I am very technical, and there is no shortage of advice out there on this, but for me to have any confidence, I need to understand the whys more than code. I will be connecting to the panel using the standard SquareD lockout method. The following outlines my thoughts. I would like those who work in this area more to correct flaws in my thinking along with their reasons. Grounding: 1. Neutral conductors from the power company are grounded to prevent inadvertent potentials on conductive surfaces of equipment, enclosures and cable conduits and raceways. The transformer at the pole has its neutral grounded. 2. Neutral is also grounded at the panel. The circuits you use in your building come originate at the panel where the 2 hots and neutral come in. The neutral and ground wires in the house both tie to the same bus bar and the ground rod also ties to this bus bar. 3. Generators come set up with floating neutrals (neutral not connected to the frame) or bonded neutrals (neutral is connected to the frame) and you can usually configure them either way usually. My generator has a bonded neutral as I've confirmed with a multi-meter by measure the resistance between the frame and the long blade on the 120v and 240v receptacles. 4. The 4th wire in a 4-wire generator plug is grounded to the generator frame, whether or not there is a bonded neutral. 5. In houses where you are feeding off a panel, you need the neutral bonded to ground at the panel in order for the GFCI outlets to work properly. 6. On a job site where you are not connecting to the panel of the building, the generator becomes the panel, and you want a bonded neutral and a ground rod, especially if it has GFCI outlets that you want to work as designed. However, some say that using floating neutral at a job site is actually safer. Aside from the GFCI issue, that is logical to me in a way, but I would like to hear any opposing viewpoints. 7. I've read, if a generator with GFCI outlets, and the neutral is bonded at the panel AND generator, it will cause GFCI's to immediately trip because they will sense the current on the ground conductor. Question: How, when the ground is not even part of the equation? I've heard because when it is bonded to ground 2 places, it creates a parallel neutral path somehow? The transformer that feeds a house panel is grounded at the pole. How is this any different when the generator is supplying power being grounded? 8. One popular suggestion that is not according to code is to wire the inlet on the house to the panel in the normal way EXCEPT, don't connect the the ground wire. This floats the generator as far as the house is concerned, while the generator still has a bonded neutral, and GFCIs don't trip. That means a bonded neutral generator can be used both for job site and standby without an changes to the generator or cord. They say the risk is very small and the main drawback is it is not strictly to code. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

Sorry if this is common knowledge - I'm not that knowledgeable about electric, and I can't find simple answers to my particular questions anywhere. OK, so I know that in a kitchen, for example, all the countertop outlets need GFCI protection. And I know that if they are all on the same circuit, you only need one actual GFCI outlet (with the test/reset buttons), the others tied in on the load side of that first one will be protected (i.e., if that first outlet is tripped, power is cut to those downstream outlets). This means that if an appliance plugged into one of those tied-in outlets has some sort of water event, that particular outlet will trip off and protect the person from shock, correct? (I assume yes, otherwise it doesn't make any sense...) Does the protection work "backwards"? (i.e., will power be cut to all the outlets on that circuit back to the first GFCI outlet?)