T&T: GFCI Tripping

[Peter Bennett]

Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 4:08:30 PM, Eric wrote:

ET>  Hello All.
ET>  While reading about the problems people are having with shore-based GFCI
ET> units tripping as soon as the power is plugged in, I was wondering if this
ET> problem might be quickly solved by installing a galvanic idolater in the
ET> green ground line as it enters the boat? If done before the ground line was
ET> attached to anything on the boat it still allows safety, but prevents small
ET> voltage currents from tripping the GFCI.
ET>  Or am I wrong here??

ET> Eric Thompson
ET> S/V Procrastinator
ET> South San Francisco

As I read it, the original post from Jake2124 at aol.com indicated that the problem was
due to a fault in the inverter installation.

According to ABYC, the AC neutral and green safety ground _must not_
be connected together on-board, however, some inverters are apparently
supplied with this connection made.

ABYC also requires that any on-board AC source, such as a generator or
inverter, must connect its own neutral to the vessel ground and green
ground wire.

To comply with these rules, when an inverter is simply passing shore
power through, it must not connect ground and neutral, but shore power
is not available, and the inverter is producing power, it must connect
the neutral at its output to ground.

I assume that moving a screw as mentioned in the original post changes
the inverter's wiring from always connecting neutral to ground to
connecting neutral to ground only while inverting.




-- 
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Ennos 31 "Honeycomb"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter 
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca