GFCI and an Open Ground
Given: A 120 VAC GFCI supplying power to a 30 AMP RV. The RV has one problem, the 3rd Prong Ground wire at the 30 AMP plug is not making connection. (The RV chassis is floating because there are no ot...
Forum Discussion
BB_TX wrote:Dutch_12078 wrote:
As has been stated, a GFCI trips when it detects an imbalance between the hot and neutral. The ground has nothing to do with it. ......
That part I understand and am not questioning the lack of a ground on the GFCI outlet itself. What I don’t understand is how you can have a ground fault in an ungrounded RV that would trip a GFCI outlet. To have a ground fault that would trip a GFCI outlet there must be some path for the errant current to drain to a ground source. Otherwise there would never be an imbalance in the individual currents thru the hot and neutral pins of the outlet.
I agree. You cannot have a ground fault without a 3rd conductor back to the source. The intent of a GFCI is to prevent the ground wire or a human to earth ground from becoming that conductor. If the only electrical connection between an insulated RV and the power source are the hot and neutral, a GFCI cannot trip. Current will either flow equally in the 2 conductors or not at all.
