I have the same issue. Support had me send back the unit for a replacement unit. If the replacement unit comes back with the same issue, I’ll add the bonding screw. Very helpful

thanks for this! I didn't realize they removed the bond, which would not be good in my rv. Also, would love to learn more about the external screen you have there!

I am glad you made this video. Signature Solar tech support told me how to un-bond N-G bonding and they pointed out wrong screw- the one near by heatsink- they even sent me pictures with red circles around the wrong screw head. After watching your video the N-G bonding screw was at different location. Signature Solar's tech support is just pathetic. The unit that I got from them was already un-bonded. I needed to NG bonded when the inverter is in off-grid mode. When the inverter was NG unbonded my furnace emitted flashing error code - 'polarity was reversed' and the gas furnace did not come on. So I followed your instruction to bond NG and it worked as I expected. In grid mode the neutral is connected to the ground of AC-in but in off grid mode the neutral of AC output is bonded to ground of AC out. Nick

Thanks for posting this up! I have the EG4-3000 inverter running with 3xEG4 (non LL) batteries. I have a box truck / mh conversion that I've installed it in with 1200W of solar up top, and it's been running flawless. I've yet to put the screw in, but so far I've hooked it up to 30 amp hookups at campsites as well as running off a 15 amp house outlet, without any major issues. It's run all my appliances like my induction cooktop, a coffee maker and at one point I turned on a space heater (not all running at once of course). At one point I'll probably add the screw in when I ground everything to the chassis.

Thank you for this video! I'm getting ready to install one of these in my trailer and though I haven't started probing yet I was concerned of the bonding. I'm still going to probe to ensure bonding where it needs to be (ie at my generator, panel, etc) but knowing this screw is removed just saved me hours of troubleshooting!

Great info, short and sweet. Thank you

That was my question. Thank you.

Thx for taking the time to post this info. I've purchased the same unit to make a mobile solar power station using a dolly, eg4 3000 and an eg4 lifepower4 battery for multiple purpose such as camping, power back up etc. Im a noob with this other that watching other DIY vids and wonder how this would apply in my situtation and what options would be best. Thank You.

I love both of my eg4s. I have 11kw of solar and 14kw battery bank. Currently building a 16s 5kw battery to add more capacity

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

That's awesome. This little unit has worked pretty well for me. I also have a 18kPV setup on our house and I've been really happy with that too

Just a thought why not just get a female outlet plugged into your shore-load cord so when you’re not connected to campground power, you’ll get your neutral and ground together at the outlet. Doing it this way means you don’t have to mess with firmware or open that up the inverter. Also the new firmware operates the relay for the neutral differently to separate the neutral/ground bonds when connected to shore power. If you just willy-nilly, install the ground screw when you’re connected to the grid, your electrical system will have two bond points. This would cause objectionable current, that could actually cause a shock. Do not do this. If you did install that grounding screw, you would have to use the old firmware. I would not recommend doing this, simple solution might only cost less than 15 bucks just get an outlet and have that plugged in when you’re in off grid mode and when you’re at a campsite simply unplug it, you’ll have to do that anyways plug your cord into the grid then you’ll get your ground neutral bond from the campground source when connected. Or use a completely different inverter that can do what you need to do out of the box. This inverter is more geared towards small house electrical systems. They made this change with the grounding screw because when you run multiple inverters in stack mode it was causing ground loops. Now the neutral is continuously connected to the source and now it’s using the main electrical panel for the ground and neutral bond.

@SmithOffGrid

11 ай бұрын

Not sure what you mean by getting a "female outlet plugged into your shore-load cord." Are you talking about adding a neutral-ground bonding plug where you connect to shore power? If so, that's just one more step I didn't want to worry about. I had a switch that did the same thing with a previous inverter and even that was a hassle to remember. Referring to your comment about two bond points with the screw added... Just to be clear, the purpose of the relay is to disconnect neutral and ground when grid power is connected. The connection is dynamic and is only bonded when you're powering from batteries / solar. If the screw wasn't connected to a relay then you would have two bond points when connected to the grid and that would be problematic, but that's not the case. I hadn't heard anything about firmware changing how the neutral ground bonding relay works. If so, I'd definitely check to make sure it's working as expected if you add the screw. My understanding was that they just removed the screw and didn't bother changing how the relay was controlled. Do you have details on how the new firmware has changed how it functions? And yeah you referred to getting a different inverter that can do this out of the box. But that's the thing, when I purchased this inverter that's what I expected to be getting "out of the box" after reading the manual. Only after doing my own tests and talking with support did I find out that the functionality had been removed but the manual was not updated. The video was really only for people in a similar situation, already with a EG4 3000EHV, looking to make it work in a mobile RV application. And yeah I agree, if you're looking to run multiple of these inverters in parallel (or most other use cases), adding the bonding screw definitely doesn't make sense.

