question

@wkuna

What do you mean by grounded?

And is it a mobile system?

There will be local regulations as well.

Our home systems have surge arrestors on the pv and ac side that then pass through breakers; so hopefully a strike will be shunted by the surge arrestors to ground and the breaker trips so the power does not come down to the equipment.

I think what the manual is stating is the ground must not be broken from equipment to ground meaning no breakers installed there. But dc negative and positive can be disconnected with a double pole and so can live and neutral be disconnected with a double pole.

Hey Alexandra,

Thanks for your answer! I'm talking about a solar installation on a boat. A grounded conductor is a conductor that is connected to ground. On my case, as per regulation, the negative needs to be grounded. If you interrupt the negative of the PV, that wire won't be grounded anymore, as the Victron solar panels are of isolated ground type (connection between negative and ground on a boat happens in one point, and that's generally on the main negative busbar).

I don't think the manual is specifically talking about grounding there (specifically bonding I think you're referring to), but about a 'grounded conductor', which in my case are both the negative and the ground wires.

In this case, you CAN interrupt the negative of the PV array - IF it is a 2 pole breaker that also interrupts the positive at the same time. You must also ensure that the ground connection to the FRAME of the PV array is NOT interrupted by the operation of this breaker.

The intent of the statement is clear - but in this case, whilst the negative power from the PV is connected to ground, it is NOT a ground conductor per se. The ground conductor is the one to the Frame of the equipment.

The panel is considered energized when there is enough light source to generate a voltage across the leads. While this is the case you can disconnect the positive side with a breaker, but you cannot disconnect or break the negative side as a grounded conductor because if a short is present somewhere in the system it will flow through the only path available to it once the grounded conductor is cut.

I think the grounded conductor here does not refer to the panel connections. They're normally connected direct to the charge controller. Negative out from that must be grounded.

Frame of the panel may be grounded(should be). But this would not go through the isolator.

Many of the Victron schematics show breakers in both the +ve and -ve wires between the panel and the controller such as Example Schematic.

As long as it’s a dual pole breaker (ie two breakers tied together) you’re good to go. If the negative or positive side trips, it needs to take the other with it.