Grounding a rv 12v and 120v shore power and solar
- Thread starter justison
- Start date
Ranger Rick
Here comes the sun
AC Shore Power has its own ground (Do not attempt to ground it to your RV). There should be a Ground screw on your Solar Charge Controller - Ground it to your RV frame or to an existing Ground via an open post on a busbar or by adding a bulbar to share the ground.
The inverter will (or should) also have a ground screw.
I had enough devices that needed a ground that I put in in a separate ground bus bar and then ran a single conductor from the ground bus bar to the trailer's frame.
Your breakers look like car audio breakers. There are numerous threads here on the forum of those causing problems. At least one simply melted. The breaker between the PV and the solar charge controller should be a double pole breaker to break both legs at once.
You should have a fuse on the DC side of your inverter.
I had enough devices that needed a ground that I put in in a separate ground bus bar and then ran a single conductor from the ground bus bar to the trailer's frame.
Your breakers look like car audio breakers. There are numerous threads here on the forum of those causing problems. At least one simply melted. The breaker between the PV and the solar charge controller should be a double pole breaker to break both legs at once.
You should have a fuse on the DC side of your inverter.
Dang, glad I read this thread. I just bought 3 of these circuit breakers. 1 X 15A for my diesel heater and 2 x 40A for PV to MPPT and battery to BMS. I have double pole switches for anything above 40A.
Is it just higher amperages these car audio breakers are no good, or are they just entirely unsuited to DC power?
Both? Most car audio doesn't have sustained amps that a DIY solar system can attain.
chrisski
Solar Boondocker
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2020
- Messages
- 5,302
Entirely unsuited for solar or any other power applications, but fine for audio applications.
In my RV build 24 volt RV build, the on/off switch you use is not UL listed and I could have up to 200 amps going through it, so i went with a 350 amp UL listed Blue sea switch. The one you have pictured I think is not UL listed, but if you look at enough vendors, you will see it is spaced for 250 amps at 12 volts, 125 amps at 24 volts, and I don’t know if it is specced for 48 volts. I do use the switch you have in a portable generator build, but that is 24 volts and 40 amps max, but will likely never see more than 15 amps.
For my RV frame grounds, the components that required it were the inverter and
my three SCCs. I ran 8 awg multistranded grounding wire from each to a single to a single point in the where I secured it with a #10 screw and serrated star washer.
How many volts is your solar system this can have an effect on what is “supposed” to be grounded.
