GFCI without hiring an electrician

Is there any way I can get the benefits of a GFCI outlet, without having to learn wiring?
My greenhouse is right next to a shed that has electricity. I was hoping to run a super-strength extention cord to it.

Yep, you sure can, h-jeebie.

You can buy ground fault outlets now, and put those in the outlet box(s). If you have more than one outlet box on that electric line, put the ground fault "plug in"/outlet the first one in line and that will protect all the others from there on down the line.

The also have extension cords now that have built in GFCI built into them. If you plug that into a standard outlet it will have the same affect and any other GFCI.

As for you "super strength" extension cord, you can easily make one by buying some 12 gauge wire, put a male plug at one end and a GFCI outlet in a box at the other end. Very easy to do. The wires are all color-coded and I'm sure you can do it.
Hope this is helpful!

Shoe.

Last time we fiddled around with GFCI we had to be sure it was wired properly at the breaker box, too. If you run it off of an outside plug circuit in or on your bathroom circuit you should be covered already.

:-)

Ohhhh I'm having such a hard time understanding all of this.

Ground-fault outlets?
outlet box?
electric lines?

ughhhhhhh

Hah! Trust me heebie, I sure know that feeling! Been there! The major reason I know these things now is cause we were hit by a tornado some years back and I learned to do much of the repairs/fixing up stuff.

Outlet...That is what you would plug your electrical appliances into (toaster, fridge, drills, lights, extension cord, etc). You know, the "plug in" thingy in the wall. Sometimes called the 'outlet', also called the outlet 'box'. (The plug in thingy is actually attached inside a box, hence "outlet box".)

Ground Fault Interrupter...a great invention. It is now used for wet locations so that if water comes into contact with wires or appliances that are plugged in it cause the power to cut off, saving you from getting a big shock.

Electric lines...simply put, the wires that carry the electricity from point A to point B. It comes in different "strengths" or gauges, hence my recommendation for 12 gauge for your use.

To make it easy for you, if you go to Home Depot or Lowes for an extension cord, try to find one that has a built-in GFCI , that would be your easiest way to go. However, it would be helpful if you could tell us how far from the greenhouse your shed is to help you determine the size of the extension cord you might need. 100ft? 50 ft? 25 ft?

Shoe.

Heebie, to add to what Shoe said, any electrical line/wire connections should be contained in a box. The purpose of this is to contain spark and prevent fire. Every outlet in your home, every ceiling light, every light switch has it's wire connections in a box.

The breaker box is a box (with electrical connections) that has circuit breakers in it. If you overload a particular circuit (try to run too many things), or short the circuit, the circuit breaker breaks the circuit and thereby prevents damage to the system or appliance.

Good advice from Shoe, see if you can get a 12 gauge extension cord with GFCI.

Is the shed on it's own breaker? What size? Does the shed have it's own breaker box? How many things in the shed are running at the same time? If you're planning on running heaters, I wouldn't use an extension cord, except as a temporary solution. There are very good reasons why ALL space heaters have a tag that recommends not to use an extension cord. The tag will also say that, should you decide to use one, to use a cord with a specific gauge wire. Buying a "super-strength" cord will allow more current to pass through, than is necessary. The cord won't get hot, but the heater's cord may.

Best solution is, have an electician put the breaker in, for you. It won't cost much. I bet you've got a friend that would do it for a couple beers. ;) Breakers *usually* cost about $3-4. Some people put in oddball service panels. Those breakers cost a bit more. The info you need will be on the breakers, already installed. You should have no trouble installing outlets yourself. They're not difficult. First, kill the power to the circuit (turn off the breaker). You'll have three wires, a black (hot), a white (neutral) and a bare wire (ground). Black will go to the gold screw on the outlet, and white to the silver. The ground will go to a green screw. A quick google for "wiring outlets" left the following as the first hit: http://www.alpharubicon.com/altenergy/wiringjaden.htm

The link is to a very basic explanation of wiring an outlet. Give it a read and see if you're up to the task. =) An electrician should really do the wiring of the breaker, to make sure that it's done to code. But, switches and outlets are very easy to wire up. Don't fear wiring, but respect electricity. And, above all, be safe about it. (extension cords are not the safe solution, IMO)

Good luck, and HTH,

Eggs

Does a guy have the right to change his mind? ;-)

Heebiejeebie, I've been following your posts here and on GW. (Parenthetically, this will probably turn into a huge fight over on GW!)

I should have followed my normal, by-the-book, follow-the-code advice. I think I agree with Eggs. You could run an extension cord, but only as a temporary solution. Better to make sure you have breaker protection (either at the shed or at a subpanel in the GH) and GFCI protection at the outlet.

