Portable Generator Grounding

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monkey

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There is a long thread going on at one of the travel trailer forums right now. Seems a guy bought two small portable inverter generators (Ducar 2000) and the instructions are saying that they must be grounded to a ground rod. No exception is provided for a single travel trailer or other 250.34 exceptions. I disagree with those instructions not only because of 250.34 but also due to the fact that a shock hazard can be introduced when grounding a portable generator to earth.
Now if you carefully read the instructions they could be interpreted to mean that you must use the generator's ground terminal when using a ground rod as opposed to connecting it somewhere else. But it really appears to mean that you must ground the generator no matter what. Then in the Warning! box we see "Always connect the nut and ground terminal on the frame to an appropriate ground source" My gut feeling is that the instructions are at least partly incorrect.
(The Ducar 2000 is made in China and is CSA listed)


gen ground.jpg
 
I would ignore those instructions and if I owned one of those inverters and if I had some time on my hands I would start e mailing somebody in that company to let them know how wrong they are. Of course it would lead no where, but maybe by the time the calendar changes to the year 2100 we can erode some of the power and influence the dirt worshipers have on the electrical industry.
 
monkey said:

There is a long thread going on at one of the travel trailer forums right now. Seems a guy bought two small portable inverter generators (Ducar 2000) and the instructions are saying that they must be grounded to a ground rod. No exception is provided for a single travel trailer or other 250.34 exceptions. I disagree with those instructions not only because of 250.34 but also due to the fact that a shock hazard can be introduced when grounding a portable generator to earth.
Now if you carefully read the instructions they could be interpreted to mean that you must use the generator's ground terminal when using a ground rod as opposed to connecting it somewhere else. But it really appears to mean that you must ground the generator no matter what. Then in the Warning! box we see "Always connect the nut and ground terminal on the frame to an appropriate ground source" My gut feeling is that the instructions are at least partly incorrect.
(The Ducar 2000 is made in China and is CSA listed)


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The static discharge is above my head, maybe it does do that Idk maybe someone else can shed some light on that.... but protect from electric shock, to me that’s a complete lie. If anything as I’ve had a post concerning this before. The ground rod only presents a high impedance path back to the source to shock someone with a faulted appliance with no EGC. I know them are quite the circumstances, BUT just the point that dirt don’t protect against electrical shock.
 
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