12VoltInstalls
life passes by too quickly to not live in freedom
^PIC: “open ground” lit (open N looks lit in pic but it is not)
I have been reading with interest the several discussions regarding inverter Neutral - Ground bonding either present or missing.
It occurred to me I couldn’t recall actually testing this on my inverter. I had ordered and received the fluffy-priced Klein circuit/GFCI tester a while back and decided to try it today.
Installation is in a 26’ RV with the 30A RV cord plugged into a GFCI receptacle that is fed from a Giandel PS-1200JCR 1200W pure sine wave inverter.
First thing is “open ground” both at the inverter (with nothing plugged in) and at a ‘kitchen’ receptacle with the cord plugged back in to the inverter. That bothered me.
So I got out the VOM and tested the inverter with these results:
- receptacle G, -12V, and inverter chassis are connected
- H to G is 58.3VAC
- N to G is 59.5VAC
- 118.3V between N and H
- with inverter OFF N to G has no continuity
However, as second pic #2 shows “hot/neu reversed” i retested using ohms (inverter off) using the H leg and
- H to G has no continuity.
GFCI did not trip when I hit the test button on the Klein (although it’s integral test button does trip it).
Questions:
1) how the heck do I get 58V N or H to G if they can’t “see” G according to Klein?
2) should I reverse the L and N inside the Giandel?
3) soooo…do I (since actual shorepower will never ever happen) create a bond in the RV panel? Or
3.1) …join them in the inverter which may not be ‘supported’ (as the other thread muses) and risk emitting factory smoke?
4) is L and N (H & N) being reversed the reason why the GFCI test feature of the Klein did not trip the GFCI? This I don’t understand.
Pretty annoying about this.