Big problem with inverter grounding! No Tesla charging? 

I went Victron Multiplus 3 years ago and never looked back. Solid equipment and well supported. Go bite the Victron bullet.

I hate to say it, but I love when you have issues because I learn more about solar installations from you and Murphy. You have great enthusiasm and you are very good at troubleshooting. Thank you for leaving all the info in your videos. I love it! For me - I would not connect to a common/shared earths ground. I would hammer in another ground rod and separate by a good distance regardless if I used it for this application or not. I would try a resister of some sort rather than a straight wire jumper. Also, check to see if you still have a pure sine wave output after using the jumper or resistor... Not that I know anything. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

Great video. Here in Europe we have the same problem with the Tesla UMC in Norway for example. But, you could use some other mobile charger which have the ability to adjust it to work without ground. I am using my Juice Booster 2 with great succes in many countries where the umc is not working. You may want to give it a try. And many thanks for your content. From the manual "Ändern des Betriebsmodus (MODE) • Halten Sie die SELECT-Taste ca. 5 Sekunden lang gedrückt (bevor Sie die Fahrzeugkupplung am Auto einstecken oder bis 30 Sekunden danach). Alle LEDs leuchten kurz gelb auf, danach blinkt der aktuell eingestell- te Betriebsmodus gelb in schneller Folge und signalisiert damit Verände- rungsbereitschaft. • Stellen Sie den gewünschten Betriebsmodus durch Drücken der SELECT-Taste ein. Die Speicherung erfolgt nach ca. 5 Sekunden automatisch. Der gewählte Modus blinkt langsam gelb. Modus STANDARD Für den Betrieb in allen Ländern, ausgenommen UK, Frankreich und Norwegen. Modus UK/FR Wählen Sie diesen Modus zwingend zum Laden im United Kingdom und in Frankreich (begrenzt den Schuko-Stecker auf 10 A bzw. 8 A /14 A für GreenUp). Modus NORWAY Wählen Sie diesen Modus zwingend und aus- schliesslich zum Laden in Norwegen (stellt das Gerät ein für die Nutzung in erdungsfreien IT-Net- zen)." en.juice-world.com/juice-booster

I was just testing the same thing with an inverter, which is why I found this video. I ended up connecting neutral to ground and it worked fine. I don't think having AC on your batteries is a problem so long as they are protected from being touched.

I am in sunny Melbourne. Just checked my MPP PIP5048GK inverter charger. It also uses split phase output drivers and when I measure the neutral its hovering at 84volts AC active at 146 voltage AC (230volt AC output) So I used a ground clip neutral to ground. I see about 14 mili amp float current. It had no affect on the inverter operation and the DC (Battery ) terminals did not have any change in AC volts basically zero. I will follow one of your earlier contributors and install a separate earth stack for my off grid system. I have 5kw of panels with two strings of 9 panels. The Pip 5048GK has a high DC input up to 500volt DC input. I also have the 3x Pylontech US3000 lithium battery packs. Total 10kw of battery storage. The nice feature of the pip5048GK is that it can operate without a battery as long as the solar panels can provide the power required. It means the inverter can deliver the load and the battery can be in float mode. Saves wear on the batteries.

Well I learned something from this .my trace must have bonding because my gfi receptacles all work normally .but you got me checking grounding.as a point of concern I separate grid grounding from solar off grid system .i did this to stop frying invertors from lightning strikes.surges coming in on grid ground and looping thru invertor ground havnt had a lightning strike fry anything since I separated grounds

You could get an isolation transformer and use an MEN link on the load side of the transformer.

Great pickup as I hadn't thought to mention this as our Latronics inverter works fine charging the MG ZS EV. You will sleep better at night with the Victron 👍