@seanmalone7920

10 ай бұрын

Can I ask you a question I want to install this Eg4 3k with Eg4 battery so they communicate . Can I use this to run my Outlets fridge and mini split along with a TV & lights . I Have a 7x16 utility Trailer. I don't have experience in this field of solar so I was going with this already build system in hopes to run what I need in my enclosed trailer

Thanks for the information. Just getting to setting up a 2 inverter, system. Got the main panel wired and figured I'd double check before hooking up the AC OUT. Pulled the panels and my unit had the screws in it. Looks like from the sticker, it was manufactured in 12 of 2021.

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Oh interesting... Question for you, when it's running in parallel mode does it automatically un-bond neutral and ground? Or does it still follow the pattern of bonded on battery mode regardless?

@francismarion7540

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid From what I read, AC IN would do that automatically (but I will not be feeding the inverter in that fashion - only solar input). That said, everyone says, only one ground neutral per system. Since my solar setup will feed a Reliance Pro/Trans2 transfer switch, I will only have a ground neutral bond on main service panel. If multiple ground neutrals exists, it can create issues.

Thanks for this information. I have that same unit and I have not installed it due to my learning about this from watching Will. You have made me a happy person.

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Glad I could help!

Can you do a video of how you installed it? I'm looking to put it in my class C RV and am trying to figure out how to wire it into the existing system. It is already equipped with a generator, so there's a transfer switch that chooses between Shore and Generator to pass onto the panel. I was thinking that I can take the output from the transfer switch and wire it into AC IN on the EG4 inverter, then wire the AC OUT of the inverter into the panel. Does that make sense?

How did you DIY the display? That's awesome

Thx for the vid! Am a total noob and plan 2 get this model to setup in the garden with a few panels. Dont have any electrical know how but your vids are so helpful. Will be watching the rest of them. What is the problem without a ground neutral bond. One of the comments said they never had issues so far in their RV? How would I ground it if i have it setup in a small shed in my garden? Do You have to connect that unit to a power strip or multiple power strips in ur vehicle? Which one do u use? Thx for the helps and informative vids!!!

Thank-you for the info regarding the NG bonding , I am planning on going with this unit for my motor home. I am also looking at using a Trophy 5.1 kw 48v battery pack with this unit as they have heat packs in them , which will be a plus when doing early spring/late fall camping. How long have you had the EG4 unit in your rv ? Have you had any problems with it being in an RV, with reqards to going down rough roads etc,etc or do you find the unit build robust enough .

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Only had it since November last year so we haven’t taken it out camping yet. I switched out a Growatt 3kw I was using previously. They seem comparable in build quality, metal enclosures on both so I’m not worried. I’ll put out an update if I have any other issues though! I’m currently using an EG4 LifePower4 battery and I’m thinking about switching it out for the Trophy battery as well! The internal heaters will be huge for colder times. I think they’ll make a great combo

@d.pollard5962

9 ай бұрын

the price on the trophy went up, I am hoping eg4 makes an updated LL that has the heater in it as well. I am using this for home application but thinking about adding this set up to my box trailer. Thanks for the information@@SmithOffGrid

Thanks for the video. Keep it up. Can I ask about below freezing temps? Are you concerned about this? I'm looking to put the same set-up as you for our Phoenix Cruiser. Thank you!

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

I wasn't too concerned about freezing temps initially since we don't use the trailer in the winter. That, plus the area where all the components are located share the same space as the heater so I figured that if we needed to we'd be firing up the heater anyways which warms the space. The LiFePo4 battery chemistry is fine to discharge below freezing, it just can't be charged. I didn't think it'd be an issue but now I'm considering changing the battery out for a Trophy 48v battery which has internal heaters. It'd be nice to be able to charge the battery regardless of the scenario, especially if we ran out of propane or the heater went out, etc.

