ELCI breaker before or after inverter?

[s/v Jedi]

You have the GI between shore power and ELCI. There should be nothing in between the two.

Inlet - elci - gi - ac distribution

I agree that this shouldn’t cause the problems encountered so something is different or broken. The box requires ground for the test button I think.

(The breaker trips when current through hot is different than current through neutral. The test button does that by leaking some to ground)

[mroc]

Thanks Jedi,
I will redo and test once I get to the boat again. But in this case, grounding from boat side cannot be hooked into the GI grounding terminal unless I want to cut my losses and sell the GI as useless (bypassed).
It’s still puzzles me why it trips upon flipping the “outlets” breaker even if there is nothing plugged in, so no current in theory. BTW the boat is still on hard, so no ground connections to write home about is present. Weird!

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by mroc

Thanks Jedi,
I will redo and test once I get to the boat again. But in this case, grounding from boat side cannot be hooked into the GI grounding terminal unless I want to cut my losses and sell the GI as useless (bypassed).

It can. Speaking of ground wire only

Shorepower Inlet -> ELCI box* "source" connector -> ELCI box "load" connector -> shorepower side of GI

boat side of GI -> Rest of ground distribution. Everything "boat side" should eventually connect here and not to shorepower inlet, shorepower side of GI, or ELCI.

Or look at your diagram. Simply move the GI to be just below where it says "120V Load" on the ground wire.


* The ELCI itself (as in the actual physical breaker) has no ground connection but the box/housing is grounded since the rest of the wiring from shorepower inlet is going to be routed this way anyways might as well run the ground the same way. Currently you are creating a loop. Trace the wire on your diagram from the GI it branches out one part goes to the left and the other up through the ELCI box and meets back up at the branch which went left. This is pointless and confusion especially to someone in the future trying to figure out what you did and why.

[mroc]

Thanks Statistical,
It is very descriptive, helpfull and make sense.
I will redo and test. Do you believe this could have been the reason of tripping?
I am also puzzled that it trips without outlets being loaded. I also remembered now that the inverter/shore power selector switch disconnects both hot and neutral wires from either source, so it should not affect the ELCI.

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by mroc

Thanks Statistical,
It is very descriptive, helpfull and make sense.
I will redo and test. Do you believe this could have been the reason of tripping?
I am also puzzled that it trips without outlets being loaded. I also remembered now that the inverter/shore power selector switch disconnects both hot and neutral wires from either source, so it should not affect the ELCI.

I think you should make this change for transparency and to avoid ground loops but I don't think this issue is causing the tripping.

Most likely somewhere on the boat there is either a hot & neutral reversed or a neutral and ground reversed. The best way to narrow that down is by process of elimination.

With AC master panel of does it trip? If no then the issue is "downstream" of the AC master panel.

With AC master panel ON but all branch circuits off does it trip? If no then it is one or more of the outlets.

Note if there are any "always on" branches (like charger) you may wish to temporarily disconnect them to avoid false positives.

[mroc]

Thanks again Statistical,
Panel ON- no trip
Outlets ON - trip
Charger on - trip
I can’t try water heater as it’s empty. But with these two clients tripping, it may be a tough chase. But I am sure, I will find the culprit.
Regards

[s/v Jedi]

The whole shore power / inverter selector switch is wrong. This must be a transfer switch, which I think it is, so very different from your diagram.

I still recommend you hire an electrician to get this done right and I still don’t fully understand what you did and what is going on.

[JanH]

Just a thought: are the GFCI outlets the 'smart' ones that self-test every once in a while?

[mroc]

No JanH, they are old fasion ones. Bad news is that ELCI trips upon any AC panel user turned on. Make trouble shooting a wild goose chase.