Electronic GFCI

balee123
balee123 Solar Expert Posts: 86 ✭✭
in Off Grid Solar & Battery Systems #1
Ran across an inverter that says it has an internal "electronic GFCI" feeding what looks to be a standard outlet. This outlet does not appear to have a reset button......I assume because it is an "electronic" instead of a physical (button to reset) one.

1) How do these types of GFCIs get reset if they trip?

found the answer online to the first question ............just need to power on and off the unit

2) Also, I recently replaced a GFCI with a standard outlet on a Prosine 1800 at the recommendation of the gurus on this forum to prevent tripping when feeding a home service panel. Can inverters with an electronic GFCI be bypassed in someway to prevent similar tripping? If so how?
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    #2
    Re: Electronic GFCI

    You might want to give a name/model number or a link to the inverter you are asking about. It is hard to guess as we don't know what they may have done during the design process.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Electronic GFCI
    balee123 wrote: »
    Also, I recently replaced a GFCI with a standard outlet on a Prosine 1800 at the recommendation of the gurus on this forum to prevent tripping when feeding a home service panel. Can inverters with an electronic GFCI be bypassed in someway to prevent similar tripping? If so how?

    It probably cannot be bypassed or disabled easily (without going into the internal wiring of the inverter anyway) But, the reason that the GFCI had to be bypassed in some earlier cases was that you cannot have a ground to neutral bond at both the inverter end and the house panel end of the interconnection. That would allow some of the normal return current to flow through the ground wire(s) instead of the neutral.
    The most desirable way to avoid immediate GFCI trips (rather than occasional false trips) is to change the way the inverter is connected to the house panel and bond the ground to neutral at one end only. Bypassing the GFCI at the inverter was a second-choice way to fix the problem, to be used only when no alternative is available. If your inverter with the electronic GFCI does not have a hard-wired ground to neutral bond inside it too, then there should not be a problem.
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.
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