Generator issue revisited

Cas

Well-known Member
I read the generator post below, but have a question. About 20 years ago I rented an electric rotary hammer drill to punch some holes in a concrete tank. I used my Homelite 4400 watt generator which at the time was almost new. The drill was an older B&D. It worked good. I had cloth gloves on and rubber boots on. When I put my knee on the ground, I would get a fairly large tingle type of shock. The guy that was helping was put at the generator to pull the plug if it got bad. There was a 2 spade plug on the drill.
There is probably a simple answer. It just is not coming to me and I read the post this moring(dementia?).
 
The way I understand it if the generator is not grounded it should not matter. Maybe I got it wrong.
 
Voltage is always looking for ground. When it finds it you don't want to be in the way. All generators should have a ground system in place. As well as all equipment.
 
The generators Neutral was likely bonded to its metal case/frame. THEREFORE, if it was setting on bare earth there would be a potential from one of the hot legs to earth.

Its output starts out sort of as an isolation transformer but usually its Neutral gets some sort of grounding, be it the case/frame or even earth as I described below. A utility transformer is isolated off earth until its Neutral is tied to the bare copper wire that leads down the pole to a ground rod..

John T
 
Trouble is its Neutral is grounded to the metal case/frame so if its setting on the ground it also has a connection to mother earth.

John T
 

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