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0 pointsjagrsw5mo ago0 comments

Then again, I'm not certified for solar installations - but standard <1kV home installations and measurements. (As an anecdote, there's a specialty called 'electrical installations for hydrolysis of water' - I shall get certified in that one day just for fun.)

Buy a customer-oriented device instead, if you can. I vaguely remember there are plenty of them on the market with built-in batteries. They should have RCD/GFCI and overcurrent protection (and thermal, and BMS included) per outlet (or per bus).

If you want to stick with your current inverter, here are some thoughts from first principles:

- ground it while using, but this might be hard at a remote camping site (maybe use a grounding rod?). If it's a similar model to the one in the article, it must be grounded.

- a GFCI/RCD rated for 30mA or less with 15-20A circuit breaker (I'd suggest type-A if in EU) that matches your wiring and outlets.

There should be ready-to-go boxes that provide RCD+OC, and maybe you're already using one.

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scotty795mo ago

> ground it while using, but this might be hard at a remote camping site (maybe use a grounding rod?).

What's the point of grounding it? So you can get shocked by touching one wire instead of two?

jagrswOP5mo ago

Short answer - treat it as Class I (it has a PE terminal)

Longer: A Class I inverter/appliance relies on PE. A single insulation fault (live -> chassis) will put the chassis at line potential if PE isn’t connected.

If you run other Class-I loads (eg. fridges) downstream of a GFCI but don’t carry PE, a hot-to-chassis fault on the load won’t reliably trip anything until there’s a return path (often a person).

scotty795mo ago

> A single insulation fault (live -> chassis) will put the chassis at line potential if PE isn’t connected.

As long as the other wire is not connected to ground, chassis being connected to one doesn't pose much risk.

Grounding either wire makes whole thing worse. If you ground the chassis and it's not connected to either wire it makes no difference. Once insulation on any of the wires fails and the wire connects with the chassis it becomes the neutral and ground at the same time and the other wire will shock you through ground even if you don't touch the chassis at that time.

I'm curious if GFCI would trip if you didn't have the whole thing grounded and just touched one of the wires...

I know that in normal setup GFCI detects if too little electricity goes back through neutral relative to how much goes through hot wire. Assuming nothing is grounded, would short, small leakage current when you touch one of the wires be enough to trip GFCI?

Does GFCI work both ways? If there was more current "comming back in" on the neutral than goes out on the hot would GFCI trip as well? Are the usual solutions worthless when you have just two free floating wires with potential difference between them but with no reference to ground?

Is there a code for high voltage mobile installations? It seems that EV and mobile home makers go mostly with their own solutions derived from first principles...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsjagrsw5mo ago0 comments

If you want to stick with your current inverter, here are some thoughts from first principles:

- ground it while using, but this might be hard at a remote camping site (maybe use a grounding rod?). If it's a similar model to the one in the article, it must be grounded.

- a GFCI/RCD rated for 30mA or less with 15-20A circuit breaker (I'd suggest type-A if in EU) that matches your wiring and outlets.

There should be ready-to-go boxes that provide RCD+OC, and maybe you're already using one.

0 comments

scotty795mo ago

> ground it while using, but this might be hard at a remote camping site (maybe use a grounding rod?).

What's the point of grounding it? So you can get shocked by touching one wire instead of two?

jagrswOP5mo ago

Short answer - treat it as Class I (it has a PE terminal)

Longer: A Class I inverter/appliance relies on PE. A single insulation fault (live -> chassis) will put the chassis at line potential if PE isn’t connected.

scotty795mo ago

> A single insulation fault (live -> chassis) will put the chassis at line potential if PE isn’t connected.

As long as the other wire is not connected to ground, chassis being connected to one doesn't pose much risk.

I'm curious if GFCI would trip if you didn't have the whole thing grounded and just touched one of the wires...

Is there a code for high voltage mobile installations? It seems that EV and mobile home makers go mostly with their own solutions derived from first principles...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse