I have read many articles on this forum (thank you!) about GFCI breakers tripping on VS pumps. I have a Mechanical Engineering and Energy Engineering background and many years of construction experience including electrical. I am by no means an Electrical Engineer and not even a licensed electrician but safe to say I could wire an entire home. Maybe no enough to be dangerous. So here is my story:
Pool ALMOST completed and filled two months ago. This has been a long battle around contract commitments and a pool builder that would cut a corner to save a dime. I did win many battles with the plumbing and pumping being the biggest accomplishment. It is not rocket science and there is plenty of quality information online to get the piping sized and installed correctly and with energy efficiency in mind. Thank goodness for variable speed pumps so that we can offset this absurdity by oversizing the pumps. Anyway my pumps are oversized but I have automation so all is great. Now to my problem. 240V 20A GFCI Eaton breakers tripping almost daily. These breakers are shared with other items such as heater, 2 blowers and oversized ozone generator (battle for another day). Electrician wired with 40 amp breaker in main panel to subpanel located by pool equipment. Subpanel has two 240V 20A breakers and one 120V 15 amp. Here is the detail:
(a) 240V 20A Breaker A - Jandy 2.7HP Epump + 2-1HP Silencer Blowers = 15.7A full load. This is dedicated to the 12 jets in the 2800 gallon spool. Pump set at max speed 3000 RPM since it will slide off the end of the curve thanks to the 3" piping.
(b) 240V 20A Breaker B - Jandy 1.65 HP VS FloPro + Heater + Ozonator = approx 15A full load. This serves filtration, heating and sanitization.
(c) 120V 15A Breaker C - Aqualink RS8 + all actuators, 4-12W Hydrocool and 15A outlet.
Originally electrician had wires doubled on the 3HP relays in the Aqualink some on line side and some on load side. The power runs through the relays to all devices. I have since added additional relays to put each piece of equipment on its own relay but circuit power is still shared as described above. I have been moving things around trying to troubleshoot during the journey.
The key problem is breakers GFCI's only tripping almost daily. The one to the 2.7HP trips more often but it had not actually tripped with everything running. I have read that power should be dedicated to pumps, direct to pumps, on Siemens only breakers, grounding conversations and lots of it must be wired wrong thoughts. At first it seemed like the spa jet pump was always tripped when I tried to use it in the evenings. I started to establish a pattern that they tripped in the heat of the day and when reset in the evening they would run with no issue until the next afternoon. This subpanel is located on the brick wall on the West side of my house in North Texas. As it got hotter, GFCI breakers tripped daily. I even chased down whether humidity was the factor. I spoke with multiple electricians and a licensed PE who did not think that temperature should be the issue. Weather has stabilized enough that I could rule out most everything else so I thought I would try just putting a blanket over the subpanel to provide shade and to minimize the radiant heating. The breakers have not tripped in the last 36 hours. This is the longest they have gone since it started getting hot.
What am I missing? Seems like this would be a very common issue for a subpanel to be mounted on a West facing exterior brick wall. I found no information that referenced this specific issue. I am looking for all perspectives because it is really difficult to enjoy and maintain water chemistry (also another issue I am battling for another day) when my pumps keep tripping the breaker. Any insight or opinion would be welcomed and I appreciate your responses. Thank You!
Pool ALMOST completed and filled two months ago. This has been a long battle around contract commitments and a pool builder that would cut a corner to save a dime. I did win many battles with the plumbing and pumping being the biggest accomplishment. It is not rocket science and there is plenty of quality information online to get the piping sized and installed correctly and with energy efficiency in mind. Thank goodness for variable speed pumps so that we can offset this absurdity by oversizing the pumps. Anyway my pumps are oversized but I have automation so all is great. Now to my problem. 240V 20A GFCI Eaton breakers tripping almost daily. These breakers are shared with other items such as heater, 2 blowers and oversized ozone generator (battle for another day). Electrician wired with 40 amp breaker in main panel to subpanel located by pool equipment. Subpanel has two 240V 20A breakers and one 120V 15 amp. Here is the detail:
(a) 240V 20A Breaker A - Jandy 2.7HP Epump + 2-1HP Silencer Blowers = 15.7A full load. This is dedicated to the 12 jets in the 2800 gallon spool. Pump set at max speed 3000 RPM since it will slide off the end of the curve thanks to the 3" piping.
(b) 240V 20A Breaker B - Jandy 1.65 HP VS FloPro + Heater + Ozonator = approx 15A full load. This serves filtration, heating and sanitization.
(c) 120V 15A Breaker C - Aqualink RS8 + all actuators, 4-12W Hydrocool and 15A outlet.
Originally electrician had wires doubled on the 3HP relays in the Aqualink some on line side and some on load side. The power runs through the relays to all devices. I have since added additional relays to put each piece of equipment on its own relay but circuit power is still shared as described above. I have been moving things around trying to troubleshoot during the journey.
The key problem is breakers GFCI's only tripping almost daily. The one to the 2.7HP trips more often but it had not actually tripped with everything running. I have read that power should be dedicated to pumps, direct to pumps, on Siemens only breakers, grounding conversations and lots of it must be wired wrong thoughts. At first it seemed like the spa jet pump was always tripped when I tried to use it in the evenings. I started to establish a pattern that they tripped in the heat of the day and when reset in the evening they would run with no issue until the next afternoon. This subpanel is located on the brick wall on the West side of my house in North Texas. As it got hotter, GFCI breakers tripped daily. I even chased down whether humidity was the factor. I spoke with multiple electricians and a licensed PE who did not think that temperature should be the issue. Weather has stabilized enough that I could rule out most everything else so I thought I would try just putting a blanket over the subpanel to provide shade and to minimize the radiant heating. The breakers have not tripped in the last 36 hours. This is the longest they have gone since it started getting hot.
What am I missing? Seems like this would be a very common issue for a subpanel to be mounted on a West facing exterior brick wall. I found no information that referenced this specific issue. I am looking for all perspectives because it is really difficult to enjoy and maintain water chemistry (also another issue I am battling for another day) when my pumps keep tripping the breaker. Any insight or opinion would be welcomed and I appreciate your responses. Thank You!
