Genset,Inverter-Charger

[Time2Go]

Hi Friends,
Newly installed Nextgen 3.5 generator
feeding the AC panel and then the Kisae inverter/charger
Charger works when on shore power
but does not function when power is coming from the generator. All other AC loads aircon, induction cooktop
run fine.
I have done a ton of research and have come to believe that
the neutral and ground are not tied together at the generator
and that the inverter/charger senses this and will not accept
the AC power coming from the genset.
Does this make any sense?
And if so how would one tie them together?
Thanx in advance
Cheers
Neil

[smac999]

I’m not sure the charger would care about that.

It could also be a freq or voltage issue.

But yes the netreal and ground should be joined inside the gen. The gen Install instructions Likly will tell you where. It might be already.

[Time2Go]

Originally Posted by smac999

I’m not sure the charger would care about that.
.

I believe the issue is that some inverter/chargers
monitor the neutral/ ground to see if they are bonded
If it detects that they aren’t it rejects that source of
power. In other words it rejects sources with a floating ground. Definitely out of my wheelhouse here
but learning.
Cheers
Neil

[smac999]

Originally Posted by Time2Go

I believe the issue is that some inverter/chargers
monitor the neutral/ ground to see if they are bonded
If it detects that they aren’t it rejects that source of
power. In other words it rejects sources with a floating ground. Definitely out of my wheelhouse here
but learning.
Cheers
Neil

Every portable gen. Honda etc. Has a floating ground.

[Time2Go]

Originally Posted by smac999

Every portable gen. Honda etc. Has a floating ground.

Don’t know too much about portables
i’m referring to a permanently installed
NextGen 3.5 kw diesel generator.
Charger section of inverter/charger works off
shore power just fine
Disconnect from shore power
Flip the manual interlock over to Gen
Start the Gen and the and the charger
does not function

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Time2Go

Newly installed Nextgen 3.5 generator

Is it new or just newly installed?


Have you considered contacting Nextgen? Likely they'd heard of this before...

[smac999]

Originally Posted by Time2Go

Don’t know too much about portables
i’m referring to a permanently installed
NextGen 3.5 kw diesel generator.
Charger section of inverter/charger works off
shore power just fine
Disconnect from shore power
Flip the manual interlock over to Gen
Start the Gen and the and the charger
does not function

I’m saying 100’s of others would have the same issue if the charger needed that bond.

Check the voltage and freq. entering the charger. If either are off by much it will stay in invert mode

And fix the g-n bond if it does not exist.

[Bycrick]

When I bought my boat with a Freedom 25 inverter/charger and a 4.4kw Westerbeke genset, each on worked fine separately, ie. the inverter/charger worked fine from shore power on the generator provided AC correctly to everything except the charger.

After much testing and trying, I finally could get the charger to run at about 50% from the Genset if I also ran an electric hair dryer. The final conclusion was that the highly-inductive charger, which had a low power-factor was too inductive for the genset. Some people supposedly solved the problem by putting motor capacitors in the circuit, but that didn’t work for me. Heart said that you needed at least an 8kw Genset for it to work right.

The final solution was to get rid of the Freedom MSW unit and replace it with a true-sine-wave unit. These usually have a power-factor well above 0.90. That’s worked fine ever since.