Shocked by solar array: not grounded right?

Sterling9250 · May 30, 2024

I was being careless and I shocked myself with a solar arrray. No harm but a tingle. It was late in the evening and the amount was about 200 watts. There was no load connected and I accidentally touched both the positive and neutral at the same time.

Does this mean my system is not grounded correctly? Shouldn’t it have gone to the ground instead of through me?

Stephen InGeorgia · May 30, 2024

All depends. I'm no expert but it is very situationally based. Do you have pictures of the setup and exactly what you were doing? Also some nameplate data and it sounds weird, but what did you have on for shoes?

Brucey · May 30, 2024

Sterling9250 said:
I was being careless and I shocked myself with a solar arrray. No harm but a tingle. It was late in the evening and the amount was about 200 watts. There was no load connected and I accidentally touched both the positive and neutral at the same time.

Does this mean my system is not grounded correctly? Shouldn’t it have gone to the ground instead of through me?

Pretty sure a panel ground won't protect you from grabbing the negative and positive of a solar string and using yourself to complete the circuit.

kommando · May 30, 2024

The ground is to protect you from shorting out the frame to ground, touching neg and pos will shock you ground or no ground. Hi DC voltage is a lot more dangerous than Hi voltage AC so you need to be more careful or you may not be posting for much longer.

timselectric · May 30, 2024

Sterling9250 said:
I was being careless and I shocked myself with a solar arrray. No harm but a tingle. It was late in the evening and the amount was about 200 watts. There was no load connected and I accidentally touched both the positive and neutral at the same time.

Does this mean my system is not grounded correctly? Shouldn’t it have gone to the ground instead of through me?

If you meant positive and negative, you completed the circuit with your body.
Grounding has no bearing on this.

Sterling9250 · May 30, 2024

timselectric said:
If you meant positive and negative, you completed the circuit with your body.
Grounding has no bearing on this.

Thank you

Sterling9250 · May 30, 2024

kommando said:
The ground is to protect you from shorting out the frame to ground, touching neg and pos will shock you ground or no ground. Hi DC voltage is a lot more dangerous than Hi voltage AC so you need to be more careful or you may not be posting for much longer.

Agree!

DavidAmon · May 30, 2024

Be glad you are working residential solar and not commercial. DC voltages on my commercial 180 MW solar farm get up to 1500 volts pushing 200 Amps. That would fry the heart like an egg in a blast furnace. All techs on site are required to wear class 0 gloves when handling any PV wiring.

Bluedog225 · May 30, 2024

We don’t talk much about proper gloves. Seems we ought to.

DavidAmon · May 30, 2024

Bluedog225 said:
We don’t talk much about proper gloves. Seems we ought to.

For most residential you could probably get away with a good pair of goat skin gloves as I think they are good for 120 VAC and 150 VDC, but they can't have any damage. Once you go above that and up to 500 V you should start wearing class 00 rubber gloves and I always use protectors over my rubber gloves as the rubber is too easy to slice open on something sharp.

OffGridIdaho · May 30, 2024

Its not volts that kills you its amps. You can grab a spark plug coil at 30,000 V and it wont hurt you. It doesnt take too many amps to stop your heart, something like 1/10th amp can kill you. Those panels can pump out 8-14 amps so many times over what can kill. Be careful!

timselectric · May 30, 2024

It's pretty simple.
Don't work on live conductors.
Turn of and test, first.

Bluedog225 · May 30, 2024

I got a taste out there last week. 100 eff. High humidity. Full sun. All day. Barely able to read the multimeter in the sun. Testing panels and hooking up panels. Missed that the meter turns on to “AC” instead of “DC.” Tiny little section of the display. Have to check and change to DC every time. Easy to make a mistake.

Decided I would test my panels in daylight but do my hookups at night. My head’s in a better place when the sun isn’t baking my brains out.

And maybe some gloves as well. I’m just not the type to be an electrician.

Shocked by solar array: not grounded right?

Sterling9250

New Member

Stephen InGeorgia

New Member

Brucey

Solar Wizard

kommando

Solar Enthusiast

timselectric

If I can do it, you can do it.

Sterling9250

New Member

Sterling9250

New Member

DavidAmon

New Member

Bluedog225

Texas

DavidAmon

New Member

OffGridIdaho

Hobby Farm in N Idaho

timselectric

If I can do it, you can do it.

Bluedog225

Texas

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