Gfci trip due to voltage drop?

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Sparkyva

Member
Location
Norfolk va USA
I'm trouble shootin some post lights in a remodel and to make it easy I locate my switch leg wich was switched from a 3 gang in the foyer these post lights are an easy 150 ft away from its switch

so I plug in an extension cord in to a gfi plug my switch leg in to the extension cord and the gfi trips

so I go take apart the lights to check for nicked wires or water in the fixtures the usuall but nothing


so I un do my splice because the original electrician ran the switch leg to the center light (because it's the closest I'm thinking) and made a junction in there to feed the rest of the lights I undo my splice and feed it again and it holds so I connect the light to the left and the gfi trips

undo my splice start over connect the light to the left gfi trips so again I search each location for the regular culprit no nicks in any wires in the fixtures or on the feeds so i by pass the gfi and it holds does trip the breaker no arcs or anything so I decide to check voltage make sure I'm getting 120 and it was reading at 107 so I decided to take the load off my feed and it shoots up to 118 so could the gfi be my issue or is it something I'm not seeing

I checked continuity between everything to make sure I wasn't grounding out or my neutral and hot weren't nicked under ground but everything rang out correctly but I can't find anything about gfi tripping because of voltage drop I just want to be 100% sure it was the gfi before I go any further thanks for your help


i broke it up for easier reading. iwire
 
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James L

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
Wow, did you type all that into one sentence? That is a very difficult read.

I read it three times, and it's extremely difficult to follow. You undid the makeup at the 3-gang and plugged the switch leg into an extension cord?

When you "bypassed" the gfci, what do you mean?

And it did, or did not, trip the breaker? And there was arcing, or not?

What do you mean that you refed it?
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Sounds like you have a lot of wire/cable between GFCI and the load(s). Could just be enough capacitance that the leakage is enough to trip GFCI. If you bypass a significant amount of the wiring and it holds that still stands up to this thought process.
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
kwired said:
Sounds like you have a lot of wire/cable between GFCI and the load(s). Could just be enough capacitance that the leakage is enough to trip GFCI. If you bypass a significant amount of the wiring and it holds that still stands up to this thought process.
Click to expand...
Or, you need to use more than a continuity check for insulation integrity. A better meter with a resistance range that exceeds 2000 ohms, into the mega ohms.
 
Little Bill

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
I would suggest running some temporary wiring between the center light and the left light as that is the light the OP said that trips the GFCI. Or run the wire all the way to the left light. That should tell you if it's voltage drop or a problem with the wiring between the center light and the left light.
 
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