Insulation Resistance Testing Techniques

How do you test to ensure the insulation of your conductors in your solar PV system has not been damaged during installation and is providing adequate insulation? If you’re just hooking an insulation resistance tester up to your damaged conductor, you may get a false reading.

This episode of Tech Tips explores this and shares some tips on how to use your insulation resistance tester in a way that gives you useful results.

For more episodes of Tech Tips, our video series that shares all you need to know about maintaining your solar system, be sure to subscribe to our channel!

* The testing in this video is performed by certified electrical professionals in a controlled environment. This video is intended for informational purposes only. Only properly trained viewers should use the featured equipment for testing. Untrained viewers should not, in any way, attempt to recreate or re-enact this test, as doing so by the untrained user could result in severe harm to those involved and/or damage to the system and/or its components. Contact Paradise Energy Solutions or a trained professional if you need testing services such as those described and do not have the proper training and certification.

Megger® is a registered trademark of Megger Instruments Limited.*

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Paradise Energy Solutions is a family-owned, full-service solar energy company. Since 2009, our team of 90+ solar experts has installed over 1,500 solar systems for businesses, farmers, and homeowners throughout the mid-Atlantic region of the USA.

In addition to providing solar and battery system design and installation services, we have a team of solar maintenance technicians that diagnose and fix solar systems from small residential to large utility-scale systems and everything in between.

[thesolarenergychannel]

Paradise Energy offers valuable resources for your solar journey. 👇

[davidhamilton]

EXcellent video, very descriptive. The only thing is I WISH you guys had wires for a normal 3 phase system . PV cable was adequate I guess.

[wootexclusive]

So this shows a possible fault in testing results. We constantly have fluctuating water levels in our pipes, no matter what we do to try to keep it out. So this is absolutely a real possibility.

Im actually looking into how to find the fault/nick/comprised insulation in a service wire inside burried pvc. Ws used a spit fire which works like a meghor but it sends a pulse which then can detect a fault on the surface by probes. We decided to run a new wire. But I'd like to find other testing options to get us right on top of the issue more efficiently.

[joshuacarter]

Thank you I need to show this to my superintendent. They wanted our cables megged that are in a cablebus but if something got nicked while pulling, unless the bad spot is still touching the tray, the megger doesn't show.. They told me to hook the positive to the cable, negative to a completely separate ground wire..

[thebuggy]

This test is very realistic.
Is the rule of thumb 1 Megaohm for every 1000 V, but at least 1 Megaohm still up to date? A value under 2 Megaohms is always critical.

[jaykemm]

That's neat. Could an electrically conductive gas be used?

[exile]

Question would performing this test cause the conduit to be energized momentarily if say i test the line wire in respect to ground or nuetral to ground or line/ neutral to ground?

[brandonw]

Thanks...trying to find a bad wire out of 12 cramed through a 1 inch conduit 🙃

[caribbeangcllc]

hi, pls model of meg or picture close

[rafiqhatim]

Muhammad rafiq electric super vezer work K S A ELECTRIC COMPANY