Power Station Or Generator Wont Power Your Furnace? Try This!

This might work but just because something works doesn't mean it should be done that way. A portable power source should not be grounded to the building. The reason the equipment isn't working is because it needs a bonded neutral and the inverter uses a floating neutral. The solution is to buy or make a bonding plug to connect the neutral to ground and plug it into one of the outlets on the portable power source. Keep up the great videos!

If you're going to do this, just clip the black and white wires and only solder/connect the green ones. Ideally just clipping the prongs will be sufficient, but not connecting the black and white wires will make doubly sure that there is no chance of back feeding power.

Kudos to you for NOT calling it a solar powered generator.

I solved that issue by making sure the furnace itself was still grounded when the pigtail was unplugged from the outlet. That solved the ground reference difference since the ground in the generator cord is being utilized for that. Great videos.

pretty awesome fix. havent lost power yet this winter cause lines are mostly buried around here. in the rural area lines are surrounded by trees and when the winds come up everything becomes chaotic.

Thank you for all you do man!! Your videos are SUPER helpful. HVAC was a mystery to me before learning stuff from you. And you are probably going to save a lot of lives with these hacks. So thanks

Thank You so much We used the generator power cord and plug set up to power my heater in the last storm

Super video to add to the series! I’m hoping to get my high efficiency furnace retrofitted with your earlier switched outlet hack so I can use a battery pack during an outage. I think I’ll take the advice of another commenter and just connect the ground wire and not clip the prongs f I need this hack

Thank you for the video! I appreciate the time and effort you invest in your channel!! Question… The furnaces of today are considered an inductive load with the motor for the blower? I’ve read it’s not a good idea to use a battery power station to run heavy inductive loads (refrigerator/furnace) as the inductive load startups will far shorten the lifespan of the power station. Is there a better inverter (and transformer? ) to use to power the furnace in a grid down situation?

Hello, your videos are awesome! Thanks for teaching all us!! Question: for the 2ton system at 50 degrees (f) ambient temperature what is a normal working pressures range?

Wouldn't bonding the Ground and Neutral at the power source where it connects to Power Distribution Unit (PDU) be a better approach?

Like others have said - This only works because you're getting the effect of the ground/neutral bond in your main panel. A better way to do this would be a ground/neutral bond adapter at the power bank. Much simpler device too.

Hi, thanks for your videos. I am trying to hook mine up like yours . I have a new Firman 2000i generator just purchased from Costco, a 70 btu Goodman furnace. Hooked it up like you have . It runs the exhaust motor then lights the igniter orange then shuts down and won’t light the flame. Tried many times , no go. If I do the ground hookup like you have shown, do you think that will work. Furnace was made in 2007. I really enjoy your videos. Please respond if you can. I am from mid Ontario, Canada.

Great idea. These high efficiency machines can be too smart for a basic hookup.

Have you confirmed the Bluetti Power Station has a floating neutral? Meaning the neutral and the earth ground are not bonded? Likely it is not bonded, I cannot find the spec, but this will explain why the furnace won't work properly. Yes your ground wire idea has merit, but there is a much better way to implement rather than cutting the neutral and hot prongs. Many modern furnaces as you know rely on "flame rectification" and the neutral must be referenced to earth in order to work properly. I've seen furnaces only turn on the blower and fire the flame momentarily only to shut off because of an improper bond to earth at the incoming neutral. You are on the right track! Great content!

Love the Florida Style jeans and Flip Flops.

As always great Vid brother.

I tried this several weeks ago after getting an eight Led warning code of bad ground on my furnace generator setup and it did not work. Turns out many modern furnaces expect to see the ground and white wires connected at tour breaker box. This is not present on the generator. I made a cable that goes between my generator and furnace that ties ground to white and IT WORKS! Hope that helps the people that tgis video still didn't fix the issue.

I have a new furnace with a Nest thermostat. The thermostat would call for heat but nothing happened when running off the AC200 MAX. Tried an older simple thermostat and it worked fine. Turned out it was the Nest that didn't like the floating ground of the AC200 MAX. I added a neutral/ground bonding plug to the AC200 MAX and now the Nest is happy and the furnace runs fine.

Funny thing is a natural gas pipe should already be bonded (by new code) although a propane line probably won't be. Also, the 2x4 electrical box on the furnace is screwed to the cabinet so there should be a ground bond to the house system (via the BX / Romex) already, if all the grounds are tied together in that box.... as they should be. IOW, your short pigtail on the furnace should ring out to house ground. If not, that's where the problem is. Add a short piece of wire between the pigtail and that outlet ground at the 2x4 box and skip the rest.