I would like to schedule a time to shut power off to the circuit in the Science area to fix the broken outlet and to install a GFCI outlet. It should take about half an hour or less. I wanted to check, first, because I do not know if their are any power sensitive needs on that circuit.
Thanks.
You need to coordinate with the Board on any electrical work. We have an electrician who has to ok all work due to having an open permit.
@AndrewLeCody, @AlexRhodes, @Kentamanos, @BenjaminGroves, @Robert_Davidson
It should be fine, just replacing an outlet.
Good to know. blah blah blah 20 characters
I was asked by a board member to do this pursuant to an action item from the board meeting. Also, we are not required to ask the electrician before replacing or repairing existing fixtures.
The aquaponics system, two refrigerators, server rack and microscopes are the only items currently plugged into the outlets. Of those, the aquaponics system probably is the only system that would be significantly affected by a half-hour power outage. I don’t know what would happen to its control circuits if it lost power.
David Ratcliff could say what the impact would be to the server rack, but I’m not sure it’s plugged in all the time, anyway.
We are attempting to contact the person running the aquaponics project, because we’d like to move it to a different location.
I talked with Scott Renkes as he fed the fish. Power off for half an hour should not be an issue. He seemed more concerned about the frozen worms in the freezer in the half frig. Yeww!!
I identified the circuit, M3/9, and assembled the new cover plate with GFCI outlet and load-side outlet. Swapping old with new should be quick. I, also, discovered the Quincy auto drain and air dryer are on the same circuit; that is, the circuit serves the compressor room, too.
Installed GFCI outlet, cover plate, and a new load-side outlet. Good thing, too. The outlet on the right was totally broken off inside and the one on the left where everything was plugged in was half cracked. The manufacturer recommends testing the GFCI once each month.
Also, found that the Radio/CAD room behind the Haas shares the same circuit. So, the Quincy auto drain, the air dryer, and the CAD computer in the Radio/CAD room share this circuit with everything connected in the Bio/Science area.
Ok. The more I think about this, the more uneasy I get. I do not know how old the refrigerators are but older refrigerators were known to cause GFCIs to trip. Also, the power strip connected has surge and noise suppression which is also known to cause GFCIs to trip. My concern is what impact would an annoyance trip cause? If an annoyance trip left unchecked could cause big problems then I am tempted to remove the GFCI until we have a solution to better support the area and keep people safe, too. That area, definitely, needs more circuits. If we want to keep the GFCI then, maybe, we can connect the frigs to another circuit, replace the power strip with a plain one, and go from there. Ideas?
Thanks so much for working on our electrical system! I know our electrical box was in bad shape.
Andrew LaCody’s @AndrewLeCody refrigerator is all but trashed at this point. It barely cools the inside and the inside is completely covered in mold and filled with spoiled organic substances. That’s the black refrigerator.
The white refrigerator has a zucchini in it.
One of those refrigerators supposedly has frozen worms in it, too, but I didn’t check.
I would like a drop behind the tables, but I don’t know the process of putting one of those in. I also wonder what happens if we change the wall partition configuration. In any event, we could use a drop on the opposite side of the room from the current drop.
So, how much of a problem would it be if our one box were flooded by our aquaponics springing a leak?
You might want to consider moving Science to a different circuit. I promised David that I would help him build a high voltage (~ 2MV) power supply this month, and a visitor said he wants to build a tesla coil. That’s in addition to the nitrogen laser we almost have completed, and any other equipment we (hopefully) will get. The UL-certified equipment might not cause much trouble, but who knows what will happen when we plug in experimental projects.
The white fridge has frozen worms in it for fish food. If that fridge will be disconnected for any extended period of time, relocate the worms to another freezer and let me know where they are.
Please, please, please, do not remove a safety system for the sake of convenience. If something is tripping a GFCI outlet, that is because it has a ground fault. Such devices should be replaced with devices that do not exhibit ground faults.
There is absolutely no reason a refrigerator should have a ground fault. If it is tripping the GFCI outlet, throw it away.
Power strips with a surge supressor sometimes have a small LED / neon bulb to indicate that the strip is grounded (EDIT: this causes a very small ground current that could be mistaken as a ground fault). If such a power strip trips the GFCI, replace it with a strip that does not have such an indicator. Along the same lines, some UPSes have a “site ground fault” lamp. UPSes should not be used downstream of a GFCI outlet for several reasons (primarily that it will defeat the protection), so the solution is to install the UPS upstream of any GFCI protection (and hopefully away from any wet environments).
Inductive loads including compressors for refrigeration will trip GFCI outlets. There’s probably nothing wrong with the refrigerator.
There are specific types of GFCI devices that have a time delay feature to prevent nuisance trips. However, I still hold that a properly functioning GFCI device should not be bothered by the type of load applied to it. The inductive spike generated by a motor when it is cut off should not cause ground or neutral currents in a properly-designed circuit.
Wow! Seriously?! Let’s review. The people-protecting GFCI purchased at Home Depot, et al, trip at a few milliamps difference between the current coming in at the black wire (line or “hot”) of the GFCI device and the current returning in the white wire (neutral) of the GFCI device and must trip within a few milliseconds to prevent heart-stopping currents from flowing through a path to ground which could be a person. Do not confuse personnel-protection GFCIs with equipment-protection GFCIs. Equipment protection GFCI devices can be set to trip at more than lethal currents and/or more than lethal time delays. Nuisance trips should be expected with any personnel-protection GFCI.
Surge protection devices by their very design WILL CAUSE nuisance trips. Likewise, noise suppression devices by design WILL CAUSE nuisance trips. WHY? Surge protection devices have components connected to ground that shunt to ground when activated to protect the equipment. Noise suppression devices also have components connected to ground to shunt high-frequency noise to ground. The result is in-coming current does not equal out-going current through the GFCI device and it trips. A good UPS will have surge protection and noise suppression circuits and, hence, would cause nuisance trips if connected downstream.
In other words, any alternative path for current flow or any additional induced currents (e.g., from unshielded or poorly shielded motors) that upset the balance between line and neutral at a personnel-protection GFCI device will cause it to trip. Expect nuisance trips. They will happen. My concern is unchecked trips that cause loss of time, loss of money, and failure in projects that might suffer from extended power interruptions. Finally, no one at the Space holds safety in higher priority than me.
If you have a critical system that can’t be without power, wire a 120V relay to a buzzer so that if the power goes out the buzzer starts squealing and have a sign near the buzzer that says: “If this buzzer is buzzing, please reset the GFCI as shown in this picture”
A decent 9V battery hooked to a piezo element ought to protect you for quite some time.