- Joined
- Jul 16, 2002
- RO Number
- 9357
- Messages
- 533
Please read this in it's entirety. This has me stumped!
I have used Honda EU2000 generators for many years and have never had any problems with them. Now I have a situation that is difficult for me to troubleshoot. Perhaps someone on this board is either an electrician or knows what is happening here.
My EU2000 generator has historically powered everything on my boat except my air conditioning. I would like it to power myu air, but it hasn't worked. When I flip the air breaker on, that's when I would get the reverse polarity light and it wouldn't even run the fan only. It's almost as if the wiring is incorrect, but I know it's not because it works fine on shore power. Anyway, that is not the problem I am having.
This is........
As some of you may have read on this site a few weeks ago, I tried grounding my EU2000 to my dock in an attempt to give the generator a "natural ground" much like shore power has. After I grounded it, I fired up the generator and noticed it was putting out power but my electrical panel on the boat was not showing any power being provided. The voltmeter was at 0 and there was no juice. Now, fast forward to last week. I removed the ground wire that I had left on the ground peg of the generator, and tightened the peg down. THen I plugged the boat into the generator and fired it up. It did not show any power on the voltmeter, but when I flipped the main 110v breaker on then it went up to 110v on the meter and PRESTO! I had power again. We assumed that because I had that ground wire attached to the ground screw on the generator that for some reason it didn't allow the boat to acknowledge there was power present. (I know it makes no sense and it sounds stupid, but what did I care, I had generator power again!!)
Okay, now fast forward to yesterday. We are achored out with MSibley and our Admirals. It's early in the AM and I decide to make breakfast for everyone. I fire up the generator and it works perfect. I make 2 pots of coffee. I turned off the coffee maker breaker, and the only other breaker on is the refrigerator breaker which is a very minimal draw. So then I hit the stove breaker and turned on the cooktop. The light on the stove turned on for one second then it went off. I went to the power panel and suddenly I had lost all power. The voltmeter was at 0, but yet none of the breakers had tripped including the main breaker. There was no sound, nothing, just went dead. And the generator was still purring along as normal and putting out power as it should.
The boat's electrical system was back to it's old tricks again, not recognizing the generator's power. We got back to the slip, shore power works fine.
Now, it's been discussed many times about powering a boat with portable generators and some people have gotten pretty righteous about their opinions against it. But the fact is, people use them and have no problems. They provide the power needed to run some of the shore powered items on the boat.
So aside from personal opinion, why is my boat not acknowledging the presence of power from the generator? Why did it stop working right when I turned the stove on? Why does it ocassionally work and other times not?
Your help is appreciated. Keep in mind, everything works perfect on shore power, and ocassionally on generator power.
I have used Honda EU2000 generators for many years and have never had any problems with them. Now I have a situation that is difficult for me to troubleshoot. Perhaps someone on this board is either an electrician or knows what is happening here.
My EU2000 generator has historically powered everything on my boat except my air conditioning. I would like it to power myu air, but it hasn't worked. When I flip the air breaker on, that's when I would get the reverse polarity light and it wouldn't even run the fan only. It's almost as if the wiring is incorrect, but I know it's not because it works fine on shore power. Anyway, that is not the problem I am having.
This is........
As some of you may have read on this site a few weeks ago, I tried grounding my EU2000 to my dock in an attempt to give the generator a "natural ground" much like shore power has. After I grounded it, I fired up the generator and noticed it was putting out power but my electrical panel on the boat was not showing any power being provided. The voltmeter was at 0 and there was no juice. Now, fast forward to last week. I removed the ground wire that I had left on the ground peg of the generator, and tightened the peg down. THen I plugged the boat into the generator and fired it up. It did not show any power on the voltmeter, but when I flipped the main 110v breaker on then it went up to 110v on the meter and PRESTO! I had power again. We assumed that because I had that ground wire attached to the ground screw on the generator that for some reason it didn't allow the boat to acknowledge there was power present. (I know it makes no sense and it sounds stupid, but what did I care, I had generator power again!!)
Okay, now fast forward to yesterday. We are achored out with MSibley and our Admirals. It's early in the AM and I decide to make breakfast for everyone. I fire up the generator and it works perfect. I make 2 pots of coffee. I turned off the coffee maker breaker, and the only other breaker on is the refrigerator breaker which is a very minimal draw. So then I hit the stove breaker and turned on the cooktop. The light on the stove turned on for one second then it went off. I went to the power panel and suddenly I had lost all power. The voltmeter was at 0, but yet none of the breakers had tripped including the main breaker. There was no sound, nothing, just went dead. And the generator was still purring along as normal and putting out power as it should.
The boat's electrical system was back to it's old tricks again, not recognizing the generator's power. We got back to the slip, shore power works fine.
Now, it's been discussed many times about powering a boat with portable generators and some people have gotten pretty righteous about their opinions against it. But the fact is, people use them and have no problems. They provide the power needed to run some of the shore powered items on the boat.
So aside from personal opinion, why is my boat not acknowledging the presence of power from the generator? Why did it stop working right when I turned the stove on? Why does it ocassionally work and other times not?
Your help is appreciated. Keep in mind, everything works perfect on shore power, and ocassionally on generator power.