Thanks for these videos. I’ve watched all of them and read all the comments. I appreciate your tackling of this topic and your patience in helping others. I’m still working on the grounding issue with my own system that have the same inverters. I’m still learning, but on the brink to an epiphany.
Great videos, thank you. I have a SPF 3000TL LVM and no where in unit or in the user manual does it mentioning installing an Earth ground. There is no grounding lug/point. So where does the ground come from?
I have the same inverter (just one) and when I plug the AC in of that inverter, into my house power for utility power when needed to charge and run the loads, My GFI's in the bathroom trip. If I unplug the wall power to the inverter, the GFI's set and hold. It sounds like I need to remove those screws if Im using AC in to charge the battery. Does that sound like I'm on the right track to you ?
This is an interesting one, and sorry for the novel... While the bond could be the culprit, I think there may be another one here, voltage spikes\drops. A few questions jump out right away, 1-Are the GFCI outlets that trip on the same circuit that you are charging the inverter from? 2-Do they trip right away or is it random? 3-What amp circuit are you charging the inverters from? I cannot remember if the neutral and ground are bonded on the AC in on the inverter, they are on the AC out for sure. First, I would check that bond with multimeter, make sure the inverters are on and outputting voltage (the bond is not active until then, but obviously be careful doing this). If there is a bond there you may want to remove it since you will be bonding at two locations in that case and may be creating alternate paths for current to flow, this may or may not solve the issue. The other issue is that these inverters really require a 40a circuit for the AC in, if you are charging from a 15/20a circuit aiming to charge batteries and sustain inverter load you are likely underpowered, this could cause fluctuations in voltage which may trip the outlets. This happened to me on grid power with voltage spikes coming from a substation down the road. I have a sense monitor which registered the voltage spikes. The workaround here (what I do) is to not use the AC in and instead use a battery charger (which is plugged into grid AC) but goes direct to the battery and is designed to work within 15-20amps. Hope this helps!
My understanding is that if there is a fault somewhere and a ground ends up carrying current, it will do so back to the main panel at which point the bond will allow the circuit to complete via the bond with neutral. Having the bond in the panel ensures that current will flow back to the panel on a predicted path (normally neutral or ground in case of fault) and then complete the circuit. If there are multiple ground eutral bonds it creates a variety of paths that current could take, and have potentially dangerous and unintended current flows.
If you have 100amp service to your house, all breakers past main need to be below 100amps to function aside from the main, if breaker is above that 100amps, it will not trip even if there is a short.
That is a good question. I will probably ground the panel frames and the lightening protect to the same rod. My system is off grid so I do not need to worry about a ground loop on AC in.
Hi, i live in europe and have a epever 5kw inverter charger. when the inverter is on, there is a current going INTO the solar pannel frames. around 50VAC. this is so weird. is it posible this is because of the Ground N bond inside the inverter? we only have 240v one fase comming frome the inverter. thanks 👍
@@lifewithlonsi hi thanks for your reply. i cheched every thing again and all is good. the only thing i can think of is. i have the ground wire contected to the ground in my house. mayby making a new grounding rod next to the inverter wil fixt the problem?
@@scottcharles6918 HI, thanks for youre reply. what do you mean a bad DC connector? the solar mc4 connector? they are fine. or do you mean somewhere in the inverter? thanks
@DamageBen @DamageBen if you mean you have 50v dc on the panel frame then that usually means you have a circuit to earth somewhere in the array. Mc4 connectors that are left touching the roof for instance will eventually suffer from water ingress and make a cct to earth on one of the dc legs going to your inverter. Even when they look ok they can still be bad. If you don't have any solar test equipment then you can try splitting the array into smaller strings until you lose the fault. Quite often the home runs that go from array to inverter will be low RISO if over 5-10 years old
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Thanks for these videos. I’ve watched all of them and read all the comments. I appreciate your tackling of this topic and your patience in helping others. I’m still working on the grounding issue with my own system that have the same inverters. I’m still learning, but on the brink to an epiphany.
