Over the past few years the main breaker on the AC panel has been acting up. Often, when shore power is first plugged in the breaker trips. Reset the breaker and all is fine until the next unplug/plug-in cycle at which point it may or may not trip. This happened regardless of any AC load.
This week an ELCI was installed and now the breaker no longer works at all. As soon as shore power is plugged in, the breaker trips, but the ELCI breaker does not trip. I suspect the timing of its failure is simply coincidental and has nothing to do with the ELCI installation.
The new breaker will be a Blue Sea 30 A DPDT breaker (7237). Looking at the existing breaker and wiring, I'm puzzled by a couple of things. First, there is neutral line side is connected to a stud on the panel which is connected to the AC Ground. This connects the Neutral and Ground which I thought was poor practice on the AC system. Bill Bishop seems to agree (http://themarineinstallersrant.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-reverse-polarity-light-ac-leaking.html).
Second the line side of the breaker has 2 connectors on each side of the neutral breaker, line and load. In between the 2 connection points on the load side is a capacitor. What purpose does this serve?
In the photo, the line side is on the left, load on the right. The left meter is a voltmeter, the right an ammeter. The small wires go to the polarity indicator and an AC power indicator.
This week an ELCI was installed and now the breaker no longer works at all. As soon as shore power is plugged in, the breaker trips, but the ELCI breaker does not trip. I suspect the timing of its failure is simply coincidental and has nothing to do with the ELCI installation.
The new breaker will be a Blue Sea 30 A DPDT breaker (7237). Looking at the existing breaker and wiring, I'm puzzled by a couple of things. First, there is neutral line side is connected to a stud on the panel which is connected to the AC Ground. This connects the Neutral and Ground which I thought was poor practice on the AC system. Bill Bishop seems to agree (http://themarineinstallersrant.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-reverse-polarity-light-ac-leaking.html).
Second the line side of the breaker has 2 connectors on each side of the neutral breaker, line and load. In between the 2 connection points on the load side is a capacitor. What purpose does this serve?
In the photo, the line side is on the left, load on the right. The left meter is a voltmeter, the right an ammeter. The small wires go to the polarity indicator and an AC power indicator.