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energy asked

Finding Ground relay problems

I have had a few sites where the ground relay test failed and finding the problem on a large installation is frankly a pain. I have made a video on why the test fails and posted that on YouTube with keywords "Victron Neutral Ground Relay Test". There are many reasons that would simply proof that you are an idiot so I ignored those reasons. The Neutral to Earth connection is mostly the difficult one to find in an existing electrical installation where one added a Victron system.

The problem is each time you isolate a circuit (read live and neutral) you have to switch the system off and start it again to see if the test fails. This takes an inordinate amount of time if you have many circuits.

If Victron can explain exactly how the test works, which impedance they test for, etc.. one can build a tester that would immediately find the error. I have seen in some cases (e.g.: light dimmers in one case) that simply testing between neutral and ground shows an open circuit. It's only when the live is powered that the Neutral to Ground leakage current exist.

Can Victron please help here?

I can see the sad result is that installers will simply not select the grid code to prevent the test from being done and have non-compliant installations, rather than spending days on site finding the problem.

RelayGrounding
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ahmed-ali avatar image ahmed-ali commented ·

Watched your video and indeed it make sense especially if we have Neutral leakages.

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suttridge avatar image suttridge commented ·

I totally agree. Why is it such a secret as to what is being checked at each step during the relay tests ? If we could know what each step was actually doing, then we could manually check for the specific problem, instead of the just, for example, error 11, step 8. What was being checked at that step ???

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mvas avatar image mvas commented ·

Is "Victron Ground Relay Test Failed Error" the title of your youtube video?


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1 Answer
mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image
mvader (Victron Energy) answered ·

Hi all, please see the Pre-RMA test instructions PDF on our website. Since earlier this year that document has a detailed bench test procedure for Error 8 & Error 11.

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nesswill avatar image nesswill commented ·

page 15

Pre-RMA Bench Test Instructions (victronenergy.com)

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Related Resources

Ground, earth and electrical safety


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