jsmitman82
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2021
- Messages
- 25
I am building an off grid home (fully off grid, there is no power poles on the property) with a separate small building about 100' away that houses all the power equipment (inverters, charge controllers, batteries, generator), and service entrance wiring will run underground from the power building to the house. Conceptually the separate power building is taking the place of a power pole for on-grid power, the house will have a service entrance with disconnect like any on-grid house would. This situation seems unusual so it has been difficult for me to find an answer, but my research would lead me to believe that I should not have grounding rods at both the power building and the house - in order to avoid creating a ground loop. So, which end should the ground rods be at, the power building or the house?
Some additional notes that may or may not be relevant: The house is ICF all the way to the roof line (there is a ufer ground available), and the power building is also ICF with a heavily reinforced concrete foundation and concrete roof (no ufer available) - and buried underground with the front exposed to daylight; so it's basically like a daylight basement with dirt on top instead of a house. The house and power building both got dried in last year, so I'm going to start working on the power situation in the coming weeks. I have Schneider Conext Pro XW 6848 inverters, Schneider 100amp charge controllers, custom built LiFePO4 battery banks with JKBMS, and a few dozen 460w bluesunpv bifacial solar panels. My research indicates I should only have an ECG going from the solar panels back to the power building equipment (no ground rods at panels), but again - having trouble determining where my single ground system should go. I'm leaning towards the answer being 'by the house' since that's where the service disconnect is, and also there being a ufer ground available (I'd still add ground rods in addition to the ufer).
I welcome all accurate critical feedback, I'm happy to learn where I'm wrong about anything - much better than learning after the work is done and having to re-do it.
Thank you for the assistance.
Some additional notes that may or may not be relevant: The house is ICF all the way to the roof line (there is a ufer ground available), and the power building is also ICF with a heavily reinforced concrete foundation and concrete roof (no ufer available) - and buried underground with the front exposed to daylight; so it's basically like a daylight basement with dirt on top instead of a house. The house and power building both got dried in last year, so I'm going to start working on the power situation in the coming weeks. I have Schneider Conext Pro XW 6848 inverters, Schneider 100amp charge controllers, custom built LiFePO4 battery banks with JKBMS, and a few dozen 460w bluesunpv bifacial solar panels. My research indicates I should only have an ECG going from the solar panels back to the power building equipment (no ground rods at panels), but again - having trouble determining where my single ground system should go. I'm leaning towards the answer being 'by the house' since that's where the service disconnect is, and also there being a ufer ground available (I'd still add ground rods in addition to the ufer).
I welcome all accurate critical feedback, I'm happy to learn where I'm wrong about anything - much better than learning after the work is done and having to re-do it.
Thank you for the assistance.