Solar: To Ground the panels or NOT to ground the panels?

dewey02 wrote:

Great! Another person who appreciates the art of PDQ Bach. II first saw the professor do a performance at Purdue Univ. back in the 1970's, and have been a fan ever since!

Hi dewey02,

Send me a private message, please.

positive ground controller has the + in/out (including + load terminal) of the controller tied together internally and uses the neg for regulation. Positives all have the same potential.

vise versa

If you want to use the load terminals' timed feature with a positive ground controller that has the batt neg tied to chassis then you can not use the chassis with the load, you would need a neg return wire to the controller load terminal.

The panel pigtails go to the controller, not to the battery. Some solar controllers are "positive ground". They can be used in an RV that is "negative grounded" at the battery to chassis. I have had that as a set-up, no problem.

Not sure that would be true if the panel frames were grounded to the RV chassis.

Mr Wiz posted something about how that works in the controller for which "side" is the variable, but I forget the details.

What is there to ground? The cells are tightly contained in their plastic film and cannot leak out. The frames are not electrified ever.. It is just the wires coming out of the panels that are the most open to anything happening where a short could occur, and one of those is grounded to the negative battery stud, which might be grounded to the chassis. If you had a 12v+ short to the frame (for those using frames vs the flexible panels) then what happens? you get low voltage 12v passing through you that you may not feel? At this point the panel is ruined probably, so what is there to protect?-just curious

pianotuna wrote:
no need to ground.

Art of the Ground Round PDQ Bach

Great! Another person who appreciates the art of PDQ Bach. II first saw the professor do a performance at Purdue Univ. back in the 1970's, and have been a fan ever since!

Ductape, can you suggest a benefit of having the chassis and or earth and panel frame at the same potential? or how to do this with flex panels that do not have metal frames?

All my installations have been inherently grounded because I mount them screwed to the metal roof trusses. There is no downside to ensuring zero potential voltage between the PV frames and other metal rooftop components.

Thank you all!!!

no need to ground.

Art of the Ground Round PDQ Bach

The Renogy tech is correct, no need to ground the frames.