GFCI and Inverters

[brian john]

I am reviewing a course from the ABYC (American Boat & Yacht Council). One section is on inverters, and it states that if your inverter is a square wave or stepped wave inverter, you must use GFCI receptacles that are approved for use with a square wave inverter.

My question is, are there any GFCI receptacles that are listed for use with an inverter that has a square wave output?

 

[hillbilly1]

Haven’t heard of that, didn’t know anybody that uses the square wave inverters anymore. They do not play well with LED’s.

 

[brian john]

Haven’t heard of that, didn’t know anybody that uses the square wave inverters anymore. They do not play well with LED’s.

Many older boats have older inverters with non-sinusoidal waveforms output; they typically have analog instrumentation, so there is no problem with the distorted waveform. The issue is if they want to install GFCI receptacles, which would be an item brought up by a Marine Surveyors inspecting for a sale or insurance inspection.

I have had several inverters that had a squarewave output but have sold or trashed them, and never used them to supply GFCI receptacles.
I doubt there is a GFCI breaker or receptacle made for this application.

 

[Jraef]

I doubt it too. In fact anything but the best sine wave inverters tend to not play well with GFCIs.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

UL 943 does not directly say anything about this, but the scope implies a standard sine wave power supply.

1.1 This Standard applies to Class A, single- and three-phase, ground-fault circuit-interrupters intended
for protection of personnel, for use only in grounded neutral systems in accordance with the National
Electrical Code (NEC), ANSI/NFPA 70, the Canadian Electrical Code, Part I, and Electrical Installations
(Use), NOM-001-SEDE. These devices are intended for use on alternating current (AC) circuits of 120 V,
208Y/120 V, 120/240 V, 127 V, or 220Y/127 V, 60 Hz circuits.