Electrical – How to Stop GFCI tripping when current drops too quickly

electricalgfci

I have my entire aquarium running off one GFCI. My lights are plugged into the top outlet and all of my pumps/etc are plugged into the other. If everything is running and I cut the switch (on the power strip) off, it occasionally trips the GFCI. If I do the same thing with the lights off, this never happens. This is especially annoying since the lights are metal halides and take forever to come back up.

  • The breaker hasn't tripped since I hooked everything up (a year ago)
  • The lights pull about 6 amps
  • The pumps/etc pull about 2 amps

If I put a second GFCI to split the load up, would that fix my problem (I realize that I can't feed the second GFCI from the first)?

I'm up for alternative suggestions short of running another circuit.

Best Answer

You might try a snubber between the power strip and the GFCI, to eliminate any electromagnetic interference produced by suddenly switching off the pumps.

Alternatively, trying a power strip that doesn't have surge protection could solve the problem. Surge suppressors typically route surges to the grounding conductor, which could cause upstream GFCIs to trip (assuming the surge is large enough).