More needs with grounding [RE-wrenches]

[Jason Fisher]

I had a similar problem where a customer's SW, located in a power shed 350'
from the house, got blown twice in one year from lighting hits (Delta's
didn't stop it). In the second case, it was determined that the surge came
in on the neutral. It was at this point that I started thinking about other
strategies to better isolate the inverter.

I decided to change my original grounding scheme (unbonded neutral at shed
and separate grounding wire run to house) and use the separate building
rules to bond the neutral at the shed. I simply disconnected the #4 bare
copper ground wire I had installed in the trench from the shed and rolled it
back a good distance and buried it. I was not completely confident in this
approach so I wasn't going to cut any wires. I already had 2 rods at the
shed so this was a relatively simple switch. Well, so far so good. It has
been about two years and there has been no lighting damage to the inverter.
I have nothing that tells me for sure that this strategy fixed the problem
but I'm happy with it.

Daryl, the reason I suggested this strategy to you in the first place was in
an attempt to help you solve your problem without anyone occurring
unnecessary expense through the installation of a 600' ground wire. From
your description, it sounded like inadequate grounding at the shed and tower
was a potential problem area. The relevance of the code articles to this
strategy is important to anyone who works in an area that is regulated
through electrical permits and inspections. Achieving a code compliant
solution is also another way for us installers to limit our liability. I
have seen no solution that anyone has proposed to this problem yet that is
not code compliant. The questions posed were really about whether this
strategy was compliant.

Good luck with it.

Jason Fisher


-----Original Message-----
From: Daryl Thayer [mailto:daryl_solar at yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 2:34 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE: More needs with grounding [RE-wrenches]

Code or not, what we want is the best way to prevent
lightening strikes from distroying another inverter in
my case.
Daryl

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