To do this, you may need an electrician. List all the stuff you would power in the greenhouse...heaters, fans, beer fridge, grow lights. Add the wattage of these items. A milkhouse heater uses 1500 watts, etc. Divide this by 120 (volts) and add about 20% and this is the size of the service you'll need. Tell your electrician this. He'll add breaker(s) at the breaker box. Then he'll run the line to the GH. The proper, by-the-book way to do this is to run wire approved for damp locations, in conduit underground and into the greenhouse. Then from there, you may be able to do the work yourself, but it just involves installing a GFCI outlet on each circuit.

The one other thing I'll add to Eggs' post is that GFCI outlets have 2 pairs of screws, a line and a load. It is important to get the right connections, particularly if you have "downstream" outlets that you want GFCI protection on.

The differing advice you are getting on this topic confirms that there are differing approaches...like with vented/vent-free heaters! You might use an extension cord for a long time and never have a problem with it. But if you do, Murphy's law says that the problem will occur at the worst possible time. Nathanhurst will say that codes are written for the benefit of the code writers and not with safety in mind. I disagree.

Shoe and Everyone.

The rear of my greenhouse will be about 2 feet from the shed.
The greenhouse is approx 30 feet from my house.
My crazy father in law ran some sort of electric line under the ground from the house to the shed so there could be a light in the shed. The shed is even smaller than the greenhouse, built by said father in law... maybe 4 feet by 5 feet footprint.
The shed is not on it's own breaker box. Is that the big thing that has all those switches on it? Is it the thing we have to switch the switches when our lights go out when we run the vacuum and microwave at the same time? If so, we have one breaker box to the house and two circuits (I think... we had one circuit before but father in law changed that so our power would stop going out).
How could a breaker box cost so little?
I would like to run one or two small electric heaters in my 6x8' greenhouse. I would be doing this for 2 or 3 months a year. I will only be operating in this location for two years - we will move in 2008.

I was thinking of running a GFCI extension cord right through the shed into the greenhouse. Wouldn't have to go underground. I would even push the greenhouse up to the shed so none of it would be outside. But I DO want to be safe... and I know none of you are going to give me advice that may hurt me/not be safe. SO in the end I need to make the choice myself I guess.

Sigh... I CAN hire an electrician. I could probably convince my father in law to do all of this too, but he's rude and mean to me. This is going to be really expensive.

More and more I think I'm learning toward starting most of my seeds inside instead of in the greenhouse, like I did last year. It worked very well. We have very little space in the house, but this is much more hassle than it's worth. I can still use the GH for hardening off and growing in the spring.

heebiejeebie,

Don't be so negative about it. ;) First, decide everything you want to power in the GH. Do a little legwork, so that you're ready to answer as many questions as an electrician might have, that you can. Consider as many possibilities as you can think of, that you'd need electricity for. Even if you aren't planning on putting lights in right away, you can plan for them in the future, by having the breakers installed, now.

Heater(s).

Find how much heat you'll actually need (BTUH) [1], and then find a heater(s) that will provide that amount of heat. You'll need to know the Watts [2], and Amps [3].

Lights.

Will you need grow-lights? Will you be spending much time in the GH, after dark? You'll need to decide how many light fixtures you'd need (if any). Don't forget their "amp" rating.

Recepticles.

You'll need to plug in some things. Usually temporary things, such as heaters, fans, (or a drop light, until such time as you can afford to install lights), etc. Maybe even a drill to do some repairs (you never know). Decide how many outlets you'll need to have, by all of the things that will be plugged in. Total up the amps of all the things.

Once you've decided just what you need power for, and have totalled up their amps, you'll know what size breaker(s) you'll need. You're now ready to find an electrician, and should be a bit more comfortable with questions he'll likely have. You can't really say "it's going to be expensive", without knowing just what you'll need, and actually finding out what it will cost. You also don't have to take the first quote (or the 10th). Call around and decide if it's within your means. It won't cost anything to find out. ;)

[1]. http://www.igcusa.com/greenhouse-btu-calculator.html

[2]. Watts are power. The higher the wattage, the more power the device. They're also what determines how much your bill is. The higher the wattage used, the more expensive it will be to run, in the long run.

[3.] Amps (amperes) are the unit of measure of current. Without getting into physics laws, suffice it to say it's the most important number (other than cost), that you'll deal with when discussing circuit breakers.

