AC voltage from lvx 6048 to a wire not connected to anything? 83V

[Brettw]

I'm assuming I have a short somewhere but I'm also a little stumped.
My solar arrays are 400ft from the house. I ran 5 wires through plastic conduit, 2 hot, 2 neutral and 1 ground. I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire even though they're not connected to the LVX 6048. I get voltage from L1 and L2 when touching all the other wires, the ground wire isn't connected to anything yet and I still get 120V. But just to test things out I also touched L1 and L2 to my garage door track and get 80V to 100V, then I grabbed a random 5ft piece of wire that isn't touching anything and get 83V.

Any help is appreciated?

I'm also getting DC voltage on the AC side of things. It travels through the ground and neutral.

Not sure what to do. Other than this the system is working good.

One other thing, I have 2 different solar arrays, one is 5520 watts, 6s 2p running on 2 wires down to the house to 1 LVX 6048. The other is 1440 watts, 6s running on the other 2 wires to a 2nd LVX 6048. When the sun comes out strong the small array cuts wattage power down to basically nothing (wondering if this is caused by a possible short described above) but when it's cloudy they both put out power and send charge to the batteries. Is this caused by a short between the wires or is the smaller PV array not able to push amps at the same time as the large array?
The large array can push 80+ amps when the sun is bright.

 

[Bud Martin]

I'm assuming I have a short somewhere but I'm also a little stumped.
My solar arrays are 400ft from the house. I ran 5 wires through plastic conduit, 2 hot, 2 neutral and 1 ground. I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire even though they're not connected to the LVX 6048. I get voltage from L1 and L2 when touching all the other wires, the ground wire isn't connected to anything yet and I still get 120V. But just to test things out I also touched L1 and L2 to my garage door track and get 80V to 100V, then I grabbed a random 5ft piece of wire that isn't touching anything and get 83V.

Any help is appreciated?

I'm also getting DC voltage on the AC side of things. It travels through the ground and neutral.

Not sure what to do. Other than this the system is working good.

One other thing, I have 2 different solar arrays, one is 5520 watts, 6s 2p running on 2 wires down to the house to 1 LVX 6048. The other is 1440 watts, 6s running on the other 2 wires to a 2nd LVX 6048. When the sun comes out strong the small array cuts wattage power down to basically nothing (wondering if this is caused by a possible short described above) but when it's cloudy they both put out power and send charge to the batteries. Is this caused by a short between the wires or is the smaller PV array not able to push amps at the same time as the large array?
The large array can push 80+ amps when the sun is bright.

"I ran 5 wires through plastic conduit, 2 hot, 2 neutral and 1 ground. I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire even though they're not connected to the LVX 6048."
Can you clarify about those 5 wires as to what they are for?
What are each end of the wires connected to?
Pictures and the wiring diagram?

 

[timselectric]

Hot and neutral to solar panels?

 

[Bud Martin]

Hot and neutral to solar panels?

Yeah, very confusing, especially they are not even connected to the LVX 6048.

 

[Brettw]

Yeah, very confusing, especially they are not even connected to the LVX 6048.

Yes, hot and neutral to solar panels. And a ground wire to bond the solar panel frames back to the main earth ground.

 

[timselectric]

Yeah, very confusing, especially they are not even connected to the LVX 6048.

Data does not compute, please re-enter Data.

 

[timselectric]

Yes, hot and neutral to solar panels. And a ground wire to bond the solar panel frames back to the main earth ground.

Not in North America, I presume?

 

[Brettw]

Not in North America, I presume?

I'm in north America

 

[Bud Martin]

OP post #1:
"I'm assuming I have a short somewhere but I'm also a little stumped.
My solar arrays are 400ft from the house. I ran 5 wires through plastic conduit, 2 hot, 2 neutral and 1 ground. I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire even though they're not connected to the LVX 6048"
Post #5:
"Yes, hot and neutral to solar panels. And a ground wire to bond the solar panel frames back to the main earth ground."

