Live Ground Shocked 5 Year Old

[Joshua787]

I don't need any pictures to know what the problem is.
But that's because I am familiar with their equipment.
And 40 years in the trade , doesn't hurt.

Would you mind double checking my wiring please? im new to this. solar systems are relatively new to Puerto Rico and the 3 electricians I know are not able to see the problem due to their low knowledge on solar.

 

[Joshua787]

Just a quick follow-up to my advice I offered. I fed my family working as an electrician giving me enough knowledge to know I can't walk you through this online and be 100% certain of your family's safety.

To those posting help do you feed your family doing electrical work? or is this a hobby? The OP has a right to know just how much you really know.

 

[Joshua787]

I'm seeing a green wire connected to a black wire with a red wire nut in that breaker panel on the lower left. Green or Green/yellow stripe is for ground.

Perhaps we should go through the whole wiring scheme device by device.

 

[Joshua787]

I think we could still use detailed wiring pics. There's all sorts of possibilities and people jump to conclusions especially about grounding and bonding.

 

[AntronX]

Would you mind double checking my wiring please?

Is ground bonded to neutral in your right panel? I can't tell from looking at the pic.

 

[Hedges]

A ground wire should to to PV panel frames. All should be bonded together somehow, either lay-in lug for the wire, or something like WEEB washer to bite through anodization and bond mounting rail to frame.

I think I see green wire enter breaker panel from one conduit, wire nut to another wire, exit through another conduit. (both on right)
There is a third green wire from conduit on left, can't make out where it goes.
Wires from all conduits should connect together and to box. Like go into a ground busbar.

I see busbars on plastic supports, I suppose for neutral.

These grounds won't necessary fix the shock issue (except possibly grounding PV frames.)
More likely produce a bonded fault with the suspected "N" (L2) that may be connected to chassis. Which would then make inverter complain.

 

[finite]

Bet ya didnt see that mny problem lol @timselectric

 

[Hedges]

Not in the least just look at the wide variety of answers thrown out there from the armchair DIYers. Every response should have first asked and received more information before making their wild a** guess based on what they think they know. It's called the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

End of rant

We're not telling him if he does something, then it will be safe.
We're giving hypothesis on the cause of problem, which he can then look for/confirm/fix, test that things are no longer hot.

 

[timselectric]

Would you mind double checking my wiring please? im new to this. solar systems are relatively new to Puerto Rico and the 3 electricians I know are not able to see the problem due to their low knowledge on solar.

Just explain to them that those units are 240v single phase (European L, N, G). And bonding their neutral to ground. So, the transformer input has its L2 bonded.
The bonding screw inside them needs to be removed. And then, the neutral from the transformer output needs to be bonded to the ground.

This is the screw that needs to be removed from each unit.

 

[Joshua787]

Does not have to. Please excuse my ugly drawing. Still need to figure out which wire was bonding to shipping container via 120v outlet or if there was earth ground connection to the Growatt. Need more info.

View attachment 206889

See the picture for explanation.

There's a jumper wire going from the receptacle you drew to another receptacle in a metal box. This metal box is screwed to the shipping container thus making the whole shipping container as part of ground as well.

 

[Hedges]

Check continuity between all boxes.
I'm not sure you have ground wires bonding all together. Also not sure if conduit is non-metallic or metallic.

A ground wire should go to PV panel frames.

If container is connected to chassis of ALL equipment and yet is driven to 120V with respect to Earth, there must be a hot wire feeding Earth.

White center tap Neutral from auto-transformer goes to separate Neutral busbar in breaker panel.
Where does that bond to ground/chassis?

You've got two inverters and one auto-transformer. What protection against excessive current in autotransformer (not your immediate shock issue, but could be a different problem later.)

 

[Joshua787]

Just explain to them that those units are 240v single phase (European L, N, G). And bonding their neutral to ground. So, the transformer input has its L2 bonded.
The bonding screw inside them needs to be removed. And then, the neutral from the transformer output needs to be bonded to the ground.

This is the screw that needs to be removed from each unit.

Thank you so much for this!!!

So I just open the inverters and remove this screw and my L2 input to the transformer wont be bonded anymore?

-You said the neutral from the transformer output needs to be bonded to the ground. im a little confused, isn't that what you're suggesting I undo from the inverters to then redo on the output end of the transformer?

 

[Joshua787]

Is ground bonded to neutral in your right panel? I can't tell from looking at the pic.

grounds are at their designated ground busbar as labeled on the right of that panel and neutrals are at their designated busbar on the left of the panel as labeled on the panel.

 

[AntronX]

grounds are at their designated ground busbar as labeled on the right of that panel and neutrals are at their designated busbar on the left of the panel as labeled on the panel.

OK but what I am asking is, in the right panel, is the neutral bar connected to ground bar also knows as N/G bond? Also when you unplug that second outlet jumper from first outlet, does your shipping container still zap you or are you seeing 120V between ground and container?

 

[Joshua787]

No more shocks since I eliminated the second outlet attached to the shipping container.

not sure about the N/G bond, I will need to double check tomorrow when I go to the shipping container ( it’s stored 15 min away from where I currently live.) I’ll get back to you tomorrow on that asap

 

[AntronX]

not sure about the N/G bond

It does not look like you have one. Take a close up pic of the right side of this panel:

 

[timselectric]

So I just open the inverters and remove this screw and my L2 input to the transformer wont be bonded anymore?

Correct

You said the neutral from the transformer output needs to be bonded to the ground. im a little confused, isn't that what you're suggesting I undo from the inverters to then redo on the output end of the transformer?

Not the same conductor.
The European neutral is your L2 hot. This needs to be unbonded.
Your split-phase neutral from the transformer needs to be bonded.

 

[Hedges]

That is, the white center-tap bonded to ground.

Bonded to all metal boxes, and grounded to a ground rod.

"No more shocks" could mean it is floating. But if a fault occurs later, it could again shock you.
Maybe once neutral is bonded to ground, if box gets electrified that will cause overload and shutdown, so you are protected.

Use the meter to check all boxes are bonded together. We can't tell for sure by the photos.

 

[Supervstech]

In this diagram I found, there are zero connections to the panel EXCEPT what comes out of the auto transformer.

In OP’S pictures, he has output of the growatts connected to the same panel as the outputs of the auto transformer.

Why?

 

[timselectric]

Bet ya didnt see that mny problem lol @timselectric

Actually I did. When I installed my first unit, I didn't know that there were two versions. (Didn't know about the internal bonding screw)
And when I first fired up my system. All breakers tripped and the unit shut down.
this is what should have happened with the OP's system. But since it wasn't properly grounded. There wasn't anything to protect from the shock hazzard.
Not too bad.
It's about an hours worth of work to fix.