Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums > AC Power and Grounding
Grounding for a very small event question
Shawn Herring:
Hey!
I'm just getting into doing really small events such as providing music for camping events. I have 2x yamaha dbr12's and a yamaha dxs18 subwoofer. Audio is played from a laptop or phone, no mixing or live instruments. Connected to house power (120v) with a watt meter I really don't pull more than 550 watts according to the meter. I have a cheapo sportsman gen1000i inverter generator that I'm planning on using to run the speakers outdoors.
I have been doggedly going through posts on this forum regarding safety with bonding and grounding, but most of the scenarios I am reading about are for much larger systems and systems with power distro's and metal stages, both of which I will not be using. The generator has a floating neutral. It also only has one outlet which I normally run a heavy gauge outlet splitter on to give me 3 more outlets that I plug everything into. I've read about the neutral ground bonding plug, but I am unsure if I could attach one of those to my splitter and still have functionality. I have a grounding rod and copper wire to attach to the generator but am unsure if that will be safer, as I have read scenarios where that is also dangerous? Very unclear to me. If the generator sits on a rubber mat and is isolated from the ground is a grounding rod needed? The owner's manual calls for a grounding rod but it is somewhat poorly translated.
I'm just trying to get started doing things safely and without damaging my equipment. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!
Brian Jojade:
If all components of the generator are bonded to the generator chassis, you should not need a grounding rod unless you are tying the generator into another system with a transfer switch. You do want to make sure that the outlet is GFCI protected. That way, if the electricity decides to flow anywhere but back to the generator, it will trip the breaker.
Shawn Herring:
--- Quote from: Brian Jojade on October 26, 2020, 04:38:05 PM ---If all components of the generator are bonded to the generator chassis, you should not need a grounding rod unless you are tying the generator into another system with a transfer switch. You do want to make sure that the outlet is GFCI protected. That way, if the electricity decides to flow anywhere but back to the generator, it will trip the breaker.
--- End quote ---
The generator doesn't have a GFCI outlet, so I could get an adapter for that. The generator I believe is floating neutral, so the components are not bonded to the chassis I think. Would adding the GFCI adapter, then a splitter, then a bonding plug adapter be the solution? That seems somewhat unwieldy.
John Roberts {JR}:
--- Quote from: Shawn Herring on October 26, 2020, 05:48:05 PM ---The generator doesn't have a GFCI outlet, so I could get an adapter for that. The generator I believe is floating neutral, so the components are not bonded to the chassis I think. Would adding the GFCI adapter, then a splitter, then a bonding plug adapter be the solution? That seems somewhat unwieldy.
--- End quote ---
+1 they make inexpensive GFCI outlet strips that can be plugged into dodgy power and protect the humans.
JR
Brian Jojade:
--- Quote from: John Roberts {JR} on October 26, 2020, 10:24:50 PM ---+1 they make inexpensive GFCI outlet strips that can be plugged into dodgy power and protect the humans.
JR
--- End quote ---
Unless you use Crown iTech amps. They trip GFCI breakers...
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version