portable generator grounding

[dakota99]

Hey everyone. I'm having trouble figuring out if i should ground my generator or not. I'm not an electrician but i've got a good amount of electrical experience. (wiring service panels, meter sockets etc..) I'm just confused on the grounding of this thing. I recently installed a reliance power inlet that's wired to the main box with 10/3. It hooks into a 30 amp double pole for a backfeed when i need it. Here's a picture of the wiring on the box.

Each wire goes to its respective terminal and the ground from the panel is wired to a small screw with a jumper to the actual plug ground. The neutral/ground is bonded at the service panel and goes out to a copper water line and two 8 foot rods in the ground for the whole house. My question is, should i also drive an 8 foot rod into the ground where the generator will sit and run a wire to it from the grounding bolt on the generator? Or would the houses' ground system work for this?

 

[CourierDriver]

Originally Posted By: dakota99
Hey everyone. I'm having trouble figuring out if i should ground my generator or not. I'm not an electrician but i've got a good amount of electrical experience. (wiring service panels, meter sockets etc..) I'm just confused on the grounding of this thing. I recently installed a reliance power inlet that's wired to the main box with 10/3. It hooks into a 30 amp double pole for a backfeed when i need it. Here's a picture of the wiring on the box.

Each wire goes to its respective terminal and the ground from the panel is wired to a small screw with a jumper to the actual plug ground. The neutral/ground is bonded at the service panel and goes out to a copper water line and two 8 foot rods in the ground for the whole house. My question is, should i also drive an 8 foot rod into the ground where the generator will sit and run a wire to it from the grounding bolt on the generator? Or would the houses' ground system work for this?
I use a portable generator all the time,,,an 8ft rod would do it,,what size is it, grounding instructions come with generator and the electrical code book would have it in there too.

 

[QuadDriver]

you need to google up 'separately derived' systems.

think of this: if you power your panel and you are hot-hot disconnected from the utlity, are you neutral disconnected?

and code has us tying the box neutral to ground, to rods, to cold water, and then along every pole, all guy wires, transformers etc tie poco neutral to ground.

you hear that saying 'current takes the shortest path to ground'? (shortest being lowest resistance)

the truth is, current takes ALL paths to ground. some more than others.

dont muck this up!

 

[Al]

I see no need to ground the generator. You are running it into the house with say 10-2 w Ground. House service is grounded. Problem solved.

Disclaimer. This is what I have done for 30 years..may not be the correct answer.

 

[Rickey]

Grounding the generator with a ground rod would come in very handy in the event of a wiring fault!!
And it is required by code in most (all?) areas. If something bad happened and it was not "properly" grounded... you would take the blame whether lack of grounding actually caused the injury/damage/fatality or not.

And no... mine is not grounded with a ground rod either! It's a risk I take.

Good luck Sir.

Rickey.

 

[dakota99]

Okay i may just go ahead and put a copper rod over there. It can't hurt.

Looking at that picture i see one screw-up i did. I forgot the romex clamp connector where the wire comes through.