Residential Kitchen

In a dwelling unit (residential), GFCI protection is only required for kitchen receptacles that serve the countertop surfaces. There's no requirement to GFCI protect receptacles that serve a refrigerator. Unless the fridge is plugged into a countertop receptacle.

National Electrical Code 2014

Chapter 2 Wiring and Protection

Article 210 Branch Circuits

I. General Provisions

210.8 Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupter Protection for Personnel. Ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel shall be provided as required in 210.8(A) through (C). The ground-fault circuit-interrupter shall be installed in a readily accessible location.

(A) Dwelling Units. All 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in the locations specified in 210.8(A)(1) through (10) shall have ground-fault circuit interrupter protection for personnel.

(6) Kitchens— where the receptacles are installed to serve the countertop surfaces.

Garages, Unfinished Basement, and Other Locations

If the refrigerator is in a garage, boathouse, or unfinished basement. All the receptacles are required to be GFCI protected, so the fridge will have to be plugged into a GFCI protected receptacle.

Why does the fridge trip the GFCI?

Any inductive load when switched off, can produce electromagnetic interference (EMI). This interference can, and often does, trip GFCI devices. Most vapor compression refrigerators have a few inductive loads, any of which could cause the trip.

Is there anything that can be done?

There are devices called snubbers that can be used to reduce, or eliminate the effects of EMI. Installing one between the fridge and the GFCI device, could prevent nuisance trips. The best solution though, is to connect the fridge to a non-GFCI protected circuit.

If that's all it takes, why isn't there already one built in?

While most (all) manufacturers are aware that refrigerators can cause nuisance tripping of GFCI devices, most (none) seem willing to provide a solution. It would be complete speculation for me to try and tell you why they don't care, so of course I'll go through a few possibilities.

• Cost.
  Plain and simple, it costs money to implement a solution.
• Warranties and Operating Conditions.
  Most refrigerators are designed to operate in a kitchen. Running them in dusty, dirty garages and basements could lead to more warranty covered repairs.

If I'm understanding, your circuit runs from

Service panel -> receptacle A -> receptacle B -> switches and receptacle C -> fridge D

In a perfect world, we try to use one GFCI device per circuit when it makes sense to protect the whole circuit. In this case, it does not. The farthest thing from the service panel is the fridge, and it's desirable to avoid as long as possible putting GFCI protection on a fridge. (I can't tell you to violate the law, but the requirement for fridge GFCI in new work implies a new fridge which is built expecting to be on GFCI.)**

I understand the lighting at C is also not playing nicely with GFCI.

There is no way, given existing wiring, for a GFCI at A to provision GFCI-protected power to B and the C receptacle, but not the fridge. The wires are not there.

Given these constrictions, the most correct way to install this is with GFCI receptacles at each of A, B and C. On each receptacle, you would pigtail to the LINE terminals only, and cover up the LOAD terminals. The result of this is the lights at C and the refrigerator at D will not be on GFCI.

To assure nobody tries to plug a second thing into the fridge receptacle at D, I would change it to a single outlet (just one socket).

If at some point you want to repair the lights at C and move them to the LOAD terminals of the GFCI device at C, that would be fine. Normally, when you don't have a fridge at the end of a string, you save a lot of money by learning to properly protect downline outlets with the LOAD feature.

There is no reason to tolerate an "old fluorescent" anywhere. First, find a T8 bulb that fits the fixture, then get a modern electronic ballast that is correct for the T8 bulb. Change the ballast and enjoy state of the art, hum-free, flicker-free lighting. Or you can defer it; code doesn't require lighting be GFCI.

** A GFCI trip on a fridge results in spoiled food. Bad, especially if not detected by the food preparer - and before anyone tells me "the chef will detect this", baloney. Try having a senior citizen with homecare aides coming in and out. I assure you, food given to the senior is never tasted or even looked at closely. They will pour a bowl of cereal with sour milk and never know, and then coach the senior to eat it. Seriously.