Forester Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 I have bought a Wolf 950 portable generator. In the instuctions it tells me I must "earth it" to the ground, Can any-one tell me why & also what size earth cable i need.Thanks Wayne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Forester - 2006-12-26 8:04 AMI have bought a Wolf 950 portable generator. In the instuctions it tells me I must "earth it" to the ground, Can any-one tell me why & also what size earth cable i need.Thanks Wayne.Presumably so you get Earth continuity to your appliances. Personally I never bother. But if you do, the cable needs to be able to carry the full loading of any appliances. In this case about 4 Amps and you will need a solid copper or a plated rod to drive into prefferably moist ground. HTH. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 It all depends! There is no point in fitting an external earth spike for the purpose of protecting the occupants safety or the integrety of the appliances when using a generator unless the NEUTRAL connection inside the generator is strapped to the EARTH/FRAME connection . (Just like it is at your home mains sub-station) Many generators do have the output socket NEUTRAL connected internally to the CHASSIS/EARTH lead connection . However not all generators have this link. The reason for the warning may have more to do with EMC that safety. It would be prudent to ensure that a connection exists between the Generator output mains socket EARTH connection and the NEUTRAL NEGATIVE connection. This way an EMC discharge path to the chassis/EARTH is assured. The EARTH connection is normally connected to the case of the generatoras well. If the generator includes an RCD this will only work if the generator output NEUTRAL is connected to the chassis of the Motorhome (one way or another) and to a good EARTH spike to provide you with protection if you are using it to power something outside the motorhome. If the generator output is fully isolated then there would be no point in fitting an RCD as there is no possibility of any earth current flowing anyway. It would never operate on earth leakage, just overload. A few moments with a continuity meter will enable you to check this lot out. Hope that helps. I think I said something similar about Inverters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.