Transfer Switch

[Runaway Tractor]

what I am saying is that circuit-level GFCI's installed in the home (in the bathroom for example) are not able to perform their function if there is not a path for ground faults to return to the source via the equipment ground conductor instead of the neutral conductor.

The equipment grounding conductor is intact with a path to source. It's still bonded in the panel. It is completely unchanged regardless of where the source is located. No part of this is ungrounded, I would never recommend doing that! All breakers and protection devices in the panel and out in the house are operationally unchanged.

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[adoublee]

The equipment grounding conductor is intact with a path to source. It's still bonded in the panel. It is completely unchanged regardless of where the source is located. No part of this is ungrounded, I would never recommend doing that! All breakers and protection devices in the panel and out in the house are operationally unchanged.

Edit: Good point that the equipment grounding conductor still has a path back to the source. Since the lifted ground pin prevents equipment ground current from returning to the truck, faults will flow through the neutral via the panel G-N bond. I guess it is just the truck GFCI that is defeated.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

I guess it is just the truck GFCI that is defeated.

Exactly. Fat chance ford will ever make that configurable so we're stuck with it.

 

[bmwhitetx]

This is totally incorrect. Since the ground and neutral are bonded in the main panel, the GFCI in the house (either breaker or receptacle) will trip. So will a non-GFCI breaker if the fault current is high enough.

Exactly. People confuse GFCI and ground wire a lot. A GFCI does not need the ground conductor to do it's job. Think of all the hairdryers that have those GFI protectors on their plugs. Those plugs almost never have a ground pin, yet they work.

That's because a GFI will trip if the current on the Hot/Line conductor is not equal to the current on the Neutral conductor. If they are not equal that means current is somehow flowing from the Hot/Line back to the Neutral bus in the panel via another path that is not the circuit's Neutral (bad). This could be a human touching earth, hairdryer in a bathtub of water, a Hot touching a grounded appliance chassis, etc.

A GFCI is not measuring the EGC current to perform its job.

 

[Whammy Bar]

I'm now dumber for having clicked on this thread.

 

[bmwhitetx]

I guess it is just the truck GFCI that is defeated.

If you touch one of the Hots and also the truck chassis, the GFCI will work. Or if your generator cable is damaged/crushed and the hot brushes up against the ground, it will also trip (assuming the ground is lifted at house end of the generator cable and is intact at the truck end)

 

[Runaway Tractor]

I'm now dumber for having clicked on this thread.

You're smarter. It just hurts

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