ground mounted solar pnls

J

joel hall

Member
should you pull a ground wire from the panels to the inverter i think not but what are everyone's thoughts could be a good path for lighting to a 7k dollar inverter?

Joel
 
C

Carultch

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
Not only should you, you have to. An equipment grounding conductor (EGC) is required to connect the metal frames and all metal racking, to the inverter, which itself has an equipment grounding conductor, that is ultimately connected to the service grounding system, and grounding electrode. It is common that the racking integrates the grounding connection to each panel, so you don't need a wire to run to each individual panel, but you still have at least one ground wire from the racking to the inverter, or your metal wiring method serving the same purpose.

The purpose of an EGC, is to provide a return path to the source for any faults. Unless you have a purely non-metal system, with all plastic and/or wood racking, you have to provide an EGC.
 
H

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
Mike Holt has a continuing education module that is good if you install solar, but if you’re not into it, it’s like watching paint dry. I only took it in case I have to go behind someone.
 
electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
joel hall said:
420 volts to the inverter
Click to expand...
What is the AC system voltage and size? By 420 volts to you mean the DC string voltage and you are running DC back to the inverter? I have not found it worth running DC the distance despite the higher voltage. I put the inverter at the array and run an AC feeder (or service conductors often using 230.40 exception #3) to the array. We've done a few at 700', and just did a 25kw @ about 500 feet. Just never had the math for running strings back work out.
 
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