Single phase to 100amp panel (one side only?) Does this make sense.

[Hedges]

GFCI outlet? or GFCI breaker? Only one should be needed.
Is that "Plug On Neutral"? I see what may be a neutral busbar for breaker to plug on to, and I don't see the pigtail of a traditional breaker.

With DMM, check voltages (Line, Neutral), (Line, Ground), (Ground, Neutral).
Doing the same with a light bulb across each pair of wires would provide a load (caution, if "ground" is not grounded, this can electrify ground through the light bulb so keep hands away!)

It may be that neutral is not yet grounded. But I thought the wires and green screw shown took care of that.

 

[BlueMarblePA]

It doesn't have an open ground, it has a floating neutral.

Yes. This makes sense.

 

[Mattb4]

I need everybody's help. I connected a standard circuit breaker with 12/2 romex and wired it to a gfci outlet, but the leviton blinks red and I can't get it to reset. I pressed test and reset and it won't trip.

I then removed the standard breaker and wired in the afci/gfci breaker (expensive) and it has one yellow light blinking. It won't turn on.

I think it might have something to do with the inverter input ac? Maybe if it is not grounded coming in, even if I have a ground in the panel, it detects a problem?

GFCI and mobile style inverters are problematic. Unless yours has direct wire terminals and not just plugs to access AC power you likely will have GFCI faults. https://blog.donrowe.com/2017/06/15/power-inverters-and-gfci-tripping/

 

[BlueMarblePA]

GFCI outlet? or GFCI breaker? Only one should be needed.
Is that "Plug On Neutral"? I see what may be a neutral busbar for breaker to plug on to, and I don't see the pigtail of a traditional breaker.

With DMM, check voltages (Line, Neutral), (Line, Ground), (Ground, Neutral).
Doing the same with a light bulb across each pair of wires would provide a load (caution, if "ground" is not grounded, this can electrify ground through the light bulb so keep hands away!)

It may be that neutral is not yet grounded. But I thought the wires and green screw shown took care of that.i tried both. Regular circuit breaker with a gfci outlet. That would not turn on as it was blinking red.

View attachment 121677

Maybe it has something with the inverter. When the inverter is not inverting or supplying any loads, my three prong tester just blinks. But if I feed it a load like the lamp, the three prong tester shines solid.

And I did figure it out. Basically, the Cotek sk-1500 watt inverter sense no load or demand and it shuts down and sends a blinking pulse. The gfci outlet and the afci/gfci breaker do not like it and then trip. However, if the inverter is responding to a load, like the lamp, it stays on. Everything is wired properly at that point

 

[BlueMarblePA]

GFCI outlet? or GFCI breaker? Only one should be needed.
Is that "Plug On Neutral"? I see what may be a neutral busbar for breaker to plug on to, and I don't see the pigtail of a traditional breaker.

With DMM, check voltages (Line, Neutral), (Line, Ground), (Ground, Neutral).
Doing the same with a light bulb across each pair of wires would provide a load (caution, if "ground" is not grounded, this can electrify ground through the light bulb so keep hands away!)

It may be that neutral is not yet grounded. But I thought the wires and green screw shown took care of that.

I checked both. I rewired for both options. Multimeter did show appropriate ac voltage across line to neutral 120, line to ground 120, ground to neutral 0, etc.

It definitely has to do with the behavior of the inverter when there is no load.

I even grounded the chassis of both inverter and mppt back to the ground bus bar in the panel

 

[BlueMarblePA]

GFCI and mobile style inverters are problematic. Unless yours has direct wire terminals and not just plugs to access AC power you likely will have GFCI faults. https://blog.donrowe.com/2017/06/15/power-inverters-and-gfci-tripping/

"What happens is an electrical panel and/or the AC wiring can cause the GFCI to detect a discrepancy between line and neutral, as if there was a ground leak, even though there is not. These outlets were not really designed to have anything plugged down line from them, aside from the appliance and maybe an extension cord. Furthermore, your RV or boat likely has GFCI outlets located inside. Standard GFCI outlets tend to trip when they have other standard GFCI outlets down the line from them. If you need to energize an entire RV, boat, or electrical panel, I would recommend staying away from inverters that only have outlets. Inverters with a 3-wire AC hardwire terminal block option are designed and much better suited for these types of installations. "

The good news is that my inverter does not have gfci outlet but rather older standard nema outlet. But this is very helpful

I think I need to add something very minimal to the inverter to keep it turned on?

 

[Checkthisout]

Maybe it has something with the inverter. When the inverter is not inverting or supplying any loads, my three prong tester just blinks. But if I feed it a load like the lamp, the three prong tester shines solid.

And I did figure it out. Basically, the Cotek sk-1500 watt inverter sense no load or demand and it shuts down and sends a blinking pulse. The gfci outlet and the afci/gfci breaker do not like it and then trip. However, if the inverter is responding to a load, like the lamp, it stays on. Everything is wired properly at that point

Good find.

Yes, maybe a simple 1 watt pilot light will keep it inverting.

 

[BlueMarblePA]

I see it has the green screw to ground enclosure to neutral busbar.
I think the neutral bar is meant to also be ground bar in this configuration.
Was your ground bar sold separately?
When I install an additional ground bar, I like to use copper wire connecting it to the primary ground bar (the bonded neutral in your case).
That way, if a branch circuit has fault to ground, current finds its way back to neutral without having to go through a screw and steel sheet metal. Lower resistance path so chassis of anything on branch circuit is held to a lower voltage.
Then the screw only serves to bond the box itself, in case of a fault to it.

This siemens panel came with the ground bus. I checked for continuity with and without the green screw tightened down and it definitely changed with tightening. The neutral bus bar became continuous with the ground only when I screwed the green screw down.

I have some left over copper wire and can do as yous suggest.

I still need to ground my panels. I did ground my rails

 

[Supervstech]

Keep in mind if you only power one bar in the panel, you won't be powering the left or the right side of the panel...
You will be powering every other breaker on both sides of the panel.

 

[BlueMarblePA]

Keep in mind if you only power one bar in the panel, you won't be powering the left or the right side of the panel...
You will be powering every other breaker on both sides of the panel.

Yes. I removed the jumper (10awg with crimps) when I was trying to figure out what was going on with the gfci.

I can put it back, but I want to do that last as I will have at most three circuits on this panel until the summer starts.

I am thinking about one of the comments about the neutral wire having to carry more current. In this case my inverter is only 1500 watts and so with 12/2 romex and 20amp breakers, I doubt I will cause a problem.

In the future I want to add some more panels via mobile ground mount on wheels near the swimming pool. I want to be able to leave the panels on the concrete but then wheel them out of the way when kids go in the pool