Adding a generator outlet

[Edk]

Greg
Be carfull if you are planning to tie together 2 separately derived electrical systems. Like your mh genny to your residential panel some design wiring problems will need to be figured out.
Like making sure you don't have 2 places where you are bonding your grounding conductor and neutral conductor together. You may run into needing a 4 pole xfer sw at the house service.
Your safer just running a cord to the house from the mh during a potential power outage and pluging in the fridge or what ever you want that is cord and plug connected.
This way you are completely taking appliance off one system and and powering from another.
Hope this helps
EDK

[gmc]

Originally Posted by Edk

...
Like making sure you don't have 2 places where you are bonding your grounding conductor and neutral conductor together. You may run into needing a 4 pole xfer sw at the house service.
..
EDK

Thanks for the input... My house has more subpanels than I've had before (3+)... Neutral and ground only bonded in main entrance panel... (Won't mention other issues I've found and been fixing...)

But an interesting point I hadn't thought of... Is neutral and ground bonded in RV panel? When connected to shore power, it is in essence a subpanel to the campgrounds main...
If they are bonded, I would need to tap off prior to that panel.... Rather than using breakers in that panel to feed.

While the RV is close to a wall and subpanel, it is too far for running extension cords to fridge/freezer/etc... And Irma showed me it's not always practical to move the RV (was 3 days before I could move it from it's 'protected location' this time due to ground conditions and debris)

[gnach]

Originally Posted by gmc

Thanks for the input... My house has more subpanels than I've had before (3+)... Neutral and ground only bonded in main entrance panel... (Won't mention other issues I've found and been fixing...)

But an interesting point I hadn't thought of... Is neutral and ground bonded in RV panel? When connected to shore power, it is in essence a subpanel to the campgrounds main...
If they are bonded, I would need to tap off prior to that panel.... Rather than using breakers in that ...

As I recall, the neutral and grounds are not bonded in subpanels so that the ground isn't conducting any current except in a fault condition. For that reason I would not want bond the extension cord. 2cents worth...

[gmc]

Originally Posted by gnach

As I recall, the neutral and grounds are not bonded in subpanels so that the ground isn't conducting any current except in a fault condition.
...

Agree... so if the RV is considered a 'subpanel' - it should not have neutral and ground bonded...
But when running onboard genny - does the genny then do that bonding? or the transfer switch? otherwise ground and neutral would be isolated...
(There are both bonded neutral and floating neutral generators)

And if the genny does - and I connect to house - I then have 2 bonded locations...
Doing some quick research - this appears to only be an issue if the genny outlet is GFCI - as it will trip detecting the 'ground loop'.. and that should not be the case here... The only RV on-board GFCI is the bathroom outlet (controlling kitchen and outside outlets.)

My head is starting to hurt...
I'll do some more research and open up some manuals and panels on the RV to see what I find.

And I thought the hardest part would be routing wire and cutting a hole in the side of the RV...

[gnach]

Originally Posted by gmc

Agree... so if the RV is considered a 'subpanel' - it should not have neutral and ground bonded...
But when running onboard genny - does the genny then do that bonding? or the transfer switch? otherwise ground and neutral would be isolated...
(There are both bonded neutral and floating neutral generators)

And if the genny does - and I connect to house - I then have 2 bonded locations...
Doing some quick research - this appears to only be an issue if the genny outlet is GFCI - as it will trip detecting the 'ground loop'.. and that should not be the case here... The only RV on-board GFCI is the bathroom outlet (controlling kitchen and outside outlets.)

My head is starting to hurt...
I'll do some more research and open up some manuals and panels on the RV to see what I find.

And I thought the hardest part would be routing wire and cutting a hole in the side of the RV...

And I agree to the headache! I'd love for an electrical engr to weigh in. I don't see an issue of grounding on/to the residential ground but I'd isolate the individual loads by way of extension cords if not going thru a xfer switch.

[Edk]

Your right , only 1 place in a electrical system can the neutral and ground be bonded.
So when your on campground power or at home hooked up you are connected to that service. And typically when you go self contained with on board genny, the bonding point is at the gen. Which allows you to be on a bonded system when gen is on line.
Edk

[gnach]

BTW, I kind of like the idea of mounting the 50a outlet underneath the rig. It's out of sight, no confusion with SP, and with a waterproof cover, it's protected.