Grounding your SOLAR PANELS? 🤔 You Better watch this First! *KNOW DC/Inverter POWER is not Utility

**This channel may earn a commission from links offered at no cost to you.

😍Full DIY WIND POWER PARTS LIST
*Diversion load resistors

*Joxн Даниел 2019 Production Idaho USA
*PrepperMountain USA ForcePowerInstalls

HYBRID WIND TURBINE GENERATOR CONTROLLER HOME POWER

*RELATED VIDEOS
Controllers from OPC® Olympic Power Controls® 2008

**This channel may earn a commission from links offered at no cost to you.

#PokyBuildsIt #offgridlife #earthgrounding

[joytrucker]

Thanks! That's for Kira. I want to see more of her.

[xboxice]

you know i came to find out if i had to ground my x4 260w panels, but im watching and in ahhh the father daughter relationship, im a father of a 15 year old and she hardly talk to me:( i was watching and actually forgot about why i was here. God bless you both.

[timguishard]

The reason for "bonding" non current carrying metallic components to "ground" is to equalize the electrical potential to ground in the event of a short circuit inside the equipment. If you come in contact with those now energized components, you could die. This could save your life. As someone who has nearly died from an electrocution due to a missing bond to the ground, I am fanatic for proper grounding and bonding.

I do agree with you relating to rebar for a ground rod. I would refer you to your local electrical code to determine if rebar and what diameter is accepted in your locality.

Lightning will destroy almost anything. There is no grounding system that is truly effective against a direct lightning strike. Directing lightning away from your solar panels, as you described, is a valid point.

BTW: the metal on my panels/wind turbines and neutral conductors have been bonded to ground rods for over 20 years. There are no failures yet due to lightning, even though there has been lightning in the area multiple times. I just opened the box, so I'll probably get hit next week! 16:57

[BugCrushr]

You are correct, The DC circuit (+ and - ) are unbonded and doesn't require a 4:32 ground BUT You most definitely want your panels bonded together and all bonded to ground for safety reasons. Lightning needs a circuit back to the ground. If your panels are not bonded to ground and lightning strikes it will find a way back to ground through your dc wiring most likely and is a substantially greater hazard for the occupants inside. Grounding your panels on your house will protect you inside as it creates a faraday cage of sorts around your house.

[powoxi]

It has a special quality that makes it different. I'm really impressed.

[edwardutter]

It is good to see you all up and about. I was thinking about the grounding issue during a Texas lightning storm yesterday morning. There are plenty of natural lightning rods growing around me. The spark gap thing sounds like it might be okay. I am not an expert on this so I will just watch and read and try to learn. Thank you.

[narrowstripsawing]

I mounted 12 solar panels on a shipping container. I'm grounding the rack system just because it is higher than the container but was thinking the same about putting something taller close by to attract the lighting. The container is situated between our house and a field. Thanks for the video!

[ralphgrizzle]

Best line: Never held a screwdriver unless it was to stir orange juice and vodka 🤣

[ThisRandomUsername]

The thing is your dc wires will then be your shortest path to ground through your inverter and through you who is using some equipment. You should have surge protectors on both the + and - lines on your panels. You then ground your frame so that that is the shorter path to ground. Of course you should include lightning rods at a higher level than your panels *with its own ground rod*

[solarvida-noqn]

great vid, good humor for morning coffee, thanks kindly from great White North, off grid for 25 years, ungrounded at present, after I got my permit, great thought on the lightning attractor. I shut my batteries off if its close

[beesknees]

wow. That makes so much sense. I always wondered why I can get in my car barefoot in water after washing it and start it up and not get shocked.

[shaunnightfire]

Thanks for finally putting out reasonable advice on this. Foldable ground solar panels never have a ground point so I never understood why so many insist on grounding their panels.

