Geezer over on the bike group says that I should ask you.
I want to connect a genny to my house. Got the isolating switch in, but the genny has no neutral. I don't want to fry the gubbins in the dist board. I've see here stuff about grounding one phase (to fake a neutral?) but here in Spain we don't have PME and ground+anything trips the rcds.
Plugs and sockets are not considered phase-sensitive ie; the plug can go either way up. But the genny isn't Spanish. I think it's Chinese.
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It's not "for a house" as such. I bought it to use on site, but now the house is finished I thought I'd use it for a backup supply at least for office/freezer.
Portable gens have a neutral, its whichever of the 2 power output terminas you connect to ground. They don't have an earth, a house needs that. If you have a local earth rod , that's already covered, though its best to also connect earth to (genny) neutral. If no local earth rod, its easy to fit one as a supplementary eart h. You can't rely on a supplier earth when power's off.
The genny has two "normal" socket outlets including earth connectors.
There is an earth terminal connector on the chassis (see photo in other post).
Both lines light up the neon screwdriver.
I don't know what a "supplier earth" is. The house has 6 earth spikes under the extension which are also connected to all the steel reinforcing in the concrete base.
There is no PME here. Touch the neutral to earth and the RCD trips immediately.
I'm going to inspect the genny wiring to see if the earth terminal is internally connected to one of the lines.
I was going to connect a plug to the house side and plug that into the genny, which would include an earth connection. But I don't know how to wire the plug if I don't know which wire will be "neutral". I suppose I could connect the genny earth terminal to a nearby earth spike, fire it up and see what happens.
You might find the generator winding is centre tapped to earth. This is what's done in the UK with 110 volt tool transformers. This means that there is 55 volts to earth on both poles.
If your neon lights up on both poles, it sounds likely.
Because when you pick up the wrong end, you either yell "Jesus" or you meet him.
Seriously - stop it now. You're dangerous.
One other factor you may need to consider is that it is unwise to rely on the supplier's earth during supply failure - indeed, if the supplier has a nuetral fault and you're on a TN-C-S (also referred to as PME) your supply earth may drift quite some volts (10s, 100s if you were really unlucky) above nominal earth outside your house.
The usual route here is to put an earth spike or two in and bond that to the MET - but as this connection may become a route for current in the event of certain faults, it needs special consideration to do it correctly.
And no, you cannot switch the house earth between the supply earth and your local rod when you are using a generator.
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