View Single Post
  #4   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
The dude The dude is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 54
Default Wiring GFCI help

Mikepier wrote:
On Sep 6, 12:29 am, The dude wrote:
I have a 30+ year old house.
I want to add a GFCI near the kitchen sink

This is what I have to work with
From the breaker box

Red - hot breaker 1
Black - hot breaker 2
White - neutral

Both breakers share the same neutral - they are chained together through
4 outlets

Red Outlet 1 (needs GFCI)
Red Outlet 2 (needs GFCI)
Black Outlet 3 (needs nothing)
Black Outlet 4 (needs nothing)

I tried to install the GFCI in outlet 1, but since it just constantly trips.
When I isolated the white from breaker 2 and was just using breaker 1,
it was ok.

Any suggestions??



The problem is on the "Load" side of the GFI outlet. You attached the
red and neutral going to the next outlet, however the neutral is also
feeding the #3 &4 outlets. Since only the nuetral is GFI Protected,
but not the black wire, it senses a current imbalance and trips. There
are 2 ways to correct this.
1) Run a seperate neutral wire from outlet #1 to outlet #2 ( probably
hard to do if walls are closed) Or maybe easier:
2) Connect GFI on outlet #1, but nothing on Load side, and connect
another GFI on outlet #2 again with nothing on load side. This leaves
the black circuit by itself.


I cannot run a second neutral wire.

So I just need to buy another GFCI for #2.
What do you mean by not using the load side?