Radio-Ga-Ga

I have to dissagree (somebody allways does so it might as well be me) The waveform from a standard generator is excellent, very near perfect and completely analogue, the problem is holding a steady engine RPM and that affects the frequency Most gensets hold the RPM/frequency slightly high without load and slow slightly under load, that brings the frequency close but never perfect. Inverters or generator/inverters have near perfect frequency control But the waveform is a digitaly simulated one that increases and decreases voltage in a series of steps and can never be perfect. the ouput waveform of a "pure sine" inverter lies somwhere between a Quasi wave and a pure wave, the point at which the wave is alleged by the maker to be pure is an unknown variable. It has to be said that any inverter called a pure sine by its maker SHOULD be capable of running any appliance within its capacity.

Thanks for that I was totaly mystified at the difference between my understanding of a floating earth and Honda's, I also noted Honda used the expression "in most cases". In most cases hand held power tools are class 2 (double insulated) so the question of earthing is irrelevent, personnaly I would still go for bonding earth/neutral at the output. BTW if earth stops floating we could all be in for a bumpy ride

Does anybody know what this alleged floating earth is actualy connected to? I'd be very interested to know how honda consider their 2k kit to be safer than the practice used by the national grid and the best safety devices.

The Ideal situation is to use an earth rod to take any fault current to earth, if you use the genny with floating, IE no earth, any fault current to a metal cased appliance will not trip the breaker and could be lethal, Gibbo is right, the genny is better wired neutral to earth, not the lead, then no matter what's plugged into it at least the genny's own breaker will trip. A floating earth is a large conductive mass with no direct connection to earth, to which all earths are connected at neutral potential, to protect persons in or on the mass and could apply to a metal boat, building or platform.

I've run a philips lcd for over 3 years now exactly as above, threw out the adaptor and plugged it into a 12v socket (got the plug for the 12v in from maplin) there is a risk, but mine has been fine on or off charge and much cheaper than a dedicated 12 volt model, and it will be under warranty. (Did I read in another topic there are no bad customers?)

The victron multi-plus has a genny start-stop function based on battery voltage but needs a seperate interface that connects into the gensets manual start-stop panel wiring, they have wiring diagrams on their website for some popular gensets, the bad news is the interface is about 400 quid

I just checked it out on their website and your right, maybe this one is faulty, i'll be intersted to see the outcome anyway

Hi Blackrose, In my opinion it's most likely the genny waveform, when you start a wash the machine will only use a few watts to lock the door and open the water valve, the motor and heater will kick in later so it'n not exessive load for the genny. the intermittent tripping is often the heater element gasket, water seeps onto the element contacts and causes an overload. the P.A.T tester wont fail this when its dry, but the tester will be usefull, most will not work without a good waveform, I use a packard Bell PAC 500 (the most common) with a bad waveform the led lights on it will flicker and it will fail every appliance tested. Zanussi electronics are picky about waveform, a different brand of washer may (or may not) work with the genny.