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johnny-nova avatar image
johnny-nova asked

Do I need to use the ground wire connection on Solar Charge Controller for van setup??

Hi
Do I need to run a ground wire to the van chassis from a Victron Smart Solar MPPT unit in my setup described below?
The Victron units have a Ground terminal on the side of units but I am not sure if it is required for my setup where I am not running a DCDC charger back to the Van battery / alternator and also there is no shore power provision.

I have a portable 200Ah battery with several inputs incl. 2x 50A Anderson and 1x 175A Anderson.
I then plan to connect from these Anderson inputs to 2 separate Victron 100 / 30 Smart Solar chargers all mounted inside a cupboard.
One MPPT unit connects to a 200W fixed solar panel on the roof of my van and the other unit connects to a 200w portable ground solar panel when needed.
Separate to this is fuse block also connected back to the battery via Anderson inputs which power some lights, fridge and USB sockets.
Inline fuses are provided between the MPPT units and battery and also between the +ve line from the Fuse block and back to the battery.

Thanks in advance

Grounding
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1 Answer
Jeremy Albrecht avatar image
Jeremy Albrecht answered ·

You should still run it for safety purposes. I always run mine back to the negative bus, but you could also run it to chassis ground if you wanted to.

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