dilogdp":1xzcy9hp said:
I recently purchased a PARMAK Mark 8 120v 30-mile fence energizer. It immediately trips the GFIC breaker. After some troubleshooting I called them up and spoke to a technical guy. He told me "they are not meant to be connected to GFIC."
He also suggested that "by design" no energizer should work with GFIC.
Surprising IMO, since outside receptacle and most barn areas would require GFIC. I won't consider the option of replacing the GFIC. I prefer not to go with 12v battery or solar, if possible.
Has anyone used a different make? In the meantime, I have the wife picking up one at Tractor Supply and ordered a 12v.
The only ones that consistently work with a GFCI are ones without an autotransformer and many today, especially low impedance charger use autotransformers because they are better and more efficient especially at dissipating heat. Autotransformers have only one winding and part of that winding acts as both a primary and secondary coil, with the secondary being the part that is charging the fence.
Since the secondary (the output to the fence) will always 'see' a fault simply because the way the charger and fence are connected, and the current for the fence comes from the primary portion, the GCFI also senses the fault and trips.
GFCI are sensitive to around 1/2 mA difference in current in on the line and current out on the neutral of the plug and anything above 1/2 Ma will cause the GFCI to trip. Dew or rain, or a single weed on the hot wire of the fence, insulators and fence post can bleed off 1/2Ma to ground without it really showing up on a voltage test of the fence, and "Trip" goes the GFCI.
I prefer to use GCFI anywhere I can, govt mandated or not. By the time a 20A braker trips, you're already dead or knocked on your backside and breakers aren't designed or intended to prevent electrocution anyway. Their purpose is to protect the wiring on it's circuit.....to keep the insulation from getting so hot it burns your house down. GCFI checks for faults 120* times per second, tho a few of the newer breakers have GCFI built into them too but they are expensive. 120X/second is dang fast.
*120 instead of 60 times per second because in a complete cycle, the wave form changes twice..becomes or crosses zero twice, and it makes 60 cyles every second. A breaker can't begin to react that fast.
The fix....I don't know other than wiring in a standard receptacle, tho I do know that the GCFIs I'm familiar with can be wired for either load or line. You'd have to ask a sho nuff electrician if wiring the outlet for line will take care of the problem.
The only other thing that I know that might account for tripping the outlet is if the fence ground rod is too close to the building's ground rod or electrically grounded water or gas lines. How close is 'too close'? I dunno that either.