Renogy 2000watt inverter help.

[Paulwest55]

I have a question that I hope you can help me with, I have just fitted our van with 400watts of solar through the Renogy 40a mppt controller, which is going into two SuperBatt AGM1100 12v 120AH Deep cycle batteries, So I am now fitting a Renogy 2000watt inverter, where do I earth it to? I was thinking the side of the van as I did with the 12v stuff but someone said the inverter needs to go to ground, and to use a wire with a tent peg to ground it to the earth, this seems a right rigmarole to go through in a van? Any advice would be great they said if I earth it to the van and anything goes wrong the van would become live? Help!!!!

Cheers for any help,

 

[sunshine_eggo]

DC and AC need to be grounded to the chassis.

You don't see many RVs driving ground rods when they park... (I NEVER see any).

 

[Paulwest55]

Thanks for the info, just wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly

 

[Dave in AZ]

Thanks for the info, just wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly

Read this.

Grounding Made simpler - Part 4: Mobile systems.

To get the paper, click on the orange button at the top of the screen. The subject of grounding is a complex, multifaceted subject, that is often treated as an after-thought but needs to be considered from the beginning of the design and build...

diysolarforum.com

 

[mikefitz]

just wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly

In a vehicle mobile application,the 'earth' is the vehicle metalwork.
Where an inverter is permanently installed the safest instalation is neutral bonding to earth and fitting a double pole RCD on the AC output of the Inverter. This is required by UK electrical regulations.
If the inverter neutral bond to earth is made then the RCD is needed for safery.

If the neutral bond is not made and the inverter is used with floating AC outputs, a single appliance directly plugged into the inverter is resonbly safe. The inverter AC output must be completly separated from any extetnal shore power AC.

Depending on the model of Renogy inverters, neutral bond to earth may not be recomended by Renogy.

In mobile application the installed inverter ideally should be a unit that allows the neutral bond to be made internally. Units readily available in the UK with this option are units from, Victron, Sterling Power.