Is this the version 2 hardware.. Curved sides. That version should auto handle the bonding depending on input source in software without a screw. On your inverter, if you hardwired the screw and it's unbonded in case of ac source, it must be bypassing that connection internally. Thanks for the video and your comments.

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

Yeah this is the v2 with the curved sides. It has the hardware (relay) to do it but mine was missing the ground connection to make it work. Adding the screw gives the bonding relay a way to connect neutral and ground. It's automatic, just missing that one piece. Not sure if they still have been shipping without that screw but it was need in mine.

How did you create the remote display shown ? Did you just borrow the existing display and mount in a project box and extend the wiring ?

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

My solution ended up being a little hacky but it sounds like it's something people would still want to see. I'll try and put together a video about it

Total amateur here, but about to put this unit or a similar AIO into a Class C RV with 2000w of solar and a server rack battery. Can you explain the concept behind the neutral ground bond, and how it matters when we plug in at a campsite to shore power?

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

How I like to think about it is, the neutral ground bond is important because it protects you from getting electrocuted if there is a device malfunction or for example if water leaks into somewhere and connects the hot lead to something you’d touch. When you bond neutral to ground, it will immediately short on its own and flip a breaker before it has a chance to shock someone. The reason you don’t always want a neutral ground bond on the inverter of an RV is because when you connect to shore power, the AC input is already neutral-ground bonded (which is passed through to the inverter’s AC output since the input and output ground are always connected). The idea is that you don’t want multiple paths that current can flow. With multiple paths you’ll get current flowing on ground which is very bad since you only want current flowing on the neutral wire and on ground in the case of a short. Without the automatic bonding you’d need to have a way of bonding and un-bonding manually, which could look like a switch at your breaker panel you’d flip on when you’re boon-docking (connecting neutral and ground) and flip off when you’re on shore power (disconnects neutral and ground). I did this with a Growatt inverter setup previously and it was a little annoying having to remember to switch it depending how we were hooked up. When safety is involved it’s much better to have things be automatic. Which is one of the reasons I was excited for the EG4 3000 but yeah I was really disappointed they removed that feature. Had to take it into my own hands to make it work again haha. Luckily all the required hardware was still there in the unit, except that single screw. Hope that helps!

@deepmountaingrass

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid So I am a little confused when you say you don't always want a neutral ground bond on an RV inverter. Isn't that what you have now that you have added that screw? Is this now both safe on battery and shore power or do you need a way to undo this depending on which power source?

Is this necessary to do when setting up a battery system for the home? I will have the AC input, for charging the battery in case of cloud cover. But primarily using solar to charge the battery, to power a Hybrid AC unit in the evening and on cloudy days. Thank You

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

Well if it's wired into a home, the N/G bond should be in a panel so the bonding screw wouldn't be needed. Main reason to add it would be if you are powering loads and are frequently switching from AC input to self-powered

Spencer, exactly how did you verify the neutral-ground bond of the inverter disconnected when it was running on utility power?

@SmithOffGrid

10 ай бұрын

I had to use a generator with a floating neutral. I could see continuity between neutral and ground when running on battery. Then when I hooked up the floating neutral generator I saw no continuity between neutral and ground which showed that the bonding relay was functioning properly and disconnecting when it sees AC input.

@arnoldsolof

10 ай бұрын

Wow! What a great idea!

Please tell us (me) how to build or get one of those remote control panels. Is there a reason you did not include a power on switch? thanks for all this info

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

I can throw a little video together. My solution ended up being a little hacky but I can still show what I did if there's interest :)

@user-hc6uh6gb3i

Ай бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid definitely interested. I intend to move an inverter power switch too. How did you put together the nice labeled screen? can we do a pm?

Hey I'm wondering if you can answer this question. I would like to purchase two of these 3000w inverters for my RV for a 240v setup for a couple of 240v appliances. I heard that they can communicate between each other for split-phase, I just don't quite understand that. So does this essentially becomes a single 6000w 240v inverter? Can you still use 110v appliances while using a 240v appliance at the same time? Can you have it wired in such a way so that only one 3000w inverter is on most of the time, powering the 110v appliances while the second one is turned off to save on idle consumption, and then turn the second one on when 240v is required?

