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I bought a house that has a barn that was installed after the house build. the barn has power to it - a direct bury 12-2 wire emerging from the ground up a post that is distributed in the rafter area. previous owner stated it was installed by licensed electrician when built
well, an excavator broke the line while digging a trench - not a big problem. exposed wire would not trip a breaker when shorted. Found where the wire exited the ground at the house and found it is wired into the outside ac box for the compressor. I can pull the fuse/bridge in the box to kill the power and i can flip breaker for the ac also. I thought " no big deal but i need to install a gfci so the power in the barn is at least safe".
This morning, i wired in a gfci in the first box after where the power emerges from the ground. All wired up correctly, power to line and downstream wires to load. When energized, the gfci will not reset. The power is there - tested with test light.
This is a new gfci so i am thinking not a failure there.
looking in the outside ac box, i notice the electrician wired the white wire to the ground bar instead of the common bar with the other white wires from the panel/ac unit. i am wondering if this is causing an open ground or something? pictures below - red highlights barn lines . I am also thinking there may be an open ground "downstream" since previous homeowner thought he knew more than he factually did and made some "improvement issues".
I am going to power down, replace the gfci with a regular outlet so i can put a tester on it for open ground, etc. from the ac box wiring.
Can anyone offer some advice on how to chase down the issue?
well, an excavator broke the line while digging a trench - not a big problem. exposed wire would not trip a breaker when shorted. Found where the wire exited the ground at the house and found it is wired into the outside ac box for the compressor. I can pull the fuse/bridge in the box to kill the power and i can flip breaker for the ac also. I thought " no big deal but i need to install a gfci so the power in the barn is at least safe".
This morning, i wired in a gfci in the first box after where the power emerges from the ground. All wired up correctly, power to line and downstream wires to load. When energized, the gfci will not reset. The power is there - tested with test light.
This is a new gfci so i am thinking not a failure there.
looking in the outside ac box, i notice the electrician wired the white wire to the ground bar instead of the common bar with the other white wires from the panel/ac unit. i am wondering if this is causing an open ground or something? pictures below - red highlights barn lines . I am also thinking there may be an open ground "downstream" since previous homeowner thought he knew more than he factually did and made some "improvement issues".
I am going to power down, replace the gfci with a regular outlet so i can put a tester on it for open ground, etc. from the ac box wiring.
Can anyone offer some advice on how to chase down the issue?
