VintageRacer wrote:
Make sure your sub panel does not have neutral bonded to ground. It must separate neutral and ground, the transfer switch must switch both neutral and hot to the inverter, which must bond neutral and ground. Neutral is always bonded to ground at one point only, and that is the source of the power. Remember that GFCI - ground fault circuit interrupter - is a bit of a misnomer. The device does nothing with ground at all and can be installed in a circuit that does not have ground (such is code-allowed for protecting old 2 conductor wiring in old houses). It does trip if there is any difference between the current flowing in the hot conductor and the current flowing in the neutral conductor. Having neutral bonded in two places can create such a difference.
Brian
Actually, Ground Fault is correct terminology. It means that there is a fault to TO ground, ie a fault between one of the current carrying wires and ground, allowing some current to flow directly to ground rather than through the neutral. This ground does not necessarily mean a dedicated ground wire, but some path through something, ie a body, to ground. This creates an imbalance between the current in the hot and the neutral which causes the breaker to trip before the heart does. :E