Glad to hear these helped! When designing a system everything seems so straightforward until you get to grounding :)
Great videos, thank you. I have a SPF 3000TL LVM and no where in unit or in the user manual does it mentioning installing an Earth ground. There is no grounding lug/point. So where does the ground come from?
Do you have voltage between live and ground outputs?
I have the same inverter (just one) and when I plug the AC in of that inverter, into my house power for utility power when needed to charge and run the loads, My GFI's in the bathroom trip. If I unplug the wall power to the inverter, the GFI's set and hold. It sounds like I need to remove those screws if Im using AC in to charge the battery. Does that sound like I'm on the right track to you ?
This is an interesting one, and sorry for the novel... While the bond could be the culprit, I think there may be another one here, voltage spikes\drops. A few questions jump out right away, 1-Are the GFCI outlets that trip on the same circuit that you are charging the inverter from? 2-Do they trip right away or is it random? 3-What amp circuit are you charging the inverters from? I cannot remember if the neutral and ground are bonded on the AC in on the inverter, they are on the AC out for sure. First, I would check that bond with multimeter, make sure the inverters are on and outputting voltage (the bond is not active until then, but obviously be careful doing this). If there is a bond there you may want to remove it since you will be bonding at two locations in that case and may be creating alternate paths for current to flow, this may or may not solve the issue. The other issue is that these inverters really require a 40a circuit for the AC in, if you are charging from a 15/20a circuit aiming to charge batteries and sustain inverter load you are likely underpowered, this could cause fluctuations in voltage which may trip the outlets. This happened to me on grid power with voltage spikes coming from a substation down the road. I have a sense monitor which registered the voltage spikes. The workaround here (what I do) is to not use the AC in and instead use a battery charger (which is plugged into grid AC) but goes direct to the battery and is designed to work within 15-20amps. Hope this helps!
Do you know the purpose of connecting the ground and neutral together in the main panel?
My understanding is that if there is a fault somewhere and a ground ends up carrying current, it will do so back to the main panel at which point the bond will allow the circuit to complete via the bond with neutral. Having the bond in the panel ensures that current will flow back to the panel on a predicted path (normally neutral or ground in case of fault) and then complete the circuit. If there are multiple ground
eutral bonds it creates a variety of paths that current could take, and have potentially dangerous and unintended current flows.
It allows the breaker to trip and kill the line, stopping the flow of the current.
If you have 100amp service to your house, all breakers past main need to be below 100amps to function aside from the main, if breaker is above that 100amps, it will not trip even if there is a short.
with a Lightning Protection System installed will you bond it together with the solar system grounding?
That is a good question. I will probably ground the panel frames and the lightening protect to the same rod. My system is off grid so I do not need to worry about a ground loop on AC in.
Hi,
i live in europe and have a epever 5kw inverter charger. when the inverter is on, there is a current going INTO the solar pannel frames. around 50VAC. this is so weird.
is it posible this is because of the Ground N bond inside the inverter? we only have 240v one fase comming frome the inverter. thanks
👍
Well that is not good at all! I wouldn't think the bond by itself would do that, I would check all the wiring. Something is definitely not right.
@@lifewithlonsi hi thanks for your reply. i cheched every thing again and all is good. the only thing i can think of is.
i have the ground wire contected to the ground in my house. mayby making a new grounding rod next to the inverter wil fixt the problem?
That sounds like an earth fault, probably a bad DC connector
@@scottcharles6918 HI, thanks for youre reply. what do you mean a bad DC connector? the solar mc4 connector? they are fine. or do you mean somewhere in the inverter? thanks
@DamageBen @DamageBen if you mean you have 50v dc on the panel frame then that usually means you have a circuit to earth somewhere in the array. Mc4 connectors that are left touching the roof for instance will eventually suffer from water ingress and make a cct to earth on one of the dc legs going to your inverter. Even when they look ok they can still be bad.
If you don't have any solar test equipment then you can try splitting the array into smaller strings until you lose the fault.
Quite often the home runs that go from array to inverter will be low RISO if over 5-10 years old