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Forums > Specific Focus > Home, Garden & Construction in Mexico

Jan 9, 2006, 3:59 PM

Post #1 of 2 (1758 views)

GFCI Breaker in Panel

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Is it possible to run a GFCI breaker in a panel that has no grounds running to the recepticles in the home. I have a ground in the panel but nothing is grounded in the home. Would a GFCI breaker provide protection when there is no ground. Does this make any sense.

Regards,

Scott

patricio_lintz

Jan 9, 2006, 4:25 PM

Post #2 of 2 (1756 views)

Re: [simon] GFCI Breaker in Panel

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Ground & neutral have the same termination on the load center. They are both wired to the ground buss. The safety ground just provides an alternate safer path back to the ground buss in case of a hot wire to device body or elsewhere short.

The question you ask depends on the configuration of the GFCI used. If it detects current flow in the safety ground, then no is the answer. If it is a type that sensenses an imbalance in current from the hot line to the neutral, then, it would work.

However, it would be worth investing in installing safety grounds in all of your outlets to bring things up to latest US and international codes.

The three wire sockets with the ground jack can be fooled so that the three prong LED circuit tester (available at Home Depot) passes it. Just wire the neutral to the ground jack. However, this is not recommended since it defeats the idea of an extra safety ground.