1) The wires from the panels are not even connected to the PV input of the LVX 6048, correct?
So you use your AC Voltmeter to test the DC Voltage from your panels and it shows 120VAC, correct?

2) " I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire". You are getting 120VAC on each one of the 5 wires, what did you use for the reference for measurement since you have 5 wires?

2) Panels are DC source with Plus and Minus, so not sure why you are referring them to Hot and Neutral and measuring them in AC.

 

[Brettw]

OP post #1:
"I'm assuming I have a short somewhere but I'm also a little stumped.
My solar arrays are 400ft from the house. I ran 5 wires through plastic conduit, 2 hot, 2 neutral and 1 ground. I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire even though they're not connected to the LVX 6048"
Post #5:
"Yes, hot and neutral to solar panels. And a ground wire to bond the solar panel frames back to the main earth ground."

1) The wires from the panels are not even connected to the PV input of the LVX 6048, correct?
So you use your AC Voltmeter to test the DC Voltage from your panels and it shows 120VAC, correct?

2) Panels are DC source with Plus and Minus, so not sure why you are referring them to Hot and Neutral and measuring them in AC.

2) Ok, positive and negative wires to PV panels.
I get DC voltage from the panels when checking the positive and negative wires like you would expect.
I was getting a shock touching the panels and kneeling on the damp ground after I hooked up the panels to the inverter a couple days ago so I checked for voltage from the panel frame to the dirt and got voltage.

So today I decided to hook up the 2nd PV array to the 2nd LVX 6048 and I got a shock from the wires for the 2nd PV array before they were attached to the panels. I have 2 pole DC breakers at the panels and at the inverters. The breakers were off.

After a while of having trouble I decided to disconnect all of the PV wires from the inverter to troubleshoot. I then checked for AC current between the L1 L2 lugs to the disconnected PV wires. The inverter was running the house on battery power.

I got 120v AC on all 5 wires when they were completely removed from the inverters.

Hopefully that is a clear enough explanation.

 

[timselectric]

It sounds like you have some bad panels that are shorted to ground. You can disconnect the ground to verify that.

 

[Brettw]

It sounds like you have some bad panels that are shorted to ground.

They are mounted on a wood frame and the panels don't make contact with the ground at all.

 

[timselectric]

Or did you purposefully connect any PV to ground?

 

[timselectric]

They are mounted on a wood frame and the panels don't make contact with the ground at all.

You said that you grounded the panel frames.
If a panel is shorted to the frame, it is shorted to ground.

 

[Brettw]

"I ran 5 wires through plastic conduit, 2 hot, 2 neutral and 1 ground. I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire even though they're not connected to the LVX 6048."
Can you clarify about those 5 wires as to what they are for?
What are each end of the wires connected to?
Pictures and the wiring diagram?

 

[Brettw]

You said that you grounded the panel frames.
If a panel is shorted to the frame, it is shorted to ground.

I ran a ground wire to ground the frame, but I have not connected it yet.

 

[timselectric]

Do you have a second meter?
Maybe your meter is faulty.
Although I still think it's a ground fault.

 

[Brettw]

2) " I'm getting 120 AC voltage on every wire". You are getting 120VAC on each one of the 5 wires, what did you use for the reference for measurement since you have 5 wires?

I measured from L1 lug and L2 lug from a running inverter to each of the 5 wires.

 

[Brettw]

Yeah, very confusing, especially they are not even connected to the LVX 6048.

1) The wires from the panels are not even connected to the PV input of the LVX 6048, correct?
So you use your AC Voltmeter to test the DC Voltage from your panels and it shows 120VAC, correct?

They were connected to the inverter, I get DC voltage as expected, when I check between the AC L1 and L2 lug and each wire I get 120vac

 

[timselectric]

The only way to read 120v from each and every wire is if each and every wire is providing a return path to the source.
So they are all either connected to neutral or connected to ground (which is connected to neutral through the neutral ground bonding jumper).