Inverter earth ground - I’m confused

[Glenn]

looks like good work.... precautions are always a good idea.

Thanks - I agree. I kind of mis-spoke earlier, the GFCI receptacle wasn’t going to work the way I was going to wire it up so I ordered one of these (we use similar ones at work) when using electric tools in wet conditions

It has the added benefit that I can move it around also, plug into state park panel, or rear bumper of truck, or on an extension with my electric fillet knife……I’m always soaked when cleaning / rinsing off fish fillets

 

[Glenn]

Hi Glen,

The documentation on your inverter is ambiguous. On one page it says it has a GFCI, but then in the detailed section it leaves off any discussion of GFCI. So one of two things is true:

Try the NG plug and a small load. If the output works fine and all is good. Success. You've followed the grounding strategy set forth in the DIY Solar forum tutorial.

If the inverter output immediately trips off, we can assume the inverter output has a GFCI and you can't use an NG plug. In this case, continue to ground the inverter case (to the 12v neg bus bar) but let neutral float relative to the camper battery 12v neg bus bar. Assume the internal GFCI will cover any issues of the hot wire touching a grounded piece of metal. It's not necessarily the best approach but it would be good enough and certainly the way the inverter was designed to operate. I suspect most people operate with their small inverters like this (no bonded neutral). And all too many don't even tie the case ground to the camper's 12v neg bus bar. Arguabley not the best, but it would still work. I wish the industry did a better job with this topic.

Good luck on your hunting trip. I'm sure the electrical will work great. If you're out having fun in a camper you should certainly have easy/safe power.

As part of the purpose of this forum, and others like it, is to provide insight and solutions to problems I wanted to expand on the finished corrective action.

In another thread I said the inverter worked either way, with or without the bonding plug. And indeed it did.

But Dadocut was spot on……thank you Sir!

I bought one of these:

Without the bonding plug the middle amber light was on, it still worked but it wasn’t right. I underlined in the next picture what it shown when plugged in:

I read that an open ground can also be attributed to a floating neutral which is what Dadocut was instructing me on (and very much appreciated)
I took his advice and made my own without the fuse, plugged it in and then plugged the tester in next to it. I underlined the next picture of the result:

Both amber lights were on indicating wired correctly. Great to know it’s wired safely. Maybe this will help someone else down the road

Glenn