i found on e of these gfci breakers at a local thrift store for $6 and bought it, but later noticed both 20A breakers are bridged.
will it still work if I separate them? I was going to use it in my house for all the power as I only have two circuits anyway.
Is gfci just a meme for US voltage anyway? It seems its being put in more and more in the US in new construction but instead of a whole home gfci like is done in europe, they do individual breakers or even individual outlets for some reason.
you can't separate them, they are intended for a 240v circuit like an AC. They are a pain in the ass and are now required with the 2023 code
what can i use it for?
I guess I can use it for split phase circuits and if one side trips they both trip then, but thats pretty watermelon
They are for induction stoves that use 2 separately insulated 20A circuits. If one side trips because the appliance breaks power to the other side is cut as well
so like it will?, or it wont work with an imbalance between each split phase.
surely ovens have some 120v stuff in them that causes an imbalance already so im sure its fine.
> surely ovens have some 120v stuff in them that causes an imbalance already so im sure its fine.
Thats correct and yes double pole gfci should indeed work fine with any imbalance
nice, yeah I just wana put it in for all the plugs so if my dumbass kids start licking outlets they dont die. idk I just saw it for $6 and was like i should buy this lol, they retail for 80+ new.
if it doesnt work maybe ill mail it to bigclive
>double pole gfci should indeed work fine with any imbalance
Yes. They sum the neutral current (imbalanced load) along with the two lines. Hence the white wire.
>phase
Don't call it "phase".
Yes they will work fine, that's the point. If you took two single pole GFCIs and tied the neutrals together, they would trip all the time.
the GFCI requirement isn't really the problem
it's the afci requirement
afci sucks ass
afci isnt required on 240 volt unless they just changed it?
>Is gfci just a meme for US voltage anyway?
It's never a meme, unless it's Schneider Electric cause mine on the 2nd floor have become a dead short, test does nothing, turning them off does nothing as well, electricity is still on.
Ah, we have 3 phase ones like that in yurop.
>matching breaker boxes
I don't even have matching breakers and RCDs let alone the box itself, we even have companies that make only breaker boxes and nothing else.
Do you have an electrical panel that accepts that breaker style? They are not universal. That type is generally used in pool or spa equipment. It may fit in an Eaton / Cutler Hammer load center.
t. Electrician
its a regular ass knife blade bus bar style one made by semens, looks like it will go in most boxes idk.
I'm working with an addition to the house that was wired improperly, so the box type doesnt matter as what I really should do is install a sub panel for this addition powered off the main panel. I can put in whatever I want.
You sound like the type of handyman that should hire a licensed electrician.
I did one time, the house never had grid power and was set up for a generator. Had an electrician set the poles and install the transformer and wires.
They got it as far as a meter box in the yard, from there I put in the house drop myself, along with a new main panel, and ran wires out to the old panel in the back of the house now a sub panel.
I just never touched anything from there.
The addition is set up to be a duplex, so I should probably just redo the whole thing there since it was all half ass done, dropping in it's own sub-panel and pulling in new wiring since all the walls need to be redone anyway
Yeah, fortunately you didn't get yourself killed or cause property damage. Leave the electrical work to the pros. You should stick to painting and basic stuff.
kek frick off homosexual
The truth will set you free, but first, it will make you mad. Your response is proof of that.
Good luck to you, handyman!
>Cutler-Hammer
The case makes it look like a Siemens breaker (obviously made by a third-party). Normally the breaker will have a list of approved enclosures.
Insurers and inspectors hate brand mixing in a breaker box, so be aware of that.
>whole home gfci like is done in europe, they do individual breakers or even individual outlets for some reason.
i thought the individual outlets was how the usa did it mainly. except you can chain other outlets too which is kind of insane isn't it. if you aren't familiar with where the reset is...
in the uk anyway circuit imbalance protectors started out as an add on that you plugged into a socket and then plugged an electric lawn mower into so that if you were stupid enough to cut the cable you would be ok.
but people are stupid and so it was decided that all sockets at least that someone could reasonably plug a lawnmower into should be protected by force and not rely on people plugging this thing in which by the way most people were too stupid to use anyway.
we skipped right past having these protections in a per socket basis, although they do absolutely exist it was just never really adopted as policy. feel free to speculate as to the reason, i would suggest because they suck ass.
anyway the typical solution was to put each floor of a house on one protective device, which means that someone out mowing the lawn runs over the cable and the tv turns off and the fridge turns off so men here had to decide between mowing the lawn themselves on a saturday, or getting the wife to do it but not able to enjoy the football with a nice cold beer.
and eventually the cost of these devices....stayed about the same....but were made available as combined imbalance and overcurrent protection so that if you want each circuit in your house protected separately you may do.
however by now they are popular enough, and governments need something to do, so they made it illegal to have any new unprotected circuit installed. but dont despair because protected doesn't need to be one of these devices, you can run all of your wiring inside grounded steel conduit instead.
Had one of these fail in my bathroom. It was the first outlet, the second was in my other bathroom. Somehow it failed making the second outlet ground, go hot. Scary because it had a metal plate.
If you're running a multiwire branch circuit they should work just fine. 20A x 2 to the same outlet. Good find, GFCIs are still kind of expensive, especially for anything not 15A single-pole.
> GFCI.
I've always found that acronym extremely cringe.
A R C F A U L T
R
C
F
A
U
L
T
Ground Fault Current Interrupt