Westinghouse iGen11000DFc Inverter Generator Floating the Neutral

[@silverspork86]

I was told that if I am hooking my house up to the 50AMP receptacle, since it does not have GFCI, I do not need to float the neutral when hooking this up to my house. Another electrician also told me I can leave it as bonded neutral. But then I have seen other electrician say you need to float the neutral...... There are millions and millions of people who plug their bonded nuetral gens into their homes and have zero issues though.

[@superstitiousfishes1247]

thank you for cutting the excess off the zip ties my man. thanks for the video.

[@JustinKais]

Thanks for the video. I was looking for this exact info! This only affects the 14-50R right? everything else is still ground/neutral bonded?

[@silverspork86]

no, it affects everything.

[@martinibanez1279]

Hey man really helpful videos. I just got mine last week and planing on doing the break in and floating the neutral this week. I have been thinking about using the parallel banana plugs to do a floating/bonded neutral jumper. Replacing the top red plug with a green one and wiring it so that when the jumper is hooked up to the top and mid connectors the neutral is bonded.

[@DrewDoesStuff-yt]

That is a good way to do it if it works for you. I have also seen people use a 120v standard cord end (male repair part) and just jumper the neutral to the ground lug inside the plug end to have a removable bond plug. Part I'm referencing: www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-125-Volt-Rubber-Grounding-Plug-R70-515PR-00R/301410802 I may make a video on how to do this later. I'm sure their may be others around as well. Thanks for watching and the feedback.

[@Ozzie4Para]

So is it always best to have a floating neutral on the generator when your generator is hooked up to a 50A cable to the main panel where the neutral is bonded?

[@martinibanez1279]

Yes, the ground and neutral should be bonded together in one part of the whole circuit. In a home circuit case that bond should already be made at the main panel.

[@silverspork86]

That is what I have summized from a lot of reading. Leaving it as bonded neutral is a code violation (moreso than a safety issue, millions of people hook up bonded neutral gens to their houses) because it creates two bonded neutral points in the system, when there is only supposed to be 1. Then again, I have had two master electricians tell me I am okay to leave mine as bonded neutral when hooking it up to power my home system....

[@efraingonzalez4408]

I’m new to this and not an electrician, what is the purpose for this?

[@DrewDoesStuff-yt]

It is for safety when you directly connect your generator to your home or other panel box with an interlock connection or transfer switch. Its code that your home wiring can only have one neutral and ground bonding location. In most homes, that occurs in the main panel box. If you have multiple bonded locations, there is a chance that your ground can carry current. Since many appliances and electrical devices have grounded frames, you could get electrocuted if this scenario played out in a bad way. It also could fry some electronics if power was sent into its grounding wiring. If you are only using the generator to run extension cords directly to your devices, you can keep the internal bond connected.

[@Redneck_Ed]

@@DrewDoesStuff-yt There are many appliances that have neutral (white) and ground (green) bonded together, so doesn't that mean that by default neutral and ground are bonded together at multiple points throughout the house (unless you go around and unplug everything)? I thought the purpose of polarized plugs was to ensure that hot (black) was always consistent and never accidentally connected to neutral (white) in order to avoid the shock or electrocution you mention. I'm not really clear on how unbonding the generator makes the setup safer.

[@DrewDoesStuff-yt]

Link to PDF for procedure: drive.google.com/file/d/1goVDPn55qDCrOZeC6nRZG5OHszO2fqHg/view KZbin cut it off in the description.