Shore Power Side

[turf]

Originally Posted by incubus

Turf is 100% right. That's code. Remember to keep neutral bonded till it leaves bus. Bus is like a sub panel

lolol thanks but......

when someone says im right, it is probably a typo.



i started in on looking at generator grounding and wow, it really is a confusing issue. i am no expert, just reading and learning as i go.

i think.... there are 2 kinds of generators.

a floating neutral generator or a bonded neutral generator.

a floating neutral gen is intended to power a sub-panel and seeks a ground neutral bond outside the generator. - likely a 4 wire output, 2 hots, neutral and ground.

a bonded neutral generator is intended to power extension cords, tools, directly, without a sub panel. it provides its own G/N bond for the breakers to function properly. probably has regular 3 prong outlet for an output.

checking for continuity between the ground and neutral with a meter would be the way to tell for sure which one you have.

so...... some of you double e types need to check me on this next part i think.

if i hook a bonded neutral gen to an unbonded rv subpanel, everything should work fine. the bond is at the source.

if i hook a floating neutral gen to an unbonded rv subpanel, the rv subpanel breakers would no longer protect anything from overcurrent. a short inside the rv would cause a hotskin, since there is no path for the current to return to the source.

is that right?

kind of off topic from the op, but e/g bonding is fun

[incubus]

Wouldnt the current return through the neutral to the Generator? Only time the ground comes into play really is if theres a short. An yes the rules for hooking up generator very confusing. Check continuity between ground and neutral at generator plug.

[Iceni John]

Originally Posted by incubus

Neutral and ground are tied together in the generator. I have two female plugs in bus. One goes to land line the other to generator. Pick your source and plug in. Back when I got into converting buses automatic change over was way to expensive. Makes it impossible to plug into two sources at same time.

That's also what I've done. I've heard of automatic change-over switches failing so that two inputs were connected at the same time, resulting in much expensive smoke from the inverter or generator. D'oh! I have three AC female receptacles, one each from the inverter, shore and generator, with a male plug to the AC main panel; in addition I made the cable for the inverter's built-in 12V charger only long enough to plug into the shore and generator receptacles, so it's impossible to inadvertently plug it back into the inverter's own AC output. I normally like pleasing circularities, but not in this case! KISS.

John

[LargeMargeInBaja]

Originally Posted by TheHubbardBus

Aside from the common arrangement of RV hook-ups, do you or anyone else know if there's a practical (safety-based) reason for this requirement?

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If I was to speculate, I might think mailboxes are on the passenger side, as are trees and bicyclists...
... creating a potential vulnerability for vehicle-mounted hook-up caps and doors.
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For this reason, I think ladders on the curb-side -- carrying surf-boards, BBQs, alien life-forms from distant galaxies -- is an invitation for scrapage.
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Word For The Day -- scrapage
v -- to lose chunks by impact or rubbing
n -- stray parts littering the road
Used in a sentence -- "Those alien life-forms from a distant galaxy endured that scrapage nicely... although by the amount of their scrapage mushed into the building, I bet they wish that ladder was on the driver side!"