[ben-yinh]

The best grounding video I saw. and i went over few dozen of them. Using a regular steel bar make a lot of sense. Thank you for this important information/

[tomasvanhoof]

AFAIK, there are 2 different reasons for grounding: (a) for functionality reasons (AC transformer, electrical wire fence, ...) and (b) for safety.
With (a) you connect one of the wires to the ground which acts as an extra conductor, and with (b) you connect metal frame parts to an earthing rod or loop.
With (b) in place, you prevent people from being shocked when touching the metal frame if a damaged DC or AC cable also touches that frame. Without grounding, the electricity goes from the defective cable via the frame through your body to the ground, which can be deadly.
With the frame grounded, the pathway of least resistance is via the ground wire to the ground, so when you touch the frame then, almost no or very little current will go through your body. As well as the situation that the Ground Fault Current Interuptor can detect the dangerous situation and disconnect the electricity, indicating there is a dangerous situation that should be corrected. Or in case of solar panels, the inverter detects that there is an insulation fault that should be looked in to.
PV systems are being grounded for protection of your loved ones, and other people.
I'm no expert, only an apprentice, the experts can correct or agree with me.

[briankober]

I think you make a good argument regarding attracting lightning to a different ground source other than through your modules and houses grounding system. I.e. erecting a large lightning rod or grounding your houses via an existing perimeter fence as these would make for a safer path to discharge a lighting bolt around a houses property.
With that said, for many homes in the U.S. these methods of handling lightning surges just are not available. Some houses do not have an existing fence they can turn into a lightning attractor/arrestor and building a large lightning rod taller than the house is just not feasible as there often isn’t any yard space.

Although at times it seems the NEC is pedaling new codes to sell additional electrical components and installation, I do not think at its core that it is its purpose. ESPECIALLY with regard to grounding codes the purpose is to continue to make residential electrical circuits safer. In fact, building a large lighting rod or creating a grounding fence as you have suggested would In the end be more expensive to the homeowner(for most houses) than bonding solar modules together as part of a homes lighting protection.

You are correct in saying a circuit does not need a ground to operate, the modules will produce power without a ground. However, the grounding conductor is installed for use in worst case scenarios such as a lightning surge BUT ALSO for shorts within a circuit or static electricity build up. These problems are all best solved via a ground. To divert unwanted current quickly rather than exist as unwanted voltage running across the module’s frames.

You mention that vehicles and tractors are not grounded to earth. Of course they are not, having a constant connection to earth in all motor vehicles across the country is not feasible. However if it was I bet it would be required. Now consider trucks that move hazardous materials, static buildup within the truck due to normal operation can ignite flammable materials and this has been known for many years. Sometimes these trucks DO have a connection to earth via a chain dragged along the ground to dissipate the voltage differential.

Perhaps for off grid systems or systems in dispersed residential settings a better grounding system should be in place than using the house ands its infrastructure(solar modules) to handle lightning surges. But in most cases, congested neighborhoods would be better off with each house able to handle a surge independently. The modules on the roof could be damaged by lightning and if no path to earth is created the surge could burn up the wiring of the solar system causing a fire. The goal is NOT to attract lightning(even if this is an unwanted byproduct). Lightning is an unpredictable energy source and it is best for a house to just be as prepared as it can be.

[ronwest]

Does an inverter feeding a breaker box need the box to be bonded? and a sub panel to that be left unbonded? The breaker box and the wind turbine are the only things I figure need grounding. three wire to a rectifier. If converting to DC does the turbine need a ground still? That was a really good video and thanks for answering many comments. It was informative reading.

[ILBIS]

Hi John. You got a point but sometimes the inverters get A/C energy from the Grid and that is why i guess they should be grounded.

[twadimaadafuffa]

Dad you have many solar panels but your windmill is beautiful (very informative video)

[BryanSeigneur]

I thank you for this but I see knee jerk dismissal of expertise or the civil service used by lobbyists to defend monopoly or consumer abuse or pollution a million times. I am learning from you and that's a great gift, I thank you again.

I've listened some more and it just keeps getting better! God bless you for explaining like I'm your own child!

[FishFish]

Thank you for the precious info.
I have an important question if you could help me with it.
I have an off-grid inverter that has a voltage of 60V between Neutral and Ground of the inverter AC output.
I am new in solar systems... I hear that this voltage should be 0V in order for RCD breakers to work properly.

After some research, some say that a way to solve this issue is to bridge ground and neutral on the electrical panel and ground them both.

Now I can see you say that inverters don't need to be grounded, but if there is a voltage between neutral and ground and you need protection from an RCD breaker, a way must be found...

I'm actually looking for a solution... What's your opinion regarding neutral/ground bridging on the inverter AC output?
Thankful for any kind of reply 👍