# LED Lights GFCI



## brother (Nov 25, 2008)

I was told that LED lights are not compatible with gfci's. I have seen one trip a gfci, but never really investigated why, wasn't my project. 

Is it true that most LED lights are not compatible?


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

That's news to me. Don't believe everything they say.


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

I don't care what you're up against, if your GFCI is tripping, it is NOT because the LED lights are not compatible.


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## brother (Nov 25, 2008)

IslandGuy said:


> I don't care what you're up against, if your GFCI is tripping, it is NOT because the LED lights are not compatible.


Actually, I have seen it first hand where there was a '2 wire' only hand held (mostly plastic) LED light that kept tripping a receptacle gfci and it was plugged directly into the gfci and nothing else was plug in. There was no ground for any 'leakage' to occur. 

Other tools would work fine pluged into the gfci, but the LED light would not. The led light would work fine in other receptacles as well. 

Didn't really get a chance to investigate it, cause it wasn't my project. I was always curious as to why that occurred.


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## Roger123 (Sep 23, 2007)

brother said:


> Actually, I have seen it first hand where there was a '2 wire' only hand held (mostly plastic) LED light that kept tripping a receptacle gfci and it was plugged directly into the gfci and nothing else was plug in. *There was no ground for any 'leakage' to occur. *


A GFCI measures current inbalance between the grounded & ungrounded conductors not the grounding conductor.


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## brother (Nov 25, 2008)

Roger123 said:


> A GFCI measures current inbalance between the grounded & ungrounded conductors not the grounding conductor.


I well aware of that. The point I was trying to make was there was no leakage current to go through the ground or any way for there to be an imbalance.


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## LegacyofTroy (Feb 14, 2011)

Never


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

Have the neutral and earth systems checked out on any system that has this problem ?
Good chance that is where the problem lies.
It is very important that both systems are done properly to enable GFCI's to work correctly !
Never had any problems with led lights tripping the GFCI just because they were LED lights !
More likely there where just too many on one circuit, 
And multiple SMPS's on one circuit can cause havoc due to the nature of the load.
I.E. - The turn on surge and the harmonics.

:thumbsup:


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