portable generator question

I just bought a nice Champion portable generator from Canadian Tire. I want it for power outages. Now that I've read the manual, I am completely confused about this "floating neutral" business... I don't intend to connect the generator to any sort of panel or switch, just use an appropriate extension cord to plug in the fridge or freezer, or maybe a heater if it's winter. The big question is do I ground the thing or not? There is a terminal on the frame for grounding, but after watching several videos I really don't know what I should do. I'm sure there are electrical and generator experts here somewhere! this is more of a camping application where there is no RV involved... except the camp is my log cabin.

 

I probably have the same generator. All I've done is fire it up, plug in an extension cord and plug the extension cord into what I need to power up.

We enclosed our garage some years ago and made it into a man cave. It is our emergency living space if power goes out. I installed a gas heater that doesn't need electricity to run. We have a 2nd refrigerator in there and a small portable AC unit for cooling. I cut a hole in the wall and used doors made for campers. I can set the generator on my deck and run extension cords through this opening into the man cave. There is another door on the other side of the wall



I actually plug the generator into a power strip and then can power up multiple devices at the same time. I can't power up every thing at the same time, but can keep the refrigerator running, TV and lights on at the same time. To use the microwave or AC unit only one at a time and nothing else.

We've used it several times and it worked pretty well. I can't use major kitchen appliances, but I have everything I need for camping and I keep plenty of propane for a gas stove.

 

Thanks for the reply, I feel a bit more confident about that. My generator is the camo version model 100459. I have learned a lot more about electricity than I cared to know, but still don't understand it fully. I see that there is a Champion generator extension cord with 4 outlets that does have a breaker. I think that's the main concern, the floating neutral needs to connect to something with a breaker... sounds like you use yours like I plan to. I like the man cave door hole idea! I called Champion but got no intelligent answers lol. This is the model here: https://www.championpowerequipment.com/search/100459

 

My generator has a floating neutral also. That confused me when I bought it too. But reading online, everyone has the opinion that it's completely unnecessary. Ive been using mine to drive the air conditioner in my trailer for a few years, and also to drive just the essentials in case of power outage. No issues in ignoring the ground terminal.

 

No expert but simple explanation is a "bonded" neutral the neutral is connected to the generator frame. In a "Floating" neutral the neutral is provided by, in the case of a temp generator for a house, the house wiring. It gets pretty complicated but that's the gist of it.

 

thanks yes, I kind of got that too, just wondering what to do in the case where I am not connecting to the house wiring i.e. using an extension cord. It seems to me from all my research that in this case there is no fault protection. Seems it is possible to convert to a bonded neutral and maybe that's the best option for my application.

 

Floating neutral is just in reference to the in balanced load that ends up getting sent to ground. On single phase 120v the unbalanced load is on neutral and is dumped to ground so to speak, the rest of the load is opposite of the sign wave 120v high vs 120v low where N is your zero. Just make sure you’re bonded/grounded.

 

so if I ground the generator with a ground rod from the ground terminal on the frame that should be safe enough?

 

I have a portable generator that I plug into a subpanel that was installed by an electrician, he said the generator doesn’t need to be grounded. No issues after 3 years of using it.

 

Yup

Exactly

 

I'm just gonna wreck all this for everyone. Since no models have been listed, and only brand.... You shouldn't run inductive loads on modified square wave inverters. So, engine you puts the gases in, it turns the turn bits, and alternator bits makes the electricity, and you plug into that.

Factor a few things. 1) Are you going to die? 2) Do you like to gamble? 2.a) Which is worth more, your food or your fridge?

I'm gonna just leave this video as an explanation instead of typing. My only notes are understanding what you have or do not have, and what your intended use case may be or not be. Example, last summer a transformer blew, took power out for several blocks around my house. I, do I have a huge eaton pure sine inverter, but all the batteries are shit, and I'm a lazy fuck. After waiting 10 min, and still now powers coming up, I dig through the empire of dirt and find some old geek squad branded battery backup. Phillips screw driver, rip the fucker open, toss the battery, park my shitbox car in the driveway, take some jumper cables, hook to to the car battery with car running, hook other end up to the wires where the battery from said shit battery backup should go, plug in an extension cord, toss it several stories up through a window, and now my TV works again. Tether Internets to my phone, and fire Netflix the fuck up. But... it was hot... yeah fuck that cheap walmart fan, plug that bad boy in. You can just hear the crys of it's inductive load, not getting the powers it wants and needs to live, motor eventually just gets rape violent melt hot. But, I want to have a fan, so I let it cook to death. In this scenario, I knew exactly what I was doing, and I would kill a $20 or so fan. However, I would not plug my $3k fridge into a cheapie generator which is just fuel driven motor making electrics, end result is the same. Are you pure sine? Or modified? Or none of the above?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-xO8-uMFNw