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ianbirdsall asked

Isolation transformer

I have a isolation transfer on a wooden boat, the installation manual states the enclosure should be connected to ”all metal parts of the boat” being a 1948 boat, and in line with wooden boat practice there is no ground loop connecting all the metal parts, rudders, through hulls, shafts etc. In this case what would be the installation procedure? There is mention in the manual of output neutral grounding by connecting J5 and J7 terminals, which if not connected result in the unit “floating” what does this mean in plain language.

thank you for any help.

Isolation Tranformer
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2 Answers
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Mike Dorsett answered ·

Correct installation for this, would be to ground this to the largest anode, or install an anode for it, and use RCCD breakers on both input and output lines.

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hhau answered ·

Floating gotta mean; neither sides of the secondary winding have any reference to any ground, so non of them can be considered as L(ive) nor N(eutral) e.g. in relation to boat GND (battery -) - so if you measure voltage between battery - and either sides of the secondary side it should theroretically display "zero" volts, so it's "safe" to touch a lead and ground, given that there ARE no reference to GND. However if some mistake happens (and they do happen), touching a lead and GND could be deadly. Which is why there should be a reference to boat GND - AND a 30ma RCD MUST installed to protect from you fault currents.

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