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Totally confused about bonded and grounded ac side inverter in isolated van solar setup

markhbrown

New Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2021
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11
Hi,

I'm a total newbie but trying to learn quickly. Here is my setup I'm building and what I will be powering.

800 watts of solar panels, victron 100/50 charge controller, 270ah lifepo battery and I bought a 2200watt giandel inverter to power a few items (pioneer 9000k minisplit ac unit mounted on van, microwave occasionally, laptop and camera battery chargers. I'll also plus led lights, 12volt fridge and maxxair fan on dc side. I hope to also add a dc to dc charger using my alternator to charge the lifepo battery while driving.

I will be using this mainly as isolated system boondocking. However, I will occasionally camp and was planning on just running a 20amp extension cord from the camping pedestal to power my minisplit, microwave and such. The inverter/solar battery setup would never tie into the extension cord to pedestal. I was going to create a plug for the end of the minisplit instead of trying into a sub panel. Online it says you can't plug the 9000k minisplit into a plug but it needs to go to the breaker. It's under 700 watts so I wasn't sure why that wouldn't be advisable?

What I'm confused about is about the solar/battery to ac inverter is ungrounded, even if I tied it into the van chassis. I'll be parked in public parking lots when running the minisplit at the beach and don't want to shock anyone touching my van if the neutral shorted out, but there is no ground to earth right? How do you ground the ac side of the system?
 
Are you not going to have a 120v distribution panel with breakers? Just plug into the inverter or utility power direct as needed?
 
Are you not going to have a 120v distribution panel with breakers? Just plug into the inverter or utility power direct as needed?
Since I'm really only going to plug the minisplit in and maybe my laptop at one time, I was going to plug straight into the inverter, but there is no breaker or ground if I do that right? Could I wire a plug from inverter to a small breaker and then to the minisplit? Is it dangerous to just plug into the inverter and when available, plug into the campground power? It's max power draw seems like about 700 watts. I'm just concerned about if a short develops there is no ground especially since I'll be driving this thing around alot and on gravel roads and potholes and such. It's for photography expeditions and trips away from home.
 
The inverter may have a ground lug on the chassis of it. If not you can use a mounting screw to attach a ground wire. Best case is run it to the vehicle frame or battery vehicle battery ground wire to ground the inverter.
Having worked on equipment and vehicles for over 50 years I make sure all positive wires going to a device have an appropriately sized fuse in the feed wire. Haven't had any issues doing this. I don't care for using circuit breakers in a 12vdc system, personal preference.
My motorhomes and trailers had no ground to the earth, just the chassis or batteries.
Your mini split may have a breaker in the plug if it is of new manufacture. The invertor should have some type of fuse or breaker in it. Check the manual.
 
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