3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

professor95 wrote:

. . .
I know we have had the bonding/grounding discussion before on this forum and agreement seems to evade the group. Even our Northern neighbors have code regulations that require the designated neutral on a genset to be bonded to the frame. I am adamant that this practice is not safe for a portable genset used with an RV (it is OK for connection to a residental power system).
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Hello Professor95, You're certainly right about there not being agreement. I reached just the opposite conclusions after reading the article in the IMSA Journal at this link

http://www.imsasafety.org/journal/marapr/ma5.htm

or click HERE.

These are the guys whose job it is to hook up emergency power supplies in the field during civil disasters. To me, that gives their views a fair amount of credibility. Sorry, but I don't remember who to give credit to for originally posting that article to this group.

This assumes, as you did in a later post, that the neutral and ground are not bonded together inside the RV. They are not in my MH; but, of course, they could be in other people's RV's. For my RV, and probably many others, it certainly looks like IMSA is saying that the Canadians have got it right when running an RV off of a generator--the generator frame and the power socket's neutral should be bonded together.

This also assumes that you are using the generator to connect to the residential wiring with a transfer switch that does not switch the neutral connection. Apparently, that is the most common kind of low-amperage transfer switch. In that case the IMSA article is saying that generator frame should not be bonded to the neutral since it will leave you with currents flowing through both the neutral and the ground wire into the house.

I've never read the NEC and don't plan to. But, to me, the basic principals seem plain enough: the neutral should be connected to the ground wire at a single point (and only at a single point) in every electrical hookup--portable or residential. And, that parallel currents flowing in the neutral and the ground wires of any circuit are a hazard.

--John