Tried to keep it simple. =) HTH,
Eggs

You will not receive a good return on your money invested in two years hiring an electrician unless he is really cheap. The service panel or breaker box is the big thing housing the breakers. The breaker that the shed is on probably is a 15 amp and you can check this by turning the shed light off by throwing breakers in the panel until the light goes off. It will tell on the breaker if it is a 15amp or 20amp. You can also check to see if this is a GFCI breaker. This probabaly is a shared breaker and you may not be able to run another appliance when th GH heater is on. Chances are you can only run one heater. Keep your extension cord short if you do use one and making your own would be the best way to go and someone where you purchase your electrical supplies should be able to advise you. You could put a GFCI on the far end and either a plug or direct wire in to the existing box. Keep in mind that the current at the end of any appreciable length of electrical wire is less then at the source, which is usually the circuit breaker in the service panel. So the distance and size of wire from the source to the end appliance becomes an important factor. If the end appliance is a heater and the wire is not capable of delivering the amount of current required to the end use, the heater after a time will burn out. Adding 6 ft. to your 30 ft. to the shed is not an unreasonable length. I would use either a 12-2 or 10-2 UF wire. Because your life and property is at some risk however low anytime there is electricity, do not buy the cheap products. We use to rely on the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) label to insure the products were good but now so many electrical products have counterfeit UL labels on them. The Underwriters Laboratories recently issued another warning, this one on counterfeit extension cords, power strips, surge protectors and current taps. Buying quality is dirt cheap insurance.
You could also consider another source of heat for your greenhouse.

I like that, Bluejack, can I use that? ;-)



That does change things a bit, I agree. If I were using this GH for a total of only 4 months, I, too, would question whether it is worth the trouble. But to continue with the exercise, just in case you decide to go forward, if you have two 1500W electric heaters, you'll require 3000W for heat. 3000 divided by 120 = 25 amps...add 20% and you can see that you'll require 30 amp service for two small electric heaters. You could probably get by with 10 amps for everything else...added to the 30 for the heaters and you see that you could do it with 2 20 amp circuits. The electrician would add 2 20 amp breakers in the panel (in your house) and go from there.

HJ, not to be argumentative, but what REALLY do you need in the way of electrical service to this greenhouse? Here you say 1-2 small electric heaters, and on GW you say a couple of small fans. Big difference. It is perfectly OK to collect information from both sites...but I personally would hesitate to tell someone how to wire a GH for two fans if I thought they were going to turn around and try to run a couple of 1500W heaters inside.

BTW, National Electric Code (NEC) apparently prohibits running extension cords through holes in structures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extension_cable (sorry, can't find a primary source right this minute).

I also doubt that you'll need two 1500 watt heaters for your 6 x 8 greenhouse! One should do it if you've insulated really well. My GH is 8 x 17 and I'm using one 1500 watt heater with the propane added on the coldest days. Weatherwise we're very similar too.

MollyD

I have two Hfgh's 6x8 end to end to make one 12x6 I have one 1500 w electric heater and have no problem keeping temps in the mid 50's f. We have had single digit temperatures down to 3f and the coldest I have seen is 48f. With good insulation practices you should have no problem keeping temps with one 1500w heater.

Stressbaby,

If I said fans on gardenweb, that was my mild dyslexia acting up ;-) I think one thing, and type/say another. I hate it. If I put a fan in the gh it will probably be a small solar one.

I'm going to be speaking to some local electricians soon.
If I DO get this done professionally, I will do it at the MAXIMUM things I could possibly put in there.

I wanted to just run one or two small heaters out there this season.
But there was the possibility I might want to my put florescent lights in MAYBE .... so I would give the electrician that info too.

Thanks for all your info people! Greenhouses are crazy. Electricity is crazy. Propane (especially unvented) is crazy.
If the quotes for wiring the GH are over $300, I'm just going to do my seed starts inside, and use the GH, well insulated, for hardening off.

I have a 15 X 30ft GH with some single pane windows. I run one of those oil filled electric heaters that can go 600 watts, 900 watts or 1500 watts. Recently it was 23 for several days, I ran it at the max wattage for those days & it stayed 40 or above. Now that it is a bit warmer, (high 30s) it is set on the 600 watt setting & it is 48 - 53 in there. Before I knew what I was doing, I ran 12-2 wire in conduit all the way down to the GH, which should have been a much bigger wire, but it is laid & burried & there ain't no way I'm re-doing it, so I am on the edge of my wattage with the 1500 watts. I don't run anything else when it is on 1500. When it is lowered , like now, I have a fan running on low also. This next year I am going to a propane vented heater, so the elect. will only have to run fans.
Unless this green house is VERY drafty, I doubt that you will need that much heat. The GH I had before my big one was a small 6 X 8' lean-to on the side of our garage, it was just wood framed with plastic on the out & inside so there was air sapce in the middle, it was not air tight, as I built it myself, I ran that same heater at the lowest wattage & it was 65 in there most of the time. I also ran it on a heavy extention cord for 2 years & didn't have any problems. I eventually put it on a timer & it only came on in the evening till mid-morning. This one also has a thermostat that turns it off when it gets too warm in there. Not happened in the big GH yet tho!
If this Temporary I'd try the GFI extention cord, if it pops frequently, go to the next stage. I always feel if the cord is warm, that will tell you if there is a voltage problem. Good luck!
PS, I am obviously wattage savy! :) Bj