.
Yeah, I meant water resistant. STOOOPPID OUTLET. That's why they make GFI breakers !!!! When a REAL problem happens, they trip.
There you go Donald. Just get rid of it. Not worth the hassle. As long as he flood light works ( if you want it to work). If you want everything to work, pull the cables out of the conduit, and pull in new ones and start from scratch. Then you you can put you're outlet back. A lot of work. Right to the breaker box. Complete new run., with Chinese orange extension cords spliced together as the new cable. LOL Just kidding...That's something I would do....LOL .....Still working after 10 years !!!!! Tons of Chinese electrical tape, but Klein wire stripper. Only the best stripper.
Just kidding...That's something I would do....LOL .....Still working after 10 years !!!!! Tons of Chinese electrical tape, but Klein wire stripper. Only the best stripper.
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