In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side, and
a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the other
controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan OFF, the
button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the connections
in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan through the
protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan & light.

Doug Kanter wrote:
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side, and
a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the other
controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan OFF, the
button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the connections
in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan through the
protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan & light.



I had the same problem in our master bathroom. Probably caused by a
little electrical arcing "noise" or just one "spike" created when
current through the inductive load of the fan motor is broken as the fan
is turned off. The "occassionally" part is because sometimes you "get
lucky" and the switch opens when the ac current waveform in the motor is
near zero, so there's no inductive kick.

I changed the feed to the fan switch (It was a "wind up" timer switch)
to be ahead of the GFCI outlet, plus I made sure there was a ground lead
connected to the mounting plate of that timer switch.

Same logic as yours, plus the frame of the overhead fan/light combo is
grounded as well.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
et...
Doug Kanter wrote:
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side,
and a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the
other controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan
OFF, the button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the
connections in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan
through the protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan &
light.

I had the same problem in our master bathroom. Probably caused by a little
electrical arcing "noise" or just one "spike" created when current through
the inductive load of the fan motor is broken as the fan is turned off.
The "occassionally" part is because sometimes you "get lucky" and the
switch opens when the ac current waveform in the motor is near zero, so
there's no inductive kick.

I changed the feed to the fan switch (It was a "wind up" timer switch) to
be ahead of the GFCI outlet, plus I made sure there was a ground lead
connected to the mounting plate of that timer switch.

Same logic as yours, plus the frame of the overhead fan/light combo is
grounded as well.

Jeff

I like reasoning when it agrees with mine.

It is required by code (NEC) your electricain did it right!!!!!

In article .com, "JGolan" wrote:
It is required by code (NEC) your electricain did it right!!!!!

What section of the NEC requires GFCI protection for bathroom exhaust fans?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

The fan-light is only required to be GFCI protected if it is located
directly over the tub



"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side,
and a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the
other controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan
OFF, the button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the
connections in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan
through the protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan &
light.

It's not. Thank you for the tip.

"RBM" rbm2(remove wrote in message
news
The fan-light is only required to be GFCI protected if it is located
directly over the tub



"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side,
and a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the
other controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan
OFF, the button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the
connections in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan
through the protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan &
light.

Doug Kanter wrote:
It's not. Thank you for the tip.

Neither is mine, and I figured it'd be quite safe by my grounding the
metal front plate of the wind up timer, which contacts its knob shaft.
So, even if someone pulled the plastic setting knob off, the shaft was
guaranteed to be at ground potential.

The overhead light on our fan is controlled by the same wall switch as
the rest of the lighting in the bathroom and that switch is mounted on
the wall next to the door OUTSIDE the bathroom.

That light switch location seems to have been the standard for bathroom
light switches here in Taxachusetts for quite a long time. I think it
must have been been a holdover from the days before grounding conductors
came into use for household wiring. Likely the earlier wall switches
were more prone to suffer failures which could render them hot, so
keeping them a far reach away from the sink and bathtub was probably a
good idea.

I put piloted switches in all those locations in our home because I got
tired of finding that people (me included) were forgetting to turn the
lights off and closing the bathroom door out of habit when they got
through with their ablutions.

Those switch locations also provided good sport for young siblings who
would turn the lights off on purpose when they passed the door just to
**** off the person they knew was sitting inside. G

Jeff


"RBM" rbm2(remove wrote in message
news
The fan-light is only required to be GFCI protected if it is located
directly over the tub



"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side,
and a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the
other controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan
OFF, the button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the
connections in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan
through the protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan &
light.







--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side,
and a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the
other controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan
OFF, the button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the
connections in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan
through the protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan &
light.

I have one of those light/fan combo units in my basement bathroom.
The PO had all fed from a GFCI outlet and 1 switch for both fan and light.
I rewired to have fan and light on separate switches. When I did this the
GFCI tripped every time I turned the fan off. With both light and fan on the
same switch the GFCI never tripped.
I could never figure out why. I even swapped GFCI's. I ended up taking the
fan/light off of the GFCI. The GFCI still will trip when turning off the
fan but not very often now.

Kevin

Kevin Ricks wrote:
"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side,
and a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the
other controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan
OFF, the button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the
connections in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan
through the protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan &
light.


I have one of those light/fan combo units in my basement bathroom.
The PO had all fed from a GFCI outlet and 1 switch for both fan and light.
I rewired to have fan and light on separate switches. When I did this the
GFCI tripped every time I turned the fan off. With both light and fan on the
same switch the GFCI never tripped.
I could never figure out why.


The "why" was because the load of the light bulb was still across the
fan when you broke the current to it and it provided enough resistive
loading across the inductance of the motor winding to damp the high
voltage inductive spike which was needling the GFCI.

Jeff

I even swapped GFCI's. I ended up taking the
fan/light off of the GFCI. The GFCI still will trip when turning off the
fan but not very often now.

Kevin










--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:35:45 -0400, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:

Doug Kanter wrote:
In my bathroom, there's a double wall box with GFIC outlet on one side, and
a pair of switches on the right. One switch controls the fan, and the other
controls the light in the fan. Occasionally, when I switch the fan OFF, the
button in the GFIC outlet pops. I know I need to check all the connections
in this circuit, but still, a question: Why run the fan through the
protected circuit to begin with? Nobody can touch the fan & light.

They could if they put a ladder in the bathtub and climbed up it. I
don't know if this makes a difference or not. When i did so, I made
sure the tub was dry so the ladder wouldn't slip, and I used a wooden
ladder because that's what I had.

Oh, yeah. I didn't touch the fan either. I had a woofer and tweeter,
from a 1950's hifi that I mounted to a board and installed in the
corner between the wall and ceiling. I plug the speaker into the tv
in the corner (or once in a while into a radio) so I have good sound
while taking a bath.

More below.

I had the same problem in our master bathroom. Probably caused by a
little electrical arcing "noise" or just one "spike" created when
current through the inductive load of the fan motor is broken as the fan
is turned off. The "occassionally" part is because sometimes you "get
lucky" and the switch opens when the ac current waveform in the motor is
near zero, so there's no inductive kick.

I changed the feed to the fan switch (It was a "wind up" timer switch)
to be ahead of the GFCI outlet, plus I made sure there was a ground lead
connected to the mounting plate of that timer switch.

Same logic as yours, plus the frame of the overhead fan/light combo is
grounded as well.

I have a fan/light switch only 8 inches from an outlet on my GFI
breaker. I don't know if it is on the same breaker. I should check.

Jeff