Quote:
Originally Posted by BrucePerens
I'm not sure about your theory. I would accept that high-frequency noise on the power line could flip an AFCI or dual-function breaker. I would accept that a current imbalance that somehow sends current through the ground wire would trip a GFI. I'm having a lot of problem understanding how the current flow in hot and neutral would be unbalanced in time. Electricity doesn't work that way. There has to be a current return somewhere for current to flow in hot at all, either through neutral or ground, and this all happens at close to the speed of light. There's a velocity factor due to the line impedance that means it's slower than light, but it's negligible.
I'd suspect that if you are seeing a time difference in current flow on hot and neutral, that your traces aren't synchronized. Less expensive 'scopes alternate the traces.
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Reactance: The transformer stores some energy, and "barfs it back" in slightly nasty ways during the switching process. But, at the same time, I agree that the WFCO could have leaks between "current carrying neutral" and green-wire "safety ground". The design is Sh#t. (Anyway, when "looking at" WFCO, I was using a borrowed scope - and I don't know if that particular machine was alternating the traces. It was not expensive, you could be right about that.)