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Yeah so for some background, when you have 120v single-phase power it's alternating between positive 120v and negative 120v relative to neutral and it looks like a sine wave. When you have split-phase you have two overlapping 120v sine waves (two "legs") but when one is at the top, the other is at the bottom. So if you measured from the top of one to the bottom of another you'd get a 240v difference. But if you look at each leg individually, you can still get a 120v difference to neutral. In a split-phase breaker box you'll have two hot leg supplies but most circuits will still only use 120v because the breaker is only connected to one leg. If you have an appliance that runs off of 240v you'll notice that the breaker for it will be a double breaker and the wire will have 4 conductors inside. Two hot legs, one neutral, and one ground. It's totally fine and normal to run 120v appliances at the same time as 240v appliances. Each 120v load will only be running off one inverter and any 240v loads will be running off both. But you'd still be limited to 3000 watts on each leg (120v) and 6000 watts combined (240v). The tricky part for you though is that the breakers in your panel will be split evenly between each inverter. Every other breaker uses a different hot leg. So you theoretically could turn off one inverter but half the slots for the breakers would go out, not just the double breaker 240v ones. And it's arranged in an every-other-pattern so it wouldn't be as simple as like the left side of the breaker panel would be out. Also I'm not sure if the inverters would complain about the other being switched off when it's configured for split-phase. I wouldn't be surprised if it triggered an alarm or some warning. Maybe someone with a split-phase setup with these inverters could weigh in on what happens if one of the inverters gets switched off? But yeah that's kinda a tricky one. Hopefully that helps

If in AC Bypass mode, the inverter disconnects the bond from the output neutral to the chassis ground, how is the output neutral ground bond maintained on the AC output? Is it just then passing the utility AC ground and AC neutral through to the output (which is already bonded at the house's utility panel)?

@SmithOffGrid

10 ай бұрын

Yeah exactly. When there is AC input the neutral/ground bond is passed through to the AC output from your house panel.

Where did you buy the display and how did you do it? I want to use it for a camper van that I’m building. Thanks

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

I've wanted to make a video about that but my solution ended up still being a little hacky. Happy to show what I did though if it helps other people

What if I were to use a Honda 2200i pure sine wave generator as ac input. The Honda is floating neutral. Would the Ev 3000 “disable” the neutral bond in this case? I think with floating neutral ac input (and no earth grounded bonded ac load panel downstream) you’d still want the Ev 3000 in internal bind config right?

@SmithOffGrid

9 ай бұрын

Yeah the 3000 EHV would see the AC input and disconnect the neutral-ground bond, even though the input has a floating neutral. If that’s a primary use case for you I’d probably get a generator bonding plug. Or if you don’t ever plan on connecting to the grid, and don’t care about the bond being dynamic, you could bond at your breaker panel and leave the bonding screw removed.

I just checked mine its oct 2022 and the screw is there already but is that a good thing ? From what I understand is if the bond is there and you plug in (shore power) then there is 2 grounds and I think they cancel each other out (I think thats why they just started leaving that screw out but the board is the same)? Why don't you design a switch for the neutral ground bond that switches off when you are plugged in and on when you are on solar power? If you designed that neutral switch I think they would take notice as when I called them about this issue they suggested I follow the steps of your video ie: theres a video that shows that hack on you tube...

@SmithOffGrid

2 ай бұрын

So if the screw is there that means your unit should be able to bond and unbond automatically. The screw isn’t a permanent bond. It’s connected to a relay that does exactly what you’re suggesting, it unbonds neutral and ground when connected to grid and bonds when you’re running off solar and battery. The screw just gives the relay a connection to ground it can use. No switch is needed, it does it all internally with that relay!

THANKS!

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

You bet!

With NG screw in, will my 30A generator sense a ground fault or will it automatically unbound NG when connected and receiving a charge?

@SmithOffGrid

4 ай бұрын

On mine I have the NG screw in and when I hooked it up to a generator it saw the power at the AC input and automatically un-bonded N and G

@21trips

4 ай бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid Nice.

Is the lug screw tight??? If the screw is not tight the screw does not have any connection to the terminal conductor..

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

You definitely want it snug. Just wanted to call out not to over tighten it and strip the threads or crush the board

Same needed when putting two units together together for split-hase config? Both or just one unit? Need to do some more research I guess. :)

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

Yeah not sure how the bonding should be set up with a split phase config. My guess is that you'd want to leave the screw out on both because the bond should be in a panel where they're tied together since you only want one bond in the whole system.

