Chuck,
In a home electrical system there is zero volts between ground (green)
and common (white), the larger of the two slots. They're attached to a
common bar in your circuit breaker box. There is 120 volts between either
ground or common (neutral) and the line wire (black), the smaller slot. This
is know as a grounded system. A lot of industrial systems are ungrounded.
There is about 60 volts between ground and either the neutral or the line
side, there is 120 volts between neutral and the line wire. Sounds like you
might have an ungrounded system.
Paul


"Chuck Baier" wrote in message
om...
I have just recently purchased a Honda EU1000 generator to use at the
dock when the power goes out during storm conditions. In using a
circuit tester I have found the unit has power on both the hot side
and the neutral side of the plug. This sets off the reverse polarity
light on my AC panel. Is this normal or do I have a problem with this
unit. Thanks, Chuck

There should be NO interconnect at all between the generator and shore
power. If shore power is live your generator would provide an
interesting fireworks show. If shore power is out you could kill the
linemen working on it who are not expecting power to come the "wrong
direction". If you are going to plug a boat into the generator and
have it mimic shore power the neutral and the green ground wire would
be connected at the generator and the generator frame would also be
connected to these wires and a good ground. It sounds like the
generator is letting the neutral "float" in relation to ground. I
really don't know enough about the Honda generator to tell you if this
is dangerous or if grounding it the way I described might also be
dangerous.

Joe

ps - If it were possible to wire boats with a floating AC system I
think it would be much better, but we are stuck with the grounded
system.