GFI at Home??

[Dave e Victoria]

I usually park the coach in front of our stick house when loading or unloading and plug the electric into an outside wall socket. These are 15 or 20 amp and hardley support the coach. So, I decided to install a regulation RV 30 amp on the street side of the house. There is room for a breaker in our panel so all is well. Now the question. Is there any reason to NOT install a GFI breaker. The cost difference is rather trivial and there is room in the panel. It seems like a no brainer but, as Fats Waller once said, "One never knows, Does one?" Any comments?

[pud2]

Dave i don,t see any reason to install one. And it has always been my experince that the GFI breakers are pricey. I am in the maintenace field and usally you would only install this around wet locations.If you install a weather proof cover over your recp. you should be fine. I have not had any problems.

quote:Originally posted by Dave e Victoria

I usually park the coach in front of our stick house when loading or unloading and plug the electric into an outside wall socket. These are 15 or 20 amp and hardley support the coach. So, I decided to install a regulation RV 30 amp on the street side of the house. There is room for a breaker in our panel so all is well. Now the question. Is there any reason to NOT install a GFI breaker. The cost difference is rather trivial and there is room in the panel. It seems like a no brainer but, as Fats Waller once said, "One never knows, Does one?" Any comments?

[richfaa]

The only good reason to install the GFI is that it is, at least around here, Code. We have two GFI breakers out front, both with covers.I too upgraded to a 30 amp breaker.It is code to have GFI breakers in the bathroom, Kitchen, Utility roon, anywhere near water outlets..other than that a regular breaker will work just as well...

[Bill and Ann]

We have a 30 amp and a 50 amp outlet in the garage. We feed the wire through a dryer vent to the outside where the coach is parked at the side of the garage.

[BillyRay]

I was always under the belief that it had to be GFI...but I'm not an electrician either!

[drhowell]

When I built my house here in CA in 2000 the code required any exterior outlets be protected with GFCI. I suppose in theory you can have wet grass or wet concrete and come in contact with a 30 amp cord with bare wire etc? I used GFCI breakers in the main circuit panel to protect a series of outdoor recepticles. The extra cost would be justified to prevent the remote possibility of an electical death.

[DHenry]

I had an Electrical Contractor install a 30amp service outside and he has it in a weather proof box, but no GFI.

[Garin1]

The correct way is to install the external receptacles in a weather proof enclosure. And only in America do we call the power outlet a receptacle. Neat Huh

[Garin1]

Also,, you should be sure to use the properly sized cable to handle 30 amp load.. At least a #6 awg to be safe. That would allow you to run a reasonable didtance from the main power source without voltage drop.

[VanMan]

Be sure to heed the last one ! Up a size for extra length + up a size if in a conduit. You don't want to be wishing later that you had run a little bigger when you want/need to run everything at the same time !!

[Trailer Trash 2]

I have found that when water touches the plug and gets it wet, a good GFI will trip thats what they are desined to do. when I use my extention for my trailer and plug it in and it gets wet it trips it. when pluged into the trailed twist conecter and it rains water will go down the wall of the rig then the wire thin it trips I got rid of my GFI braker on that line and no more problems.

[Illini Trekker]

I would because you are using a household type plug-in. Chances are you will use the power at that point to work on the Monty, that is when you will need the GFI.

[Garin1]

An overall gfi is not a good idea. anything with a large initial power surge at start up(a/c, micro-wave,etc)will be recognized as a drop in voltage and trip the gfi.

[BillyRay]

we put a 50 amp service in for ours.

[ols1932]

You don't need a GFI receptacle with your 30 amp receptacle. If you did, every RV park would have one. You usually see GFI receptacles in 15-20 amp circuits only.

[Kathi]

Paul said to also check the size of the wire that you will be using. He said that the normal receptacle won't handle a 30 amp. plug. He said to use a # 10 wire minimum unless you have good fire insurance.....

[Dave e Victoria]

Thanks for all of the input. I ended up without a GFI in this circuit. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even find a 30 amp gfi at the DIY stores. The outlet is next to my regular service panel and I had one breaker slot left. Total wire length is 5 feet. I used #10 wire. The outlet enclosure is a weather proof box just like the parks use. Turns out our local Home Depot had a 30 amp receptical and weather proof housing in a package for about $25.00. The most difficult part of this project was finding a breaker for our service panel. Turns out the house is about 30 years old and designs have changed. Found one at an electricains supply house..

Again, thanks for all the suggestions.
Dave

[Parrothead]

And I was going to tell you we had an electrician install our 30 amp box for the 5th wheel (previous one was only 30 amp) and there is not a GFI on it. It too is a weather proof box on a pole. Our house was brand new when he did it (10 years ago) so had no trouble with new breaker.
Glad you got yours done!
Happy trails.....................