Positive Ground Vs Negative Ground Solar Panels

There are two distinct advantages to grounding the positive leg of a photovoltaic solar system.

Positive ground vs negative ground solar panels.

Common negative grounding is simply having all negatives linked to ground. There are three main reasons for grounding in an off grid power system. A pwm controller switches on off modulates the ungrounded connection between the solar panel s in a negative ground system and or in a positive ground system and the battery. And all switching fusing control done on the positive side.

Safety v oltage transients and t h e sheer fact that they are required for some loads. The panel frames may be mounted to chassis ground and the solar controller may be mounted to. They both relate to leakage to ground. The slide in camper has a chassis ground common to all the interior and clearance lights.

If the controller is to be used on a vehicle which has battery negative on the chassis loads connected to the controller must not have an electrical connection to the vehicle body. I have it all setup to charge the house battery and have my loads set up through a fuse block on the load pins of the controller. I have a not so typical question on charge controllers. The electronics required for switching on the positive side is a little more complicated hence more expensive that what s needed for switching on the negative.

There are two types of ground. I find it kind of weird that positive ground charge controllers even exist since so many are used on rvs one would think a negative ground should be standard but i digress. I am also powering some clearance lights with the truck trailer plug. But before we address each of these it s important to understand the actual definition of ground.

Negative ground means that ground is referenced to the negative terminal of the supply voltage. This occurs primarily because of moisture. As the negative terminals of different devices are all at different voltages in a common positive system. Positive ground the positive terminal is defined ground.

I ended up with a positive ground solar charge controller. This is called negative ground since the negative side of the battery is grounded to earth. Common positive systems can be a massive can of worms.