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Val,

No you don't have gremlins, it sounds like you have poor grounding in 
you barn. Check the grounding on your breaker box. You might have to put 
in an extra ground rod - about 3 feet from the current one. You might 
also have a ground fault in another boxes, plugs or switches on the 
circuit. You might also might have a bad GFI. You say you have two, 
exchange the GFI's and see if the problem follows the unit. If not it's 
in your ground.

The GFI is doing it's job. It's telling you there is a ground fault.

Truman

Val Nicoson wrote:
> Thank you all for your responses and I'll respond to each one 
> providing the answers my husband gave me:
>
> My husband has checked the load capacity and amperage and he says he 
> is under this.
>
> All wiring, plugs, GFI circuit breakers and breaker box are new. We 
> have 2 GFI circuits, one on either side of the barn.
>
> One side of the barn constantly trips even when reset even with 
> nothing plugged in. Yet if he plugs in a 300 watt light and reset 
> while the light is turned on, the circuit holds...even after the light 
> is turned off...and will then hold often times 3-4 days, when it 
> starts all over again.
>
> The other side of the barn has been fine since it has been installed 
> until last week when it got extremely cold. This is not the first time 
> that the water buckets on this side has required power.
> But in the night it tripped and this morning all the buckets were 
> frozen...3 of them on that circuit. He reset the breaker this morning 
> and it has held since and is obviously working as the buckets are not 
> frozen.
>
> Do we have gremlins or what?
>
> Thanks for helping us trace this problem down.
> Val
>
> On Jan 18, 2008 10:13 AM, Sisu West Ranch <ranch@xxxxxxxxxxx 
> <mailto:ranch@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     *The GFI units are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. If
>     you have an electrical device plugged into a normal circuit
>     breaker, the breaker will not trip until the total curent exceeds
>     the value on the breaker for a considerable time. This means that
>     there could be a leakage (ground fault) in a water heater
>     sufficient to give a noticable (or even fatal) shock to your horse
>     and not even come close to tripping the normal breaker. One of my
>     older vets in WI said that before the use of GFI's was part of the
>     electrical code, he often got colic calls in the winter when a
>     small leakage in a tank heater turned the water into a mini
>     electric fence and the horse stopped drinking.*
>     *With a GFI (it makes no difference if you are talking the socket
>     kind or the breaker box kind) it will instantly trip, long before
>     the leakage gets big enough to cause a noticable shock and
>     everyone is happy. Usually the heater element is at fault, the
>     cure is to buy a new one (much cheaper than a new horse or a colic
>     call.). Many barns have old, neglected wiring and often old
>     extension cords run all over the place to the heaters. Either of
>     these can trip a GFI. You just have to keep resetting the GFI
>     while removing suspect parts of the circuit. If you get to the
>     wall and it still trips it is time to have the barn rewired.*
>     *ED*
>     *Ed & Wendy Hauser
>     2994 Mittower Road
>     Victor, MT 59875*
>     *(406) 642-9640*
>     *ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us*


--

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil


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