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Trying to use Hybrid 240V to run house during power outage

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jjblas

jjblas

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Was this in an article? I'd be interested in that...
No. I was looking over the service tech shoulder as he did a diagnostic. He pointed out the 5 networks but I didn't have time to count the processors. At least 40, probably more.
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Hullguy

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In Sacramento, we had a major storm that toppled a lot of trees and caused power outages all over the county. in our area our power just came on after a 42hr. outage.

I spent a good deal of time going back and forth to a local commercial electrical supply store. I made a 25 foot 10 gauge 4 wire extension cord by use a Leviton L14-30P (male connector) and L14-30R (female connector). The tricky part was making a 6ft. male male pigtail to hook to my dryer outlet (idea was to power both sides of the main). Unfortunately, the dryer outlet is 3 wire so I tied both ground and neutral of the four wire to the dryer neutral.

The Pro Power gave me a ground fault when I first tried to hook up (yes, I made sure to turn the main circuit breaker to the power company off). So, I unplugged the extension and reset what I assume is the circuit light on the truck bed panel (and from the instrument display). I ran the circuit test on all the outlets in the truck with nothing on any of the circuits but still got a ground fault. Since I haven't used any of the circuits at the time, I proceeded to test each circuit by plugging in a cell phone with AC adapter. All A and B circuits worked. I still got a ground fault when testing the circuits.

While the truck may not like what I have done with the pigtail, I could try to not attach the ground and just use the neutral. However, I suspect something amiss with the truck wiring/electronics. I will schedule an appointment with the dealer service.

Any thoughts or advice out there?
If it is an older 3 wire dyer outlet, it doesn’t have a dedicated ground. You have to have a 4 wire dryer outlet for it not to go into ground fault.
 

Truman

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Was this in an article? I'd be interested in that...
I am kinda getting the same warning....If i am understanding correctly the truck is SUPPOSED to give this warning. I am thinking the truck is causing an (on Purpose) ground fault and if it sees the ground fault it causes the electrical to shut down. Then when you hit the reset button if fixes the ground fault IT caused during the test. At least that's the only thing i can figure out . here is the message i am getting when i test the power generator. Does anyone else get this message when they thes the system ?
Ford F-150 Trying to use Hybrid 240V to run house during power outage IMG_1260 (1)
 

KGB81

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I think the issue is that your house neutral is tied to your house ground at the panel. So your truck is sending out say 20 amps on the lines, and expecting to see 20 amps return on the neutral. But the 20 amps gets shunted to ground at the house panel neutral to ground bond. So essentially the truck sees a ground fault.

You may need a transfer switch that also switches the neutral. Then the neutral-ground bond will be taken out of the circuit when running on truck generator. The 20 amps will make it all the way back to the truck on the neutral and it wont trip on a ground fault.
 

mmdpg

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Here is a video on YouTube where a guy explains the difference between a floating neutral generator and a bonded neutral generator and the need to have a switched neutral to your house panel when using a bonded neutral (7.4 kW truck system) vs a floating neutral (2.0 kW) Pro Power system as described in the owners manual.

 

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So I lost power yesterday and instead of plugging in my generator I tried to use my truck. I have a Generator transfer switch with an outside outlet that I normally plug my 7000W generator into. I used the cable from my generator and plugged from the outlet into the truck. In the truck the screen said it saw the connection and allowed me to enable generator mode. I went in the house and switched the transfer switch from line to generator as I normally would but no power was showing at the switch. I went outside and noticed the red flashing light so I pressed the green reset and within a second it tripped again.

At this point I disconnected and just used the generator and everything worked fine. I'm far from and Electrician so I guess it's time to call one.

This is my transfer switch
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200702787_200702787
 

GolfR

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This is one of the "challenges" with backfeeding a house. Not only do you have to make sure the main is off and all breakers are switched in the right order, but depending on the generator, you have to make different adapters so they will run.

I personally run a 6.5k generator backfed into the dryer plug but you do have to know what you are doing to make the right adapters. Screwing up the wiring could result in some bad things back at the generator...ie neutral/ground float...that could really hurt someone.

