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Help. I found 61vac from my solar array frames to earth ground when moving ground

Firstclasspass

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Joined
Nov 29, 2022
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OK, so I was moving the grounding electrode and wire to coincide with my grounding electrode at my main outside panel from what I understand. Everything is supposed to be grounded to the same location one single location so as I was disconnecting, the grounding electrode to reroute it there was voltage that could be felt from the frames to the wire when I inspected it I have no voltage DC leaking to the grounding electrode but I have 61 V AC from the frames of the PV array to the grounding wire and electrode , is this common this is considered stray voltage is it not ? when I tested each inverters solar disconnect I found that 50 V AC came from inverte one 7V AC came from inverter two and 7 V AC came from inverter three , I have 3 LVX6048s all running in parallel what should I do where should I look for the cause, I also have flickering of the lights when Solar is powering my house, but the grid AC input is available not necessarily connected. It is turned on, but it is not drawing a load from the grid. It is just available. I have lights flickering if I disconnected they stop flickering are these two issues related?
 
I think AC voltage on panel frames is common, with high-frequency inverters. (and transformerless grid-tie inverters.)

AC gets superimposed on PV wires as common-mode, and there is capacitance to the frames. Probably low current, which you could measure.

PV panel frames should be grounded back to the electrical equipment.

I doubt lights flickering is due to the AC on PV or ungrounded frames. Others have described that with multiple inverters, but not one. May be firmware issues, may be waveform quality issues.
 
I agree with @Hedges nothing to worry about. The source will be very high impedance and likely won't even give you a tingle.

Re-connect your ground and have a coffee.

It's really no different to the voltage you get on the casework of a desktop computer when run without a ground (don't), very common here in sunny (and 220V) Thailand where many older homes are 2 prong only.
 
Oh, it'll give a tingle. One forum member finally figured out why his dog didn't like to climb the steps of his RV.

Capacitance varies among PV technologies. SMA lists different types of panels and which can be used with which inverter models, due to this issue. Perhaps it could give a serious shock if you were wet.

Definitely ground it.
 
Reading voltage with ground disconnected shows why the ground is important.
 
It does tingle, it’s about .57 amps ac the inverters Are multiples , it’s (3) lvx6048s also it is regrounded back to the service from grid panel grounding rod , I am mechanically inclined and also agree that it be grounded immediately and so I did the only reason I even inves for voltage was the tingling during the relocation
 
Any chance you guys would know why the lights flicker when there is grid available but it is running off of SolarPower, I already have 20 F capacitor’s on the PV input of all three inverters as instructEd by ian roux
 
Try shutting down all inverters but one. If that stops the flickering, more likely it is a firmware issue.

 
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