How can I plug a extra fridge in basement without add new breaker？

[Jadnashua]

IMHO, there is no such thing as a nuisance trip of a GFCI! Unless they've failed, they do their job. If they detect an imbalanced current flow between the hot and neutral, they open to potentially protect anyone that may be in harm's way. Now, could you have had an issue with lightning nearby somewhat disrupting the flow of power? Maybe. If you happened to be touching the device the GFCI was protecting at that moment, it might save your life!

I've mentioned it before, but a whole-house surge suppression device might solve that problem of a surge you have no control over. In the 30-years or so I've been in my home, I had one issue with a GFCI and it was wiring, not the device, that was causing it. I bypassed that section of wiring, and things have been reliable since. I just didn't want to tear apart the walls to find the problem, so I just ran a new wire.

 

[wwhitney]

IMHO, there is no such thing as a nuisance trip of a GFCI!

That is 99.9% true. They occasionally trip due to non harmful transients, e.g. inductive kickback from the load, or induced electrical noise from a powerful radio transmitter. GFCIs have some circuitry in them to reduce these nuisance trips, but they still occasionally happen.

Having said that, any given time a GFCI trips, it is far more likely to be due to a fault in the load than to be a true nuisance trip.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Sponsor]

 

[JerryR]

And how many times has that happened since you set it up, over what time period? If at least once, was it actually an isolated trip, or was it the first sign of the fridge failing?

Cheers, Wayne

Twice in 5 years at main house with GFCI. Both times it was during a violent thunderstorm with lots of lightening strikes nearby. Fortunately we were home. Had I not received the text the fridge would have been off possibly for days.

The additional benefit is immediate notification of loss of power when not at home. We have the same setup at main home and vacation cabin. Our vacation cabin is remote. If power goes out when we’re not there, if it stays out for more than 10 minutes I check to see if internet is up checking cameras and WiFi thermostat. If I verify power is out I report the outage to the power company. They usually will get it up within an hour. Most times it’s a tree that fell on a power line nearby. Power outages are routine at the cabin. Probably 10-15 times a year during the summer.

Pix of cabin setup. Alarm is connected to a dual path internet/cellular communicator.

 

[Jadnashua]

A good whole home surge suppression device should eliminate most issues with nearby (not direct!) lightning strikes. IMHO, a good thing regardless.

Lots of things today have electronics in them, and most people do not use a UPS or surge suppressor on them. Having one at the main panel can help a lot. I still put either a UPS or surge suppressor on high value or critical items in my home. When looking at the specs, you want fast response times (in the nanoseconds) and high current capabilities - the more the better, but there's a practical limit on cost/benefit ratio.

The one I put into my mother's house appears to still be available from some vendors, but has been discontinued. It looks like the latest one that's compatible is https://ep-us.mersen.com/sites/mersen_us/files/DS-STXH-Surge-Trap-XH-Series-Mersen.pdf The one on the left is the one I used.

The one I put in was like this:

 

[Supr]

HJ,

Yep. It happened to me once about 20 years ago. Lost all the food in the fridge.

That’s why I have the garage fridge GFCI outlet monitored to my home burglar alarm system. If it nuisance trips the battery backed up cellular communicator Sends me a text and I call call my neighbor to go into the house to reset the breaker.

nevermind, beat me to it haha.

any more info on how that outlet is setup with the alarm system?

 

[JerryR]

nevermind, beat me to it haha.

any more info on how that outlet is setup with the alarm system?

Sure, I have a 12 volt 1a power supply (black adaptor in picture) plugged into a receptacle on the GFCI circuit. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071HSQBF9/

The 12 volts feeds the coil of a small relay https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003S1TATU/

The relay contacts are wired directly to either the alarm zone input at my cabin alarm or to a wireless transmitter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006BCCRM/ at my primary home.

When power is lost at the receptacle the loss of 12 volts from the power supply causes the relay to change state. At the cabin the relay opens the contact which opens the NC alarm zone.

At the primary house the relay is wired to the wireless transmitter which causes the transmitter to transmit open zone to the alarm panel when relay opens.

I’ve got the alarm zone on Honeywell Vista 20P configured as a type 12, monitor zone. Sirens don’t sound, police aren’t called but central station only notifies me via text.

 

[JerryR]

FYI, twice this week we lost power at our cabin during thunder storms here in Florida.. First time was at 2 am and power was out for 7 hours. I’m hunkered down at the cabin due to the virus. I have 3 refrigerators full of food. When I got the text it woke me up. I then powered up the Honda 2000 generator and hooked up the 3 refrigerators to power so I wouldn’t loose the food.

Finally at 9 am power was restored all food was saved, including the ice cream in the freezers.

 

[Jadnashua]

A decent, when full, frig or freezer should last overnight without things getting too warm unless you open the door. Certainly, restoring power quicker is safer. That assumes the door seals are intact. I took some frozen stuff in a cheap insulated bag on a road trip of about 8-hours, and they were still frozen when I got back. Now, if it were in the middle of summer, in the sun, that might be a different situation!