Are you developing a detected screen display screen for the EG4 3000 if so could you send me a comment

Hello, just ran across your video. I've bought the eg4 3000w inverter. Eg4 ll 48v battery. Made a hand cart install like Will Prouse on KZread. Finally got my dip switch configured and got my battery fully charged from grid power. I have a power strip wired up for my a/c output. I show 120v output on my display, but have @ 4 volts between line and neutral output, when wires are in place. Take the wires lose, probe the a/c output terminals, I have 120v. Tried wiring in a light; 120v on display, light won't work, and probe the line & neutral, and it show's 4 volts. Wondering if this could be my issue??

@SmithOffGrid

11 ай бұрын

Wait so you’re getting 120v between hot and neutral on the inverter output but then only 4v between hot and neutral on your power strip after wiring it in? If so, that doesn’t sound like an issue with bonding, that sounds like an issue with either your wiring or the power strip

@jvm3753

11 ай бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid No, it was acting like " no load voltage". I've got it figured out. Thanks for your reply.

@SmithOffGrid

11 ай бұрын

You bet, glad you got it figured out! Have a good one!

I think the problem is that you can only ground to the frame when using the inverter without shore power. If you test an outlet in your camper, it will still show an open ground. The manufacturers don't really deal with this at all, so I'm guessing that it is just how the system works. What's your thought?

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Yeah in an RV I don't think it's technically "grounded" since there's no earth-grounding but you can have ground bonded with neutral from adding that screw. And once you have it bonded it won't show open ground anymore with the circuit tester. Those testers really only check the neutral-ground bond, not true earth ground anyways

@Ry-lx2kl

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid should you still ground your neutral to your chassis given when you have a shore power connection the shore power ground will also be grounded to the chassis? Given there is no true connection to ground through the chassis it would seem like this would not be a problem.

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

I could be wrong but I thought that ground of the RV panel is normally connected to the chassis and not neutral directly. If you let the EG4 do it's thing and handle bonding and un-bonding (assuming it has the grounding screw installed) then when you're in battery mode, the chassis will be electrically connected with ground through the bonding in the unit. Chassis to ground and ground to neutral through bonding relay on the board. And then when you're hooked up to shore power it'll be electrically connected through the bonded AC input. Chassis to ground and ground to neutral through the bonded grid power.

@uhjyuff2095

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid an RV has two electrical systems, 12v and the 120v wiring. The 12v is the main system and the frame of the RV is bonded to the negative side of the 12v DC system. When the shore power (120v/240v) plugged in your RV is just an "appliance" cord so its just like you are plugging in a refrigerator. The frame of the refrigerator is metal and so is your RV's frame. The "ungrounded" conductor and the "grounded" conductor and the "equipment grounding" conductor from your house connects to the refrigerator and your RV in the same manner. The issue with connecting a "shore" power (EG4 inverter) system that is not grounded means that a short circuit or ground fault event will not occur if an "ungrounded/LIVE" conductor with high voltage potential to your body if your standing outside the RV touches the metal parts of your RV. Then you could be shocked from the electricity and die, but a properly ground bonded neutral conductor would activate the overcurrent protection device inside the power source (EG4 inverter) during such short circuit event and therefore turn off the high voltage electricity so the risk of death is reduced.

i have a large shed I use as an office with a EG43000 and two 48V 5kw EG4 batteries. Everything works well (just using solar and batteries, no AC input). The shed has it's own ground rod and electrical box supplied only by the EG4 inverter. On occasion (cloudy day or two) my batteries will totally drain. If I connected AC input from the house (to charge the batteries automatically when they get to low and there is no solar), will that be a problem with the ground?

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Hmm... Are you currently bonding neutral and ground in your electrical box or with the grounding screw in the unit?

@andrewh3101

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid I'm currently bonding neutral and ground in the electrical box that is fed by the EG3000 inverter. I would like to do what you do, feed the AC input from an outlet that is fed from the House panel. Just to charge batteries when they are low.

@andrewh3101

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid Also on my EG43KW inverter I get continuity between ground and neutral when inverter is on with no input or output wires attached. That seems diferrent from how you received yours.

