Freedom 25 Trips Earth leakage breaker

[toewsrus]

Just got a new (used) boat: and now have my first new problem.

I just connected to shore power. And a breaker trips instantly. I have a breaker on the incoming line that is called an "earth leakage unit" by the schematic. It's basically a double throw magnetic breaker. I believe it to be sensing incoming and outgoing current, if they are different then it will trip.

When I disconnect the inverter/charger the tripping stops. I disconnected the output and it still trips.

Is the problem in the inverter/charger? or should I be looking elsewhere? Are these units repairable?

By the way the inverter works when away from shore power.

Update: If I disconnect ground to shore, the problem goes away.

[hellosailor]

That's what you'd call a "GFI" or ground fault interrupter at the local hardware store. It is comparing current in two of the three incoming lines (nothing "outgoing per se) and what probably is happening is that the inverter or some other piece of equipment has the ground/neutral line hooked up incorrectly so the GFI is tripping out.

There have been some extensive discussions about this recently, either here or on the Sailnet.com forums. (Sorry, both have pale blue backgrounds and I have no idea which it was.) But the folks at Freedom should also be quite familiar with this, if you contact them they should be able to tell you exactly what to look for, and how to fix the neutral/ground connection that is causing the problem.

A galvanic isolator or other equipment to isolate stray currents may also do it--if you find that recent thread you'll find the real answers in it.

[Alan Wheeler]

The problem is that the earth is the case earth on the inverter and the nuetral of the inverter is also the battery negative. The Earth of the case is thus linked to the battery negative at a different place to the main negative termination point. This creates a stray current in the earth that is connected to the mains earth and the GFI which is monitoring currents between Earth and neutral, does it's job and trips.
What make of inverter do you have?? Is it a chinese one by any chance??
And most importantly, do you use a switch to change between inverter and shorepower? A three pole two position switch that isolates all, phase(active) nuetral and earth should solve the issue.

[S/V Elusive]

Alan - I'm pretty sure it is a Freedom 25 -

[toewsrus]

The unit is a Freedom 25 charger/inverter. The shore power connects to the unit and no where else. All the 110 items on board are supplied by the inverter, Shore power doesn't supply any 110 directly.(except for a water heater that has been disconnected to rule it out).

[camaraderie]

Toews...are you saying that when plugged into shore power and with the Freedom25 off you have no AC at the panel and can't run anything?? That would be wierd since the F25 is an add on.
I think Alan gives good advice.

[colemj]

If the Freedom 25 is wired to use its internal transfer switch, no AC power goes to the panel if the inverter is off.

[toewsrus]

Cam, yes that's what I'm saying. All 110 on board comes from the inverter, the shore power powers only the freedom 25.

I read about this same setup in Calder's book. I just have to find the book in my storage shed so I can see what else he said about it.

[donradcliffe]

Hmm-I thought I posted a reply which told you to try disconnects the green earth wire on either side of the inverter, but maybe it got edited....The freedom has an internal switch on this circuit which breaks the connection to the internal earth when it senses dock power, but this switch is too slow for the GFI breakers.

If disconnecting the earth wire solves the problem, then you can let your conscience be your guide as to whether to leave it disconnected--mine still is.

[GordMay]

Grounding Inverter/Chargers on Boats:
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/268/docserve.asp

Freedom Marine User Guide:
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/431/docserve.asp