ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area So what are these?

Not a requirement, but the operators would like some GFI's nearby to
run portable pumps and equipment to drain the ponds at harvest time. Already giving away their purpose here. The reason this issue comes up is because the nearest receptacles are over 40 feet away, and that gets farther as you move the pump/centrifuge down the line of ponds. The reason they are unhappy with
the current scenario is because it's a pain to roll out that much cord and deal
with it, and cords lying on the ground have gotten wet and caused "nuisance"
(use that term broadly) GFI tripping. It would be for the best to have the GFI's
as close as possible so as to minimize cord lenght, both for convenience and for
safety/reduced chance of nuisuance tripping. Question is, how close in this application. I see a lot of gray area, open to interpretation. On the practical side, the acutal equipment used is heavy and on wheels. There is almost zero chance that a 300lb centrifuge on wheels would rise 2.5 feet in the air, then over 2 feet horizontally to fall into these like a radio or other corded appliance placed on the rim might. While a GFI inside the 10 or even 8 foot zone might present little danger in the case of a heavy pump or centrifuge on wheels, the same cannon be said of
a work light or drill or whatver other kind of hand held tool you can imagine.
As you all know very well, things often get red tagged not for what did happen, but for what could.. I want to stay on the right side of the line, in word and in spirit, but this one is ambiguous, at least to my mind. I can see it
being "ok" on account of the (technically) mobile and non permanent nature of
the ponds, and "sort of ok" based on the nature of the electrially powered equpiment that will be used in proximity to the ponds, but "not so ok" in terms of what might happen with a drill, radio, work light, or whatever cord conncted appliance someone might see fit to plug in and use in close proximity to water at some time or another. In spirit, these are semi-permanent ponds.