Three bonding questions on portable generator. New to the forum, so apologies if these have been answered.
I have a 15kW portable Nat Gas Genny mounted on rubber wheels. 90% of use powers the house during outages through generator plug to an interlocked 50 Amp breaker in the main panel (which is bonded). 10% of use as truly portable genny. It came with the neutral and ground bonded, but to power the house I understand it should be unbonded, which it now is. (Note ran house fine when genny was bonded during first couple of runs).
Q1: Since genny is now unbonded and on rubber wheels, should I earth ground the genny frame? My instinct is yes.
Q2: Can I use a 240 volt switch (like a light switch or disconnect) to bond and unbond the neutral? When powering the house, the switch would be off and the neutral unbonded. When used portable to power tools, the switch would be closed to bond the neutral to ground. Would a breaker be a better choice?
Q3: When the genny is powering the house it is in a shed that contains my pool heater. I have to leave the doors open to control the heat. I would like to install a powered roof vent to pull out the heat so I can close the doors. (The neighbors will thank me). The genny would directly power this vent from a 120v outlet on the genny. But the genny will be unbonded. IOW, the unbonded genny would have two main loads: the bonded main panel in the house and the roof vent. Is that a problem?
Thanks.
Al
I have a 15kW portable Nat Gas Genny mounted on rubber wheels. 90% of use powers the house during outages through generator plug to an interlocked 50 Amp breaker in the main panel (which is bonded). 10% of use as truly portable genny. It came with the neutral and ground bonded, but to power the house I understand it should be unbonded, which it now is. (Note ran house fine when genny was bonded during first couple of runs).
Q1: Since genny is now unbonded and on rubber wheels, should I earth ground the genny frame? My instinct is yes.
Q2: Can I use a 240 volt switch (like a light switch or disconnect) to bond and unbond the neutral? When powering the house, the switch would be off and the neutral unbonded. When used portable to power tools, the switch would be closed to bond the neutral to ground. Would a breaker be a better choice?
Q3: When the genny is powering the house it is in a shed that contains my pool heater. I have to leave the doors open to control the heat. I would like to install a powered roof vent to pull out the heat so I can close the doors. (The neighbors will thank me). The genny would directly power this vent from a 120v outlet on the genny. But the genny will be unbonded. IOW, the unbonded genny would have two main loads: the bonded main panel in the house and the roof vent. Is that a problem?
Thanks.
Al