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

I see. Well I'm not a professional so take this with a grain of salt... But in the case where you have no AC input and it's already bonded in the shed electrical panel you probably wouldn't want it also being bonded inside the EG4. So I'd remove the grounding screw. But since that's not the whole story, for the other case of AC input coming from the house, the issue I see would be with the second bond in the shed panel. I don't _think_ the extra grounding rod would cause any problems. What I'd probably do in your case if I wanted to have the option of doing both battery and AC input would be to disconnect the bond in the shed electrical panel and leave in the grounding screw in the EG4. The bond would carry over to the panel from the EG4 when you were on battery. And then when you switch to AC input supplied from the house the EG4 would un-bond and the bond would carry over from the house panel. Hopefully that's helpful

@d.pollard5962

9 ай бұрын

great answer and exactly as I planned to install it. Getting so excited to start using these products@@SmithOffGrid

I installed this unit in my home. I am not tied to the grid. I have power in from an outlet. I have check for the bond between ground and neutral but I get not signal meaning it’s not bonded. Do I need the bonding screw?

@SmithOffGrid

5 ай бұрын

So you're supplying AC power into the unit from an outlet? Is that outlet coming from the grid? And are the neutrals and grounds from the outlet bonded?

The MPPT charge controller on the EG4 requires 120v of solar voltage before it will turn on the solar charge controller. If you use it for an RV, with limited roof space, virtually all of your solar will be used to power the controller leaving very little to charge batteries. So in my case 6 of my 7, 180 watt solar panels are just turning on the controller. The 7th panel charges the battery... ugh

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Yeah so I do agree that the minimum voltage is pretty high to meet with limited roof space on an RV. I had to reconfigure my panels into a single string when with my previous Growatt I was able to do two strings in parallel. You have to look at more than just voltage though. While in your case it may take 6 panels to reach the minimum voltage, doesn't necessarily mean that all the power generated from them is used solely to power it on. Power (watts) is a factor of both voltage and current (amps) and the power usage for the unit is I believe around 60 watts. So 6 panels at 180 watts gives you over 1000 watts. So power consumption for the charger/inverter would only be using up 6%. That's still quite a bit of power that could go to charge your batteries and the 7th panel just adds to that. If you flip through the screens on the unit you can actually see how much current and power is being directed to your batteries from solar. I don't think it's quite as bad as it may have seemed if you had only considered the voltage.

put the screw in and still get open ground on an Outlet Tester thoughts?

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Hmm… it could be a number of things. I’d make sure you don’t have any AC input and you’re running off the battery. Then I’d check continuity between the ground screw on the case and the output neutral with a multimeter. If you have a connection there then it’d be a wiring, outlet, or circuit tester issue. But yeah I’d start with the continuity test

So does that mean the inverter has a floating neutral best suited to hook into a sub-panel that has a bonded neutral at the main panel of a house. I'm looking to build a mobile system to use at night during a power outage. All of my generators have floating neutrals, and cause no problems using a transfer switch on a sub panel. This is all new for me, thanks for any advice from anyone who might want to help.

@SmithOffGrid

11 ай бұрын

My inverter came with a floating neutral since it didn’t have the bonding screw installed. And yeah hooking into a panel with a bonded neutral is actually what is recommended by EG4. Works very similar to a generator. In your case you wouldn’t want the bonding screw installed since you only want it bonded in one place, being the main panel. I’d check the voltage between neutral and ground on your inverter when it’s not connected to your sub-panel, and look for around 60v to make sure yours indeed has a floating neutral. Sounds like the newer units are like that now but yeah I’d still double check if I were you.

@t.d.harris1311

11 ай бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid Thanks, best regards!

I have this unit in an rv and when plugged into any gfci outlet, (which is most campsites) it trips the outlet after a few seconds. I installed the screw hoping it would fix that issue but it still trips. Anybody else with this unit have the same issue?

