Grounding the panels for lightning?

This area has little lightning so I told my installer that I wasn't planning on panel lightning protection. Figured my adjacent steel roof would attract the lightning. He talked me into running a #6 bare copper wire through the panel frames and into a ground rod. Said that a lot of static electricity can damage the panles over time as well.
Darned bare copper wire is .71/ft at Home Depot. .79/ft ar BigR. .89/ft at Lowes. Yes....I shop around.
Should I "loop" the #6 bare copper wire around each panel hole that drill? Or can I just make a "tight fit" and run the wire through the holes of the aluminum frame?
Read 4 books about solar. Can't seem to recall directions for grounding solar panels.
Whach y'all think?
Yes....I know almost nothing about lightning strikes. Except this area gets little to none....in my observation.
Darned bare copper wire is .71/ft at Home Depot. .79/ft ar BigR. .89/ft at Lowes. Yes....I shop around.
Should I "loop" the #6 bare copper wire around each panel hole that drill? Or can I just make a "tight fit" and run the wire through the holes of the aluminum frame?
Read 4 books about solar. Can't seem to recall directions for grounding solar panels.
Whach y'all think?
Yes....I know almost nothing about lightning strikes. Except this area gets little to none....in my observation.
First Bank:16 180 watt Grape Solar with FM80 controller and 3648 Inverter....Fullriver 8D AGM solar batteries. Second Bank/MacGyver Special: 10 165(?) watt BP Solar with Renogy MPPT 40A controller/ and Xantrex C-35 PWM controller/ and Morningstar PWM controller...Cotek 24V PSW inverter....forklift and diesel locomotive batteries
Comments
There are grounding lugs that are made specifically to obtain the best ground when connecting to an aluminum framed PV panel. If I was going to ground I would do it right. Our host sells a few types. We used the WEEB type with the S/S plate that has "teeth"that penetrate the anodizing. The copper wire should be one piece that runs continuous through the lugs and to the ground rod(s).
Drive as many ground rods as you want on your property, BUT you have to BOND all those rods together underground. Then you should only have one single point of where that underground system connects to the above ground EGC system. If this does not make sense to you, then you have to do more homework. Good luck.
Kriminy....I could just read a dozen books or so. So why ask questions?
Hail does hit Colorado from time to time. Panels mounted at 45 degrees and some luck is about all that one can do.
http://zoneblue.org/cms/page.php?view=off-grid-solar
Unbonded ground rods (ie stakes) around a single building are dangerous and a hazard to life and property. If you do sure of the issues, please hire a licensed electrician.
http://zoneblue.org/cms/page.php?view=off-grid-solar
For the record i tried to find this exemption in the current NEC (2014), but it appears to have been changed. The NEC is now considerably more prescriptive about array earthing.
So, in other words:
- each array must have a ground electrode unless its less than 6ft from the main electrode.
- you cant use the extra electrode in leiu of a EGC, thus the array frame must tie into the main earth system.
- this is all regardless of array Voc.
Nonetheless i would still be bonding the earth systems at the stakes, not bringing the array earth inside the building/disconnects. Smarter people than i have argued about this stuff for years, and will continue to do so i am sure. See the last time we hashed this out. http://forum.solar-electric.com/foru...-in-pv-systems and others arguing about clause (D) http://solarprofessional.com/articles/design-installation/understanding-the-nec-2014-and-its-impact-on-pv-systems/page/0/7
http://zoneblue.org/cms/page.php?view=off-grid-solar
My take on lightning: The NEC is not a lightning protection standard. IT does use the word a few times, but generally If you feel you need/want lightning protection, than one should look at NFPA 780. That is a lightning protection standard. Earthing and bonding may help with nearby lighting strikes and induced surges - maybe - if conditions are just right.
I did not mean to be unfriendly, but I did want to convey a sense of danger. Here in the Midwest of USA we see a lot of lightning and many after losing much equipment or even a home will respond by driving unbonded ground rods all over the place, wrongly thinking that those additional rods will add protection when in reality it does the opposite.
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This gives me pause. This could get incredibly expensive, " BUT you have to BOND all those rods together underground."
Years ago I was a lineman with the regional electric power company in Colorado. I never ever saw anyone bonding ground rods together underground. You will see the construction of a major power substation often begins with deep trenching and laying in 4/0 bare copper in a large grid layout under where the huge transformers, reclosers, switches and arrestors are then set up. But you're talking bonding the ground system for 240,000+ volt 3-phase high amperage electric transmission lines - and their steel towers. That's the only place I've ever seen bonding ground rods together underground. Kinda silly for grounding some little solar panels.
We had a massive lightening strike in the front yard last month. The three items that had unbonded ground stakes (underground phone/internet line, Dish TV antenna outside box, and electric fence) all melted. I have 4 Midnight Solar surge protectors (2 DC and 2 AC). Nothing except the 3 items with separate grounds was damaged.
One of the DC surge protectors is wired at the combiner box for the ground mount panels. While I understand that these surge protectors can't handle huge spikes I believe they kept the lightning from frying anything in the house and the solar system.
On the Dish TV line, both connectors in the outside box were burned along with the ground protection bridge (Dish repair man had never see that) along with actually burning the coaxial cable under the house and actually popping the cover plate off the little box just before it went into the indoor sat box and it also burned the sat box half way out (it still searched for a satellite but it wouldn't work after even after repairing the other antenna cable damage).
Neighbors 300 yards away lost most of their plugged in electronics like TVs and game boxes. I credit the 4 Midnight surge protectors for saving my electronics.
Conext XW6848 with PDP, SCP, 80/600 controller, 60/150 controller and Conext battery monitor
21 SW280 panels on Schletter ground mount
48v Rolls 6CS 27P
-Bill
--vtMaps
They will rebuild them if you want and I do have a client who sent a few back a few years ago.
If you really have a close strike, do not even count on there being much left of it.
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
E-mail [email protected]
--vtMaps
According to Midnight Solar if the both blue leds are lit is lit the surge protector is still good.
Google " Midnight Solar SPD testing video " since I can't post link to video here.
Conext XW6848 with PDP, SCP, 80/600 controller, 60/150 controller and Conext battery monitor
21 SW280 panels on Schletter ground mount
48v Rolls 6CS 27P
I just pasted the "raw' URL. See what happens.
-Bill
If you just ground the frames I think is over all a bad idea, but guess its better than nothing. The better solution is to not let lightning get to the panels.
This is my solution:
http://forum.solar-electric.com/discussion/349844/solar-panel-protection#latest
Solar hybrid gasoline generator, 7kw gas, 180 watts of solar, Morningstar 15 amp MPPT, group 31 AGM, 900 watt kisae inverter.
Solar roof top GMC suburban, a normal 3/4 ton suburban with 180 watts of panels on the roof and 10 amp genasun MPPT, 2000w samlex pure sine wave inverter, 12v gast and ARB air compressors.