Stephen wrote:

> 
> I know what you mean about RCCBs (that's what we call them here). Especially
> when they are in lighting circuits they seem to increase the rate of failure of
> incandescent light bulbs. In the UK all changes to domestic circuits need to be
> checked by an independent inspector.
> 

For some reason switching power supplies and inductive loads are prone 
to tripping them, I can't understand why (inductive maybe because of 
power factor, switching supply, who knows...) All I know is my freezer 
has a tag on the plug that says never plug into a GFCI outlet (truth: 
parents did this, and noticed soon enough the freezer stopped working 
before everything thawed, then it kept happening. The motor that runs 
the compressor draws a lot of current, and probably doesn't have power 
factor correction)

On the other hand, it was quite irritating to have the GFCI 
spontaneously trip on the circuit my computer was plugged into. I 
finally resorted to buying a long high-grade extension cord and finding 
an unprotected outlet on the other side of the apartment (in a different 
room, mind you) to plug my computer into.

Ironically, the outlet on the porch isn't GFCI protected. :-D

-- 
~Mike

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