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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Isolated grounding question - solar installation

ngtnewington Newington
 

Hi James,

I  had built a solar arch and wind generator mount for Amelia. It is great. Love it.

I bonded the frame to the rest of the bonding system. There should be no leak from the solar panels themselves to the arch even without insulating the mounting points. Ditto with the wind generators. Mine are just bolted to the frame lugs as designed by the solar manufacturer.  So long as the panels themselves are working as designed then as you say just hook them up to the +ve and -ve terminals of the regulator. The solar cells themselves are linked to one another but isolated from the aluminium mounting frame. That is what I did and there was no leak to the bonding system from that source. My biggest worry was drawing the cables through the mounting frame without stripping the cable insulation. That would be a no no! I had to grease them and push/pull then test for a leak. It was fine. I wish I had specified a plastic conduit!!

Nick

On 25 Jun 2018, at 14:39, jamescromie@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:


Good morning everyone.  


I am in the process of planning an installation of solar panels on a stainless steel arch on my Amel SM2000.  Understanding that it has an isolated ground, I would plan to wire the panels with only a positive and negative to the charge controller, and not have any connection to ship's ground. 


It would seem appropriate to connect the steel arch to the ship's ground considering that it will inevitably develop a charge.  


If this is the case, then I must isolate the panels from the steel frame by insulating all of the attachment points.   Is this really necessary to ground the arch, even though it is anchored strictly on to the fiberglass hull?


Can anyone comment on their experience and suggestions?


Thank you very much!


James

Soteria

SM2K #347, Portsmouth, RI
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