The reason that the negative is ground referenced in most countries was to reduce the risk of electric shock originally (prior to the introduction of RCD units in the 1980’s). Referencing one of the phases to earth in a single phase system means you can only get a shock off one of the wires on the single phase (not from either just from one). The introduction of RCD units added an extra layer of safety by allowing interruption of the supply if any current flows from the unreferenced wire on the single phase to earth at any point before the MEN link in the supply (usually as you say in the supply junction box). Having unreferenced single phase is not unsafe, it is just less safe, and in some cases more safe. For higher phase voltages such as 220/240 it is less safe, but for 110 volt with a split phase (120° AC) it is safer because each output is only 55volts when a connection through your body to the mid point earth is made. That is why industrial site equipment in the UK uses split phase mid point earth isolation transformers to drop from 240volts to 120volts with a mid point earth, and isolating the supply in the same unit. Personally I would not use any AC power supply at 220volts unless it has an RCD right at the source (at the inverter in your system). I think you should consider adding one that is plugged in the inverter outlet before anything else. In my last comment on your last video I explained I had not linked the negative and earth on my inverter with an actual solid connection but had instead used a 1000ohm resistor. This was done for a reason, firstly it protects the inverter as the maximum power the resistor can pass is about .2 to .3 of a watt, and secondly it provides the reference to earth needed for the RCD to work reliably. It is true that you can detect the voltage on your inverter secondary if the earth is linked. This will be true on any inverter except an isolated secondary inverter (such as a low frequency inverter). Low frequency inverters use a large transformer on the DC side and generally the output of that transformers secondary winding is not connected to the inverter chassis. So is the reference to earth on the DC side dangerous? It is no more dangerous than touching any of your garage earth points, the garage metal frame, or anything else that is touching earth since that is what you have connected it directly to with your link. So I would say it is not. The use of the resistor in my system was a safeguard for peace of mind but is based on an actual product available for off gridders in North America and Canada. It is sold at high street retailers anywhere where ICE generators are sold to allow the use of the generator on a hook up to a property that uses the same type of earth link (MEN test) circuitry in the main power box as is present in the Tesla EVSE unit. I wouldn’t feel safe having a direct link (without the resistor) as I know that it will trigger an RCD but won’t pass a lethal current.

Solar Dump Hot Water Heater? How to divert your extra energy to hot water heater once your batteries are full... great video idea, I think you are the exact person to figure out the best way to do this and make a great video about it. Do I need a Voltage Sensing Sensor and a DC to DC Solid State Switch connected between my Charge Controller and my Batteries? Thanks in advance!

You have what is called stray capacitance coupling between AC output of inverter and the cold side of the inverter. Your meter has 10 MOhm input Z so it can easily show the AC reading from the stray capacitive coupling effect, the current will be really low and not enough to trip GFCI (GFCI will trip if leakage current is >5 mA). If you do the same test on for example the USB charger that is connected to the AC outlet utility, you will also see the AC reading between earth safety ground and the USB pins and and meter shield. Some power supply will also have very small coupling capacitor (in pF range) between hot side and the cold side in order the pass EMI test. My VICTRON Phoenix inverter (12V 1200VA) is shipped with Neutral not connected to the chassis Ground, you have to open up the unit and move the jumper wire to bonded the Neutral and Ground, (similar setup for my MPP Solar) this Inverter then becomes your main power panel with Neutral bonded to ground and the ground must be connected to the Ground rod juts like in your house. BTW, some of these cheaply made Inverter will blow up if Neutral is connected to chassis ground which is connected to the cold side circuit ground. Mike Holt Videos are great for learning about US NEC system: ru-vid.comvideos

I had this same problem with charging my volt from an inverter. I bought one of those enclosed outlet boxes with a 3 wire cord on it, I snipped the ground from the cord to the outlet inside the box, then connected the outlet ground to the outlet neutral and so the inverter ground is not connected to the inverter neutral, only the outlet neutral is connected only to the outlet ground. I plug this outlet into the inverter then plug my car charger into the external outlet and no more ground fault. And so the inverter ground is left as it is with this arrangement and maybe this will resolve the floating voltage on your battery input.

My chinese inverter/charge controller (all in one) very specifically says not to earth the inverter with the solar panels as it will cause current leakage to the inverter are the words it uses. To get around that I use a separate ground and grounding rod just for the panels. The panels really only need grounding in case of lightning

For a closed inverter system I don't think earth ground is necessary. It does proved lightening protection, but for safety bonding of all devices, the earth rod connection is not needed. Recall that for the grid, power station actually use earth ground as a power return to the station whereas an inverter provides both potentials.

Hi Andy you need a low frequency inverter,it has an output transformers that isolates the dc from the ac.Hi freq inverters don't isolate the high voltage dc .This dc goes into an H bridge dc to ac output. When you connect one side to ground your getting stray voltage,. I would use an isolation transformer on the output ,then you can safely connect the neutral side to earth ground.Rember your high frequency inverter has 360 vdc going into the output bridge any high side leakage to ground will be fatal! !! Thanks For Yuri Time.

I just wired my giandel inverters as you would a standard house setup with MEN on the main earth link in meter box years ago never had any issues Should work an RCD in that config as well if required Just a standard domestic setup with an inverter and batteries And a cheap 3 light plugin tester to see if it's working as it should

Do you the link to your heavy duty battery/welding cable please?