GFI protection for heat trace

zepfan

Does anyone know the best GFI circuit breaker for a heat trace circuit.The system in question is a hard wired system that has self regulating heat trace enabled, and disabled by an outside air thermostat.The electric panel is a residential SQ D snap in panel,20 amp 115 volt circuit.The manufacture of the heat trace Raychem said that it should be on a 27-30 ma trip GFI breaker so that the breaker does not nuisance ly trip.I am concerned that if I call our local electrical supply house,they will have no idea what I am talking about.We have five of these breakers in the same panel protecting heat trace and I do not want to install GFI's that are going to be tripping at the drop of a hat.Thanks to all

BobC

This looks like it might help -

http://www.pentairthermal.com/Images/EN-05GroundFaultProtectionDevices-AR-H56894_tcm432-26148.pdf

Bob

SWEI

Class A GFCI's (intended for personnel protection) are rated at 5mA (required to trip at 6mA leakage current, must hold 4mA.)

Class B GFCI's (intended for equipment protection) are rated at 30mA. They are not available for residential load centers.

Is it a QO or a Homeline panel?

Tim Potter

I have 2 circuits of Raychem heat trace on my roof, (Grand county Colo, lots of snow & ice) protected by regular gfci's the only problem I ever had with trips, I found a nick in the cable, fixed it & no prob's since,

Tim

zepfan

Thanks to all.the panel is a sq d type qo

SWEI

Look for a QO-EPD breaker (e.g. QO120EPD for a single pole 20A.)

Snipped from a Schneider bulletin:

QO-EPD and QOB-EPD circuit breakers are one- and two-pole thermal-magnetic circuit breakers with integral equipment ground-fault protection. These circuit breakers are rated for use on 120/240 VAC and 120/208 VAC electrical systems to provide overcurrent protection, short-circuit protections and equipment ground-fault protection. EPD circuit breakers are built in accordance with UL Standard 489. QO-EPD and QOB-EPD circuit breakers are not designed to protect people from the hazards of electrical shock. The ground-fault protection level is 30 milliamperes to protect electrical equipment such as heat trace tape. QO-EPD and QOB-EPD circuit breakers include a self-contained means of testing the ground-fault circuitry. If the circuit breaker is connected correctly, with the pigtail connected to the neutral assembly in the load center or panelboard, pressing the test button will trip the circuit breaker and show a trip indication. EPD circuit breakers must be operational at 85% of the rated voltage. EPD circuit breakers provide the same branch circuit protection as standard QO and QOB circuit breakers. They are longer than standard QO circuit breakers, and thus require more gutter space. All QO electrical accessories except shunt trip and all QO mechanical accessories are available for QO-EPD and QOB-EPD circuit breakers.