Grounding panels

11 Posts

Apr 20, 2009 03:41 pm

I am trying to find out the ground wiring sizes for a roof mounted array. Is the frame ground also the lighting ground, if not does the ground wire run ( in my case) inside the conduet or separately. I find lots of info on voltage drop but very little on ground. At present my ground wire #8 goes through the conduet, the disconnect(with lighting arrester) charge controller, circuit breaker to the lighting rod pounded into the ground next to my batteries. How did I do? What should I do if this is incorrect. Thanks for any and all help with this

Dennis M

15 Posts

Apr 21, 2009 09:26 pm

Re: Grounding panels

Usually code requires that the ground wire be as big as or bigger than the largest conductor in the system usually a #6 is what they will want to see. It also has to do with the voltage of the system. If the system exceeds 50 volts (125% of the open circuit voltage of the PV array) then the negative conductor has to be grounded. On a roof mounted system ground fault protection is required. If you post your Email address I will send you a PDF of the NEC.

Charles Harte

11 Posts

Apr 22, 2009 08:42 am

Re: Grounding panels

Thanks for your reply. If I am using 1/0 wire from the panels to the controller do I need to run that as my ground, and most important does that also work for lighting protection or do I need to run a separate cable for that. Thanks Pharte76 @ comcast.net

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Grounding panels

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