GCFI Tripping on ungrounded system

[Lopez48952]

We have a ungrounded system on the ship and had a 440 to 208Y transformer where the secondary is grounded to the ship's hull and the Neutral is tied to the ground. After we bought out new dryer (208V) the dryer would trip the GFCI breaker instantly. While the same 115V washer works fine and did not trip GFCI breaker. Trying to see what is the issue, my guess what there was is a leakage from equipment ground through ship's hull back to the GFCI but checked equip to ground is all OL

 

[tom baker]

This is a little confusing "where the secondary is grounded to the ship's hull and the Neutral is tied to the ground" The secondary would be at 208 and if its tied to the ships hull you have a dead short from the secondary to the neutral.

 

[curt swartz]

Is this a standard residential dryer? If so did the factory equipment ground-neutral bonding jumper get removed? Test contininity between the grounding and neutral prongs on the plug of the dryer.

 

[Lopez48952]

Is this a standard residential dryer? If so did the factory equipment ground-neutral bonding jumper get removed? Test contininity between the grounding and neutral prongs on the plug of the dryer.

Did it already. It is not shorted.

 

[Lopez48952]

This is a little confusing "where the secondary is grounded to the ship's hull and the Neutral is tied to the ground" The secondary would be at 208 and if its tied to the ships hull you have a dead short from the secondary to the neutral.

what I mean is the ground bar is tied to the ships hull and the neutral from secondary is connected to the neutral bar. And both ground and neutral bar were tied together.

 

[Lopez48952]

I found something that might cause the problem. I was looking at the picture I took, then I realized that the equipment neutral might be connected to the neutral bar directly. And based on dryer wiring diagram, the equipment neutral is actually being used.

 

[synchro]

I found something that might cause the problem. I was looking at the picture I took, then I realized that the equipment neutral might be connected to the neutral bar directly. And based on dryer wiring diagram, the equipment neutral is actually being used.

Yes, that could cause the GFCI breaker to trip. It sounds like you know that the equipment neutral needs to be connected to a load terminal on the GFCI breaker.

 

[Frank DuVal]

Any connection between neutral and ground after the GFCI will trip the GFCI, since some amount of current flowing in the neutral will now flow in the grounding conductor.

 

[Lopez48952]

Yes, that could cause the GFCI breaker to trip. It sounds like you know that the equipment neutral needs to be connected to a load terminal on the GFCI breaker.

Yap. That is the problem. Went back to the ship today and it is fixed.

 

[ritelec]

How do you ground on a boat?

 

[LarryFine]

How do you ground on a boat?

Well, if it's big enough to have 480v, it's most likely steel, so just about anywhere.

 

[Joe.B]

How do you ground on a boat?

Point it towards land, go till you hit it, you're grounded.

 

[electrofelon]

How do you ground on a boat?

I was a volunteer on a research vessel for 30 days, the Sikuliaq. One day we got a tour of the ship systems. When we were around some big electrical equipment, I asked if the ship used a grounded electrical system. I got laughed at. Sigh.....

 

[junkhound]

Spent some time doing work on SBX (Sea Based Xband radar ship) that has 4 ea 3 MW, 11 kV gens ets to power propulsion and radar -- only 60 Hz current on the hull was the leakage current from common mode emi protection capacitors and EMP filter capacitors and a bit of leakage from MOVs. Variable current injected from active corrosion protection circuits.