Grounding for mobile box?

[krby]

I'm building a portable electric generator. Plans are here: DIY mobile electric generator It won't be permanently connected to anything. Plugged into a house AC socket to charge, then moved wherever I need it and have the load plugged in to its AC sockets when I use it.

What do I need to do about grounding?

 

[krby]

Anyone?

 

[svetz]

Not an expert, but as I understand it the purpose of the ground is to give a path for the hot wire such that if it comes into contact with anything it'll immediately short (thus tripping the hot wire's fuse). So, as the power is coming from the inverter and it probably has a circuit breaker (or it's the next thing inline), then everything should be grounded to the inverter. I suspect the negative terminal on the battery should be grounded to it as well (although the inverter manufacture may have already done that for you).

The tricky part, and one you probably need an answer from someone more knowledgable, is what to do with the ground from the mobile system if powering something that has a different ground; that is you're powering a house from your mobile platform. If your AC fuse is 60 amps on the mobile system, would a 15 amp fuse in the house blow on short thus protecting the house? I believe my generator is the same scenario, and when connected the grounds are connected which I believe provides a full round-trip path and would allow the house breakers to trip if needed.

Anyway, something to get you started perhaps (or for a real expert to point out why that's all wrong ?).

 

[Bob142]

Interesting question. I'm also not an expert, but for reference I haven't seen any grounding requirements for off the shelf systems like big Goal Zeros. I've got a Yeti 1250 and there's no grounding terminal (that I've found) like there is on my Honda EU2000i. Also no mention of grounding in the GZ manuals that I've seen either.

I posed that question to an electrician years ago when I built my DIY "portable" system and he said that since it wasn't hard-wired to the house at all that there wasn't any code requirement to ground it. Take that with a grain of salt as it's both time and location specific information (2012 and I'm in RI). I look forward to the experts weighing in since I'm planning on upgrading my system.

 

[krby]

Thanks, for the answers.
Ya, from my amateur understanding of what grounding is for, I don't think I need it either, but I wanted to ask in the safety forum.
Just to be clear I'm not going to be feeding power into my house. I'll be drawing from a regular 120V/15A socket to charge, then later powering specific loads by plugging them into sockets wired into the inverter. As you said, it is like the GoalZero or Kodiaks