Roswell Bob
Solar Enthusiast
I have had some problems with lightning strikes. I'm thinking I may have a grounding problem - that may be difficult to resolve.
My array is a home brew pole mount with the (8" schedule 40) pole sunk about 6' down with a 3'x3'x3' block of concrete to anchor the array. Array is about 100' behind the house. The panels are floating in that I did not make any effort to ground them beyond the mechanicals of the array structure. Panels are bolted to the extrusions with the usual hardware. Extrusions are bolted to some steel channel. Steel channel is riding on a trailer axle which sits atop the 8" pole mount. So electrical connection is very iffy as it travels through the bearings sitting on the axle.
I think from what I have read that the panels should be isolated from ground at the array and a seperate ground wire should be brought to the ground rod where service enterance is. Since system is >50v either positive or negative side of panels should probably be tied to ground at the inverter.
Any Ideas on what I should be doing?