@SmithOffGrid

Ай бұрын

If you have any neutral ground bonds downstream of a gcfi it will trip. I'm guessing you might have a neutral ground bond in your AC panel of the RV? If so you could unbond there and then if you add the screw the EG4 unit will bond automatically when you're self powering but unbond when you're plugged into shore power

I had the worst possible experience with this inverter and Signature Solar. I had the exact same issue you did and when contacting them, no one could understand what I was telling them and no one knew anything about the inverter and how it operates. The manual was flat out wrong and dangerous. I returned it. Such a horrible waste of time and frustrating experience. They truly were clueless. I called to ask about the version of the unit, 1 or 2 and they had no idea there was more than one version. EG4 website had the firmware updates but Signature Solar swore there was only one version. I had to tell them there was a firmware update for the unit. They didn't know. A huge let down and complete failure from Signature Solar. I wanted to like the unit but had ZERO confidence in how it operates and the NG bond is not something to toy with. Does a relay REALLY exist and switch the bond under certain conditions? Signature Solar did not know. Hard for me to go back and buy anything else from them after such blatant lack of knowledge of their own equipment. Nice video, thanks. Did they tell you the relay would operate as it is stated in the manual with that NG bond screw installed? Did you test that?

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I've honestly been pretty disappointed in the support from Signature Solar and their lack of knowledge of their own products. Half the time I've reached out they just never respond even after weeks. After probably ten plus emails, multiple phone calls, and being sent back and forth between Signature Solar and EG4 they literally wouldn't tell me anything besides there was a screw and it was removed. They had no idea what I was talking about for quite a while either. The support people seemed like they had no electrical experience at all. I gave up on getting any help from them and did a lot of searching on the board myself to find an empty screw hole with a conductive perimeter near a relay that looked like it could do it. And yes after adding the screw I tested that it it operates like it describes in the manual. When running in battery and solar mode it bonds neutral to ground, and when running in AC input mode it disconnects neutral and ground. I checked it with a floating neutral generator so it was easy to verify.

@tsp2jxd

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid That is what I THOUGHT I was getting when I set mine up. But it clearly was wrong. Can't say how horrible it is for a company to act like this with electronic equipment. The manual was, and probably is, flat out wrong with that screw removed. Dangerous. Thanks for the follow up! Very much appreciated.

@Bripromo

Жыл бұрын

Hi, you are absolutely 💯 correct about signature solar, they are very terrible company .Their support team are the worse!!

Oo

Dude... you gotta do that differently in my opinion. I have a all in one and i do my bonding in the panel on my camper and have a switch for the bonding. If its bonded when you use ac input you created the ground loop which can freakin kill you or someone else. It will most likely pop the gfci on the ac input side having it the way you have it but if it dont trio it then it will hurt someone. Yeah man thats not correct with what you did in the video. They removed that bond in the eg4 for a reason. To save people from having to remove it theirself to be safe. I use a relay and it does it automatically but you gotta have some type or relay or switch on the place you bond.

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

I agree that if it’s bonded when you have AC input that would be bad. That’s the thing though, the EG4 unit has a relay and will un-bond when it sees the AC input. The bonding screw allows a relay on the board to bond and un-bond automatically, it’s not a hard bond all the time

@matthewknight5641

Жыл бұрын

@@SmithOffGrid that's awesome. I didn't know the eg4 had that feature. Thanks for letting me know. I'm wanting to replace my 3000 watt all in one with atleast a 5000 and since eg4 has that feature maybe that will be the next on my wall

@SmithOffGrid

Жыл бұрын

I'm not sure if other size EG4 units have that feature but this 3000 EHV-48 at least does. Happy to help, best of luck!

That's what you get when you buy a cheap Chinese made high frequency inverter.

@SmithOffGrid

6 ай бұрын

Very true... Honestly wish there were more options in this form factor and capacity

Do NOT buy this device UNLESS you have at the LEAST 3 - 48v batteries. This consumes a huge amount of energy under no load conditions. I have to get up in the middle of the night to run my generator to charge the batteries.

@kansasadventure1831

Жыл бұрын

Says 50 watts

@acroduster

Жыл бұрын

Standby is 50w nominal with zero load. I have one and if your planning on using a 3kw inverter thats actually on the low side. If your battery bank is at all to scale of a system like this your never gona have a problem from the stanby draw. The sun will be up and recharging long before you run out of power.

@Maduraimaindhan

9 ай бұрын

Did you update the firmware version 2 after installing the grounding screw?

@Burnrate

9 ай бұрын

They have an automatic standby mode you can turn on. It will take like 10 watts per inverter (says less than 15 in the manual). With my two I've found even when not in standby it uses far less than 50 watts. It's option 4 in the panel, set it to SEN.