I have an Elite V200 on order which I plan to use with our campervan when off grid.
At least initially, rather than modifying the vehicle (which is new and under warranty), my plan is to use the Bluetti via the normal external mains hook up BUT turn off the breakers for the high current / unwanted devices ( electric heating, electric water heater, in most cases the onboard battery charger).
This will leave the Bluetti supplying 230V AC to the microwave, sockets etc while the on board Lithium battery supplies 12V for lighting, etc inc the fridge.
However, I understand the Bluetti has a ‘floating’ output.
The onboard system has an RCD which relies on the source being E / N bonded.
Previously, when using a generator with a floating output, I made a ‘special’ lead - clearly marked etc- used only to bond the generator output.
What, if anything, have others done to address this issue with Bluettis?
@G8OSN
BLUETTI units use a floating ground, and the neutral and ground wires are not bonded together.
You can solve it by purchasing a neutral-ground bonding plug (readily available online).
I am successfully charging my EV from a Bluetti AC-180P using an IC-CPD (aka “granny charger”) without using an E/N bonding plug.
Dunno what’s in there, and I’m not gonna reverse-engineer it… but I’m guessing it’s not a fully-floating earth. Perhaps it has a 1 MΩ connection between earth and neutral? My IC-CPD throws a fault when powered from an isolating tranny. Been there, done that. So I rewired that tranny to be a 3:2 autotransformer. Worked well for solar-trickle charging at 8A 150VAC from a wee 1.62kWp rooftop array!
tl;dr
I was prepared to make an E/N bonding plug; but I would have been nervous about plugging it into the second AC supply socket on my AC-180P because… well because, for all I know (which isn’t much!) this would create a hazard if I were charging my AC-180P from a wall socket. I had vague plans of putting a big red tape on my E/N bonding plug to “remind” me to remove it before recharging the AC-180P from mains power.
AFAIK no Amazon vendor – nor even any Ali Express vendor – sells E/N bonding plugs that’d fit into an AS/NZS 3112 wall socket. At a wild guess – any such plug would be considered a safety hazard that’d be gazetted, rather than one which could qualify for an SDOC (“supplier declaration of conformity”) with the NZ electrical code.
I’m in NZ. Born in the USA. Things are different here in NZ! In the USA, it seems that every exposed metal surface in a household is bonded to earth. That’s not done here in NZ.
In NZ, there’s exactly one earth-neutral tie per household. It’s called a MEN tie, and it’s in the main switchboard. Having a second tie is, I believe, an electrical hazard – because the RCDs (“residual current devices”) in NZ are referenced to the MEN-tied ground. I have a vague understanding that the NZ-style RCD is designed to trip much more rapidly than a US-style GFCI, because we have about twice the AC voltage so a quicker response is important… and anything that degrades the accuracy of the “functional earth” (FE) reference input to an RCD is gonna increase the hazard. Anyway that’s just my vague understanding… and I’m happy not to be using an E/N bonding plug on an IC-CPD which had faulted when supplied with power from an isolating 3:2 stepdown tranny.
I haven’t yet tested the DC input on the AC-180P but that could come in handy if I’m ever gonna be off-grid for more than a few days in my e-NV200 e-motorhome, because its rooftop 520Wp panel won’t be enough to keep its 7kWh leisure battery full…
@cthombor
Hi Clark, welcome to the forum!
Thank you for sharing your detailed experience and insights regarding EV charging and electrical safety in New Zealand. It’s clear that you’ve put a lot of thought into the implications of using different charging setups and the associated risks.
Your contributions help foster a safer and more informed community.
