50amp GFCI Spa panel safe at well below 50amps?

Chello · 02-22-2012, 10:36 PM

Planning my electric build and just curious if there i any safety issue using the 50amp GFCI breaker from the spa panel on something i may only be pulling ~25 or 30 amps out of.

I imagine most the time i'll be using 1 element at a time, but would like the expandability in the future but don't want to incur the risk of not tripping the GFCI if something were to happen.

sdugre · 02-23-2012, 12:33 AM

There is no problem with that, provided your feeder is rated for at least 50A. The GFCI will trip on ground fault current on the order of milliamps.

**JoeyChopps** · 02-23-2012, 12:36 AM

+1 gfci are designed to save your life and less than 1/2 amp can kill

**kal** · 02-23-2012, 06:31 PM

No safety issues at all.

In the USA a GFI meant to protect lives will trip when it senses a mismatch of only 5 mA (0.005 amps) of current between that flowing in vs that flowing out (so to speak).

Kal

Chello · 02-23-2012, 09:13 PM

Fantastic! Thanks for all the help.