[A/S] Re: honda grounding

["Matt Worner" <wornmatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

NOT!  There is only one ground on a generator, The "U" shaped hole, 
which should be grounded to a metallic ground to earth.  (I know, 
neither do I, but it should be.) There is a ground terminal on the 
outside of any generator made in recent recorded history just for that 
purpose.  The flat prong is NOT a ground, it is a neutral.  It is 
designed to carry current.  It is a return to the generator, not the 
earth.  The ground is designed not to carry current.  When it does it 
should trip the breaker.  Mixing the two is like jumping with both 
your main chute and safety chute as well, a radically poor concept.  
If there is a connection (referred to as a bond) between the neutral 
and ground within the generator then the generator MUST be grounded.  
Since they rarely are, the ground and neutral should be un-bonded.

Electicity is funny stuff.  If you don't know what you're doing, don't 
do it.  If you do know what you're doing, you won't do it.

38 years in the trade, retired for 2.  The memories live on.

Matt