Hopefully I posted in the right forums, I'm hoping some of the users did the same conversion and had to deal with the same setup and questions like this one. Little background story: converting sailboat from diesel to electric motor. Ended up like everyone else buying 20 cells from Amy, with 16 for 48v propulsion bank and 4 to replace my house bank.
Did test build with 12v 4 cell bank, all works and running great.
Just finished 48v bank and connected it to my solar 400w array via Midnite Solar MPPT and small breaker box to be able to shut off on both sides of the MPPT.
Now I'm in the process of removing diesel engine and of course I see some grounding green wires going back to the panel which I think is connected to AC side ground bus bar. After removing diesel engine do I just connect that green wire to the metal mounting brackets of the electric motor and then maybe follow that wire and connect to the grounding screws on MPPT case and small breaker box? Right now I have no grounding wire going from any of those.
Researching grounding online, first, seems like I'm supposed to connect AC ground bar to the negative on DC side so both DC current and AC current have same ground. I don't think mine are connected since I don't see actual wire connecting the main negative DC bar and ground AC bar and they about 8" apart. So do I just connect 8 or 10 gauge green wire from DC negative bar to AC ground bar?
Also, electric motor mentioned casually that they recommend connecting 48v bank DC negative to 12v bank negative for grounding purposes also. Both banks are completely separate and 48v bank doesn't even go to the DC electric panel because it only being used/will be used as a propulsion bank. So again, do I just run 8 gauge green wire from negative to main DC panel negative which runs off the 12v bank? And again, if I connect that negative to AC ground I guess that would mean 48v bank is grounded too now?
I apologize for a long questions but I was hoping someone on these forums had to deal with this on their boat, since I see more and more people doing conversions out there on sailboats and most of the time seems like they end up using same cells , though really cells don't matter or what battery they used, this is more of a common sense grounding. Just trying to figure out how to ground the system properly or even if I need to do that.
What made me questions my grounding is that not having AC ground connected to DC negative on the AC/DC electrical panel and also as of now I have not galvanic isolator which I should be installing in a few days once I receive the part.
Thank you for any advice you can give me.
Did test build with 12v 4 cell bank, all works and running great.
Just finished 48v bank and connected it to my solar 400w array via Midnite Solar MPPT and small breaker box to be able to shut off on both sides of the MPPT.
Now I'm in the process of removing diesel engine and of course I see some grounding green wires going back to the panel which I think is connected to AC side ground bus bar. After removing diesel engine do I just connect that green wire to the metal mounting brackets of the electric motor and then maybe follow that wire and connect to the grounding screws on MPPT case and small breaker box? Right now I have no grounding wire going from any of those.
Researching grounding online, first, seems like I'm supposed to connect AC ground bar to the negative on DC side so both DC current and AC current have same ground. I don't think mine are connected since I don't see actual wire connecting the main negative DC bar and ground AC bar and they about 8" apart. So do I just connect 8 or 10 gauge green wire from DC negative bar to AC ground bar?
Also, electric motor mentioned casually that they recommend connecting 48v bank DC negative to 12v bank negative for grounding purposes also. Both banks are completely separate and 48v bank doesn't even go to the DC electric panel because it only being used/will be used as a propulsion bank. So again, do I just run 8 gauge green wire from negative to main DC panel negative which runs off the 12v bank? And again, if I connect that negative to AC ground I guess that would mean 48v bank is grounded too now?
I apologize for a long questions but I was hoping someone on these forums had to deal with this on their boat, since I see more and more people doing conversions out there on sailboats and most of the time seems like they end up using same cells , though really cells don't matter or what battery they used, this is more of a common sense grounding. Just trying to figure out how to ground the system properly or even if I need to do that.
What made me questions my grounding is that not having AC ground connected to DC negative on the AC/DC electrical panel and also as of now I have not galvanic isolator which I should be installing in a few days once I receive the part.
Thank you for any advice you can give me.