Yes.........but RV's can have a weird problem. When operating in stand alone mode (i.e. self supported and not connected to the grid) they often act like a house in that the inverter/generator makes its own 120|240 and therefore the ground and neutral are often bonded together (at one place...in the RV)...and connected to the frame. This means neutral and ground are connected together.....at one place....probably the frame So it's just like a house.
It makes sense in. stand-alone mode (i.e. NOT connected to external power) and works just like a house in that if RV internal GFI (in the RV) senses current going to "ground" (i.e. frame) it trips the internal GFI or breaker So if your RV dryer connects the neutral or hot to the RV dryer metal box which is "grounded" , then internal RV GFI trips. and you kept from being electrocuted. The ground effectively acts like a neutral to provide a path to sink the current and blow a breaker (or GFI). Keep in mind that normal NON GFI breakers also expect a big enough ground wire even though in theory no current should pass through ground....BUT if it does,then the ground wire must be big enough to handle enough current to blow the breaker... If you use a 1 Mohm resistor for ground, then the breaker will never get 20 amps and it'll never blow, but the case can still be 120v The problem is when you connect the RV to external power because NOW the RV neutral-ground bonding creates a path to ground. So if you power the RV via an external GFI, some of the current may come back through the external ground because now you effectively have 2 paths back to the bonding point of the house. It's as if you had a huge appliance where neutral and ground were connected together. Not good. it's bad. In fact I think most RV's will pop an external GFI. (at least the ones I've seen). Not good. I suppose the right answer is to have something inside the RV that switches between bonding and not-bonding depending whether you are stand alone or not stand alone. A similar problem can happen if you try to give temporary emergency power to your neighbor via an extension cord. I'm not condoning it, but unfortunately it's pretty common situation that most people seem blissfully unaware. On Saturday, September 4, 2021, 3:03:13 PM PDT, EVDL Administrator via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > I thought you could mix ground with neutral? Ground and neutral are bonded together at only one point in your house. Usually that's at the main panel or main disconnect. From that point on, ground and neutral are kept totally separate. You can't use the equipment ground as a substitute for neutral. It creates a potentially hazardous situation and will trip a GFI, including the one in an EVSE. To charge at 120v, you'll need an appropriately sized transformer. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = People don't sleep enough, and they all seem to be hunting something that can't be caught. You think you're the dominant species just because you go to the bathroom in a bowl instead of a box. But who's cleaning up after whom? -- Souseme, "Felines of New York" = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
