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3-wire 240 volt versus 4-wire

moose1949

New Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2022
Messages
12
Location
Saint Joseph, Louisiana
I will get an electrician to wire most of my system but need to understand wiring. My main panel feeds a sub panel in my outbuilding where I plan to place my inverter using 2 hot and one ground (no neutral). In the subpanel, the ground wire from the main panel and the ground wires and neutral wires from the outbuilding loads connect to the same busbar. I want to use that subpanel for 240-volt AC input to the inverter. I have watched many videos of installing the EG4 6000XP I have bought and everyone of them use a neutral wire. I have searched this forum but not found an answer to my question. Is it correct to run four wires from my 3-wire subpanel and attach to my inverter for AC input? Thank you.
 
No, you need all 4 wires. The only place the Neutral and Ground should connect is the main panel. Your sub-panel should have separate Neutral and Ground bars each with their own wire back to the main panel.

The inverter will need all 4 wires out of it to work right.
 
That's a split-phase inverter, you can't just hook it up to the 240V hot wires without a neutral.

@Rednecktek is right above.

OUT OF CODE, and may not work for your electrician, AHJ or inspector:

You _could_ connect N and G from the inverter to the N/G bond in your sub panel, as you've already broken the 'one true N/G bond' rule, but you are much better off figuring out why you don't have a (separate) Neutral from the sub panel back to the main panel, there could be something seriously wrong with your wiring, and you need to understand it before just hooking stuff up. For instance, you say there's a G but no N from the main panel to the sub panel, but I _HOPE_ it's the other way around...
 
For instance, you say there's a G but no N from the main panel to the sub panel, but I _HOPE_ it's the other way around...
If that is a bare conductor, it must be ground. If it is insulated white, it could be a neutral, but then he would have no safety ground.
The sub-panel really must have 4 wires, 3 wires are only grandfathered in for really old appliances like dryers, not for subpanels.
 

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