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MEP-803a First Start and Fuel Leak

lonesouth

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If you are running this to your house, you must run a ground to the house, 4 wires total. That box has the ground and neutral bonded, going to the same block with just the single neutral returning to the panel(bare wire and coated wire going to block on the bottom left). I don't think that is the correct setup. The neutral and ground should go directly to the panel and stay separated until they get there, where in the panel bonds the two.

I believe you should also put a ground rod in at the generator, attached to the ground terminal, and remove the bonding bar between L0 and GND

FWIW, I'm running 3 legs 4awg copper(Hot-Hot-Neutral) and 1 leg 6awg for the ground THWN in conduit.
 
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ELPasoTom

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Texas
Well, I'm not running cables from Gen to house, just to the box (~10ft). On the backside of the pole holding the transfer switch is a breaker box and 200Amp service to the house. With such a short run to the transfer switch, the 6AWG should be fine. I love overkill as much as anyone but I can get the AWG-6 at Lowes the 4 I'd have to order.
 

Daybreak

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Howdy,
When attached to a existing electrical system, you run 4 wires from the generator. The little bonding strap disengaged. No ground rod. The whole system is grounded by what your panel is grounded to when it was built.

6 AWG THHN is conduit is fine, and is overkill too.
 

Daybreak

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Howdy,
The fuel lines under the metal caps is different. A member here worked on and listed info about those under that same thread I gave you earlier about the fuel return line.
 

grampy

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Mims, FL
I also believe the correct setup is 4 wires to the primary service panel (2 hot, 1 neutral and 1 ground).

The purpose of generator's little bonding strap is for installations that aren't connecting to an existing service (as in field installations). In this case the bonding strap is used to tie neutral to ground in the generator. The NEC states that neutral should only be connected to ground at one-and-only-one location in the circuit, that being at the service entrance panel.

But it's a good/safe practice to install a (separate) ground rod directly at the generator. This is not uncommon. Many technicians/owners don't rely on the generator chassis being grounded through a (typically long) run to the electrical service panel (also that ground is often of a smaller gauge than the primary circuit wiring). And a poorly grounded chassis can easily kill the generator operator, even more so with generators that are manually started/stopped (as the MEP generators are), often in very wet conditions. With a separate generator ground rod, a 4-wire connection is still made to the existing service. In this case the generator chassis has two ground paths, one to the local ground rod, and one to the existing service ground (tied to neutral only in the main service panel). Redundant grounds for the generator chassis is a good, safe practice.

If the generator installation has no local ground rod, then the generator chassis is relying on the ground wire run to the electrical service panel for it's (only) ground. In this case I'd closely check the ground wiring all the way to the service entrance panel. Verify the gauge of the ground wire is large enough to support the maximum current the generator is capable of producing. Verify all connections.

But in either case it's a 4-wire installation to the existing electrical system.

~bill
 
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Light in the Dark

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