GFCI alarm? - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

charlie s · 01-27-2009, 05:21 PM

Never have been asked to solve anything like this, not my line of work. Your help would be much appreciated.

A commecial building with 4 heat tape/wire in 4 roof drains wired to 4 30amp GFCI's. The gfi's have tripped twice in 2 years causing damage to drain system. I need an alarm to sound when any 1 of the 4 breakers trip. A local supplier says to use a shunt and alarm in the panel to a gfi meant for the heat tape. Wouldent the gfi still trip before the shunt breaker does meaning no alarm would sound? He also said there is no GFI shunt, yet I see some stuff online from squareD using the words "ground fault alarm". sounds like what I need but the panel is seimmens. Is this a monitoring system solution or a breaker solution? I am not familiar with either under these circumstances.

thanks, Charlie

B&C · 01-27-2009, 07:21 PM

I have seen a couple of plug in style alarms to alert you when a GFI trips. I dont think any of the devices would help with what you need usually for residential purposes. You could set up an audible alarm pretty cheap with a small icecube relay and an annunciating horn.

ABLE1 · 01-27-2009, 08:04 PM

What you are asking for can be made a number of different ways. I really depends on how you want to be alerted and how kool of an alert you want to get.

One possibility is here.

http://www.electronics-project-desig...lureAlarm.html

Not all that cool but a start. Good luck!!!

Have a good day.

Les

wirenut1110 · 01-28-2009, 11:41 AM

I like the programmable relays myself. Has alot more capabilities than a standard relay and pretty inexpensive.

Omron has a nice one with 6 inputs and 4 outputs for around $90. That and an audible and/or visual alarm panel or remote mounted.

Magnettica · 01-28-2009, 03:15 PM

The ground fault alarm you saw on Square D's website was probably for high impedance electrical system. I don't know too much about them but I remember reading about them in one of Mike Holt's books. I think what you need is what some of the others have led you to is a relay of sorts that sounds an alarm in the event the GFCI circuit becomes deenergized.