Solar Battery Generator

[Liquidsteam]

I want to use a portable battery pack (ecoflow, bluetti, etc.) to run my boat through the shore power plug. My plan is to charge the pack with solar. I did a dry run with my Ecoflow River Pro and it seemed to work except my boat gave me n "ungrounded" alarm. Everything still worked but I am wondering if this is a dangerous situation and if there is any way around it.

 

[jdege]

I want to use a portable battery pack (ecoflow, bluetti, etc.) to run my boat through the shore power plug. My plan is to charge the pack with solar. I did a dry run with my Ecoflow River Pro and it seemed to work except my boat gave me n "ungrounded" alarm. Everything still worked but I am wondering if this is a dangerous situation and if there is any way around it.

I was asking similar questions, not long ago.

I asked here, and got not much: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/bonding-ground-and-neutral-in-a-solar-generator.36724/

Will Prowse also seemed to be struggling with the issue. His final YT video on the topic:

I asked over on Cruisers' Forum and got more help: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f14/neutral-to-ground-with-shore-power-262096.html

The essence is simple, neutral should be tied to ground in exactly one place. When you're running a gas generator or a battery pack/inverter, you should tie neutral to ground if and only if you're not tied someplace else. (As you would be if you were running your inverter and had shore power connected.)

You can buy grounding plugs that you can stick into any outlet to create the bond. As to when you should do so, you'll need to do your own research. I don't pretend to understand all of this, yet.

That said, using a stand-alone solar "generator" (battery pack+inverter) on a boat might be a reasonable choice if you don't have a usable house bank installed. That's what I'm planning, at least for now.

But make sure the batteries use LiFePO4 chemistry. The other Li-Ion chemistries do not belong on a boat.