GFCI at shore power tripping
Hello Everyone. Brand new to this. Hopefully someone can help me out. I have a 2021 Amerilite 199DD travel trailer. I inadvertently drained the hot water tank for winterizing and thought I had the swi...
Forum Discussion
Dusty R wrote:
You may know this but I'm going into it anyway.
A GFCI measures the flow of current between the hot and neutral wires, if some current flows to ground then the GFCI trips.
So somewhere you have some current flowing to ground.
not quite accurate. yes, It does measure the difference in current between the hot and neutral, and trips on an imbalance. It doesn't care if the current is flowing to ground, or a path to another neutral or coming from another hot, it just cares that the hot and neutral are not equal.
Now in the vast majority of cases, the trip is caused by current flowing from the hot to ground.
the term "ground fault interupter" is a nice description, and gets the point across, but really isn't a accurate description. It's a hot/neutral imbalance interupter.
Also all GFCI sold today must also trip if there is a ground/neutral connection downstream, even if no current is flowing in the ground or neutral. So if somewhere the ground and neutral touch by accident, the GFCI will trip. Or in a trailer if someone violated code and bonded ground and neutral together.
