Floating Earth Generator advice needed

[TuscanToasties]

Hi all,

I've got a small catering business out of a converted horse trailer and purchased an inverter generator to power the trailer, mainly just the lights, fridges etc.

I bought a P1PE Generator 3800 Watts for this. P1 3800W/3.8kW Portable Petrol Inverter Generator (Powered by Hyundai) | P4000i - https://hyundaipowerequipment.co.uk/p1-p4000i-4000w-portable-petrol-inverter-generator-powered-by-hyundai

Generator seems to work fine, turns on ok and runs but doesn't actually provide any power to the unit. I had an electrician out to carry out some re wiring and test the trailer recently and asked him to take a look who gave me the following reads from the Genny. The Genny has two outputs both standard 3 pin 230v sockets but is only actually giving 110v (as measured by electrician)

110v between live & earth
110v between Neutral & Earth
230v live, neutral & earth
230v live and neutral

I went back to Hyundai who sent me the following
Thank you for the email

As this machine has floating earth you will find there will be a signal down the earth but you will need to do a neutral and earth link in the plug that goes into the generator and you will need to label the plug that this has been done

there is nothing wrong with the machine as you are getting 230 v between live and neutral

Does this all sound plausible, does the generator have to be Grounded to work at 230v? Obviously not keen to mess around with electrics that i know nothing about so hoping someone here can point me in the right direction or offer some advice. Perhaps i was naive in thinking that a generator that has 230v sockets would actually give that without modification!

Cheers
Michael

 

[snowhead]

Did you buy the generator new?
Have you tried plugging something directly into the sockets on the generator, electric drill or kettle maybe?

 

[James]

If you are getting 230v between live and Neutral, the generator is working fine.

the generator itself can't provide an earth, this is normally done with an earth rod driven into the ground.
and as the manufacturer recommends linking N + E to provide a good return for any fault current, then i suggest you ask the electrician to do so.

 

[Rockingit]

It constantly amazes me that floating earth sets are still produced and even more so that manufacturers issue instructions as to how to correct the issue!! As has been said above, create a PEN link and then use a suitable earth electrode to ground the set with it.

 

[TuscanToasties]

Thanks for the replies, I tried plugging a kettle directly into it today and it worked fine, boiled a full kettle in a couple of minutes from cold.

I'll speak with an electrician about wiring the earth to neutral and see what they say, unless any of you are in South Oxfordshire!!?

 

[marcuswareham]

The voltage read outs are exactly as to be expected from an inverter generator as they work in a similar way to reduced low voltage for building sites etc, so the generator seems to be working fine:
It seem as if the problem might be in the catering unit or perhaps the cable from the generator to the catering unit

Personally I would not go though the hassle of linking the earth and the neutal together and putting in rods/electrodes at each site/pitch (some sites you might not be able to get a rod in and there is always a risk of what is below, Also if you put a rod in you need to test its effectiveness and the only way todo that as your not on a public supply is with a 3 lead fall of potential test, which requires skilled electrical work and equipment), as this is a small single phase generator it is not required to be referenced to earth. I would run the catering unit as IS and fit an RCD on each socket outlet (RCD socket)(NOT 1 RCD for everything as this is of no use as the generator is not referenced to ground, an RCD on each item of equipment will provide protection in the event of a fault which fortunately references the generator to true earth)

 

[TuscanToasties]

Thanks for the info Marcus, i think you may be right in that there may be a problem with the trailer ( i have tried multiple leads and dont think there is a problem there). I'll get an electrician out this week to check things over.
If there was a problem on one of the circuits could that stop the Genny providing power through the trailer, as the Genny provides power if going direct to an appliance

 

[Lucien Nunes]

No, the only plausible reason for nothing in the trailer working at all is that there is a disconnection somewhere between the main inlet and the consumer unit. A fault on one of the circuit would only affect that circuit, or would trip the main RCD in which case it would be obvious why nothing works. The earthing configuration won't have any impact on whether the equipment works or not, only on the level of protection against electric shock in the event of a fault.

It should be a 5-mintue job to locate the problem.

 

[tutututu]

Thanks for this info! I'm going through exactly the same project!! I'm getting a missing earth warning on my trailer from the exact same generator!! I'm assuming from all previous posts this is normal for the electrics running off this generator? Everything is brand new from rcd unit.