Please don't try to do this if you aren't electrical work savy and have at least some basic test equipment (multimeter etc) and know how to read wiring diagrams.
 

Lippy

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Has anyone successfully set up a transfer switch and powered their house with the truck? I’d really like to know the details of the setup.
 

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Has anyone successfully set up a transfer switch and powered their house with the truck? I’d really like to know the details of the setup.
Also if you are on SMUD (not PG&E) for electric, I'm curious if they allow it, or require one of their techs to install.
 

John_C

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Has anyone successfully set up a transfer switch and powered their house with the truck? I’d really like to know the details of the setup.
I have not installed mine yet, but the issue stems from the truck generator being the bonded neutral type. The easiest and safest way to make it work is to install a transfer switch that transfers the neutrals to the truck as well. If you power a circuit in your home with your truck, and that circuit is bonded to ground anywhere other than in the truck (IE, your homes neutral/ground buss), the truck will sense the loss of return current, and trigger the breaker to trip. If the truck sends out 15 amps to a circuit, it must see those 15 amps return on the neutral wire in order to avoid tripping the breaker.

I don't know the exact ford spec, but a normal GFI circuit will trip with only 5-10 mA of differential current.
 

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mmdpg

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According to the owners manual the Powerboost system is a bonded neutral and the Pro Power 2 kW is a floating neutral system.
Ford F-150 Trying to use Hybrid 240V to run house during power outage 1617189873020
 

Meterman

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Hello, I’m brand new to the forum. I just picked up my 2021 F-150 Lariat with the 7.2K Watt generator and am getting the “ground fault error” when running the built in test from the touch screen.

I just wanted to make sure I understood that if I run the test WITHOUT the plug connected to the 240V outlet that it will fail every time as it needs the 240V outlet connected to whatever I’m trying to power.

Can someone confirm this it a true statement?

I did watch the YouTube video from EZ Generators LLC and understood what they were saying, I’m just not 100% sure what the solution is.

I wired a 240v outlet into a 30am breaker on my panel with 2 120v hots, 1 neutral and a ground with 10AWG wire. I installed an interlock switch on my breaker panel so I can power the house with my truck during a power outage. I get a Ground Fault error message with my truck when I plug the 240V outlet in and when I unplug the outlet I get the ground fault detected error. I understood the YouTube about floating and bonded neutral but I don’t understand how I fix this. My guess was there needs to be a transfer switch installed instead of back feeding my panel.

Has anyone successfully installed an interlock switch and connected the 7.2K watt to their home and power it. I understand that the 2.0K and 2.4K generator use a floating neutral so it’s a totally different setup.

Thanks in advance for you advice.

Jim
 

UGADawg96

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Hello, I’m brand new to the forum. I just picked up my 2021 F-150 Lariat with the 7.2K Watt generator and am getting the “ground fault error” when running the built in test from the touch screen.

I just wanted to make sure I understood that if I run the test WITHOUT the plug connected to the 240V outlet that it will fail every time as it needs the 240V outlet connected to whatever I’m trying to power.

Can someone confirm this it a true statement?

I did watch the YouTube video from EZ Generators LLC and understood what they were saying, I’m just not 100% sure what the solution is.

I wired a 240v outlet into a 30am breaker on my panel with 2 120v hots, 1 neutral and a ground with 10AWG wire. I installed an interlock switch on my breaker panel so I can power the house with my truck during a power outage. I get a Ground Fault error message with my truck when I plug the 240V outlet in and when I unplug the outlet I get the ground fault detected error. I understood the YouTube about floating and bonded neutral but I don’t understand how I fix this. My guess was there needs to be a transfer switch installed instead of back feeding my panel.

Has anyone successfully installed an interlock switch and connected the 7.2K watt to their home and power it. I understand that the 2.0K and 2.4K generator use a floating neutral so it’s a totally different setup.

Thanks in advance for you advice.

Jim
see this thread:

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/installed-transfer-switch-in-house.1267/
 

Meterman

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thanks, of course it 13 pages LOL
 
 




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