Our boat trips a ground fault breaker. Is it my boat or my shore power adapter?
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- In this video we revisit a question from an owner. Who asks why he does not trip a ground fault protected shore power breaker using his regular shore power cord, but trips ground fault breakers when using a shore power adapter. We'll discuss.
Well done - again.
Great attitude to getting things right - something we all can learn from - much appreciated.
& thank you for your efforts.
Great explanation. That is the reason that I convinced our yacht club to place the GFCI breakers on the 240 side. this problem is very common where the GFCIs are placed on the individual plugs. Better to place the GFCI to the entire tower.
That was a great explanation. My boat is wired with all the 110V on one line of the 220. Lucky for me I don't have to use 2 30A cables at the moment.
Just found your channel, some good content and explanations. Thanks for taking the time to put the videos together and share your knowledge. One thing on the neutral current that I think is not quite right. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the neutral only carry’s the imbalance of the current between L1 and L2. The end of 8 amps is right but I don’t think there is 14amps going out of the neutral and 6amps coming in. I don’t think current can flow in two different directions simultaneously on a single wire. I believe 6 amps of L1 is going into L2 also but the remaining 8 amps gets brought back to the source on the neutral. If both L1 and L2 have 6 amps then no current should be flowing on the neutral. It’s more like a series circuit at that point and the voltage is dropped evenly across the two loads to get 120v on each.
Great explanation! I learned a lot!
Plugging in my 30 amp shore power to a 110, through an adaptor - outlet , trips the gfi of that outlet.
When I plug into a 30 amp
Shore power outlet, everything works GREAT. WHY is this Happening ??
I don't have access to a 30 amp outlet anymore, only a standard 110.
Great video! Keep up the good work.
So what do recommend for best solution?
There is not much to be done other than avoid using that particular adapter with a ground fault protected breaker. With the neutrals split as they are there will be an imbalance.
Great stuff. Thanks
We need to know if the only one "rcd" ( residual currant detection breaker) for the 50a line or one for each 30a line. This is not the right explanation for this situation. The explanation is, if u have a situation where all your loads are strickly 120v the both 30a sensors will be fine. Same load on both line and neutral. But. If u have 120v and 220v on board shearing the two cords live to get that 220v using no neutral then the line will draw more than the nurltral and trip the rcd.so if u are using the both cords on the same.boat be sure not to murge them to use a 220v item. And that's the explanation. Thank you
U said it would trip but i can't remember u telling us how to make it work without tripping. The only way is not to shear the two live to get 220v, then it's ok.
So why is the use of the two coils inside the "Y" adapter placed necessary?
Why not just one coil at the portion of the Y upstream after the 2 neutral become one on your diagram?
These are the two logical question that appear from your explanation.
The adapter has no coils inside. This splitter is taking two 30amp 120volt sources on the shore side and adapting that to a 50amp 240volt cord. If the shorepower pedestal has ground fault protected breakers, the imbalance seen at the pedestal between the line and the neutral will cause the breaker to trip. You are correct that if we sensed a single neutral and line 120volt or single neutral and two lines 240volt together the GFP breaker should not trip (if there is no fault).
Seems like that would be a design flaw in the splitter? I just searched for that splitter on Amazon and then on Google, and I couldn't find one for sale. Has it already been taken off of the market?
It's not really a design flaw as each piece is doing what it was designed to do. The adapter is adapting one cord to another, and the ground fault breaker is sensing an imbalance and reading that as a fault and tripping as designed. I think the adapter is still available but there is not much call for them today as most marinas have enough 50amp service available. That adapter is also very expensive. Sorry I didn't see your question until today.
Do you think a properly installed isolation transformer on the boat side would eliminate this Y issue?
Good question. Had to think about that. I believe even with a isolation transformer onboard the reverse Y would trip a ground fault breaker. Usually we don't bring the neutral from shore to the primary side of the transformer,(240 volt) we get the neutral on the secondary of the transformer onboard. So since we are not using the neutral there would be no current on the neutral and the breaker's sensing coil would see an imbalance between the line and the neutral and trip.
Are you saying reverse y adopters are useless? Is there any other work around? (i.e., two 30 amp drawing from shore-power to create 50 amp single connection to vessel)
I would not say that a reverse Y (two 30amp to a single 50amp) adapters are useless. If we use one on a non ground fault protected breaker they will work just fine. The trouble comes when we use this type of adapter on a breaker that is ground fault protected. Since the adapter splits the neutral there will an imbalance between the line or hot and the neutral. That imbalance is what the GFP breaker is looking for and will trip. I know of no work around in this particular case. Hopefully any marina new enough to have GFP breakers on the pedestals will have plenty of 50amp for everyone. Thanks for the comment.
@@workinonaboat1950 Hello, I really enjoyed your video. Thank you. I would like to ask you a question to a similar issue I'm having with my 95 Mainship Sedan Bridge boat. GFCI popped and I replaced them, but my outlets still do not work. If you have time, and you wouldn't mind.