Can you feed a subpanel with a 2 pole GFI where the subpanel provides 1 and 2 pole loads? Doesn't the GFI compare the 2 hot wires and trip when they are not equal? So wouldn't a 120 volt load trip the breaker because that would cause an imbalance in the 2 feeder wires? Or am I all wrong about this. Because what if the 2 pole GFI fed a piece of equipment that itself consisted of 120v and 240v loads (like a spa)? I'm troubleshooting a job where a 2 pole 50 amp breaker is feeding a small sub panel for pool equipment, consisting of a 220v pump, 220v heater, and a couple of WP 120v outlets. The owner added 3 ceiling fans under a deck and wired to one of the outlets. They worked for a while, then the GFI breaker tripped. I went there and checked the 3 CFL's, found no problem and they all worked without tripping the breaker.
Owner called later and said breaker tripped again when CFL was turned on. I'm thinking I need to feed the subpanel with a standard breaker and feed the pool equipment with individual GFI breakers. Anybody got any ideas?
