Solar Panels Earthing for a shed running a solar panel on the roof

[Bogart]

Intend putting a solar panel on a shed roof just to run a few lights and maybe a socket outlet to charge drills etc. What do I do about an earth? I used to have a caravan that had a solar panel on the roof and standard 3 pin sockets inside. It never dawned on me how does one get protection in said caravan?

 

[Dan]

Wow I've only just thought of this myself too. We stay in statics every now and again I assume those are earthed via a rod.

But caravans pull up when we are camping and those for sure don't start drilling in the floor with a rod lol

Oh wait there they hook up so the earth goes back to the hook up. Silly me. Lol

So yeah, I guess you need some earth rod in the floor?

 

[davesparks]

Intend putting a solar panel on a shed roof just to run a few lights and maybe a socket outlet to charge drills etc. What do I do about an earth? I used to have a caravan that had a solar panel on the roof and standard 3 pin sockets inside. It never dawned on me how does one get protection in said caravan?

For such a small system my gut reaction would be to not install an earth reference, it will be a lot of work to do it right for minimal gain in my opinion.

 

[Strima]

Will this shed also have a mains supply or purely solar?

 

[davesparks]

Wow I've only just thought of this myself too. We stay in statics every now and again I assume those are earthed via a rod.

But caravans pull up when we are camping and those for sure don't start drilling in the floor with a rod lol

Oh wait there they hook up so the earth goes back to the hook up. Silly me. Lol

So yeah, I guess you need some earth rod in the floor?

Static caravans are a but different, and their earthing depends on the type of supply they have and regulatory requirements.

For the OPs situation where they have a small solar setup which, presumably, has no connection to a mains supply then adding an earth rod won't achieve much.

 

[Bogart]

Wow I've only just thought of this myself too. We stay in statics every now and again I assume those are earthed via a rod.

But caravans pull up when we are camping and those for sure don't start drilling in the floor with a rod lol

Oh wait there they hook up so the earth goes back to the hook up. Silly me. Lol

So yeah, I guess you need some earth rod in the floor?

THat only works if you have a hook up! We used to stay in farmers field with no electricity available except via an inverter off the battery.
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For such a small system my gut reaction would be to not install an earth reference, it will be a lot of work to do it right for minimal gain in my opinion.

I like simplistic approaches so will not bother with an earth.

 

[Bogart]

Will this shed also have a mains supply or purely solar?

Purely solar as demands not great and nearest supply is some 40m away.

 

[davesparks]

I like simplistic approaches so will not bother with an earth.

As I said that is my gut reaction and is therefore based on assumptions such as the inverter being of low/limited output power and not having either pole referenced to earth.

Without one pole of the inverter output being solidly connected to earth then any other earthing is pointless, current cannot flow through any fault to earth if neither pole of the supply is connected to earth to start with.

 

[Bogart]

Also things like my drill chargers are double insulated anyway.