EFCI's

[James Power]

Hi All,

With marinas replacing their shore power pedestal GFI's with the new ELCI's, was wondering if you have experienced issues with tripping breakers, and if so what your fix was.

Thanks
James

[duetto]

heh james,

we're up north on our 2003 mainship. it has promariner monitoring syetems. we saw what you're seeing starting about 4 years ago. in our case it has to do with the way the promariner tested the dock connection. they sent a pulse down the grd and tested to see if it came back. the new wiring/pedestals see this as a problem and disconnect. in talking to our mainship group it is only a problem with "newer" docks, say within 4-5 years.

on our pdq we've never seen it but we rarely go to docks and they're never new

[AlanH]

We have experienced the problem and there is an easy fix. We have a Promariner Galvanic Isolater. As John mentioned it sends a signal into the marina electric connection to be sure it is good power. The new power systems sense that and consider it a fault tripping the breaker. After experiencing the problem at Hinkley in Savannah, with there help and a lot of research we figured out the relatively simple fix. Disconnect the monitoring panel from the Promarnier. It plugs into the side of the unit. The unit still operates but it no longer trips breakers. The new Galvanic Isolators do not test the power they way the old ones did.

Alan

[James Power]

Thanks for the reply s. Yup ABYC changed their recommendations on installing self monitoring isolators to help with the issue. Reason I'm asking is there is a 34 in Manhattan that has disconnected the isolator, fuses and control panel but still trips the pedistal when he switches on the A / B combiner.

[duetto]

could it be a wiring issue that went undetected under the old wiring std?

[AlanH]

I am no electrical person but have they tried plugging shore power into the "B" input with the combiner off? If that trips the power then at least you know the problem in definitely in the B side and not the combiner or a combination of A and B together.

[James Power]

Thanks for the responses gentlemen. Will pass the suggestions on to the owner.