I have a Phoenix 1200 inverter in my UK campervan that is connected to a 2 pole / 3 position rotary switch (shore/off/inverter) and then to a consumer unit with 1 RCD and 2 MCB’s. All earths (rotary switch / inverter body and consumer unit are earthed to the vehicle chassis. I am getting an error on the inverter when connected to the consumer unit, solid red and flashing intermittent green when I throw the MCBs. I believe this is a neutral / earth bonding issue due to the floating setup of this inverter.
Looking for help on resolving this issue. I believe this could be related to the earth neutral bonding and potentially the RCD in the consumer unit.
In this instance, you also need to switch the Neutral earth connection with the rotary switch, or move the MEN link to the “shore power”side. Having this link for an inverter that does not have an isolating transformer (‘Neutral’ is also active..) will cause errors, but will also trip shore power supplies with an rcd. Better to eliminate this link altogether, or to upgrade to an isolated inverter like the multiplus. Eliminating the link may stop the rcd in the consumer unit from operating.
Hey Mike, thanks for the message. Weirdly after much head scratching it started working (again, as it was okay previously for a short period)!
I have no idea what was triggering it, I did disconnect and reconnect the consumer box earth, and was about to get the multimeter out and start the process of elimination when it started working!
Could water on the 3 pin shore power inlet plug possibly have triggered this? Alternatively the sockets I have plumbed into the van have usb A and C outlets, could these have triggered it?!!
Just to add there was no load on the MCB’s nor was shore power plugged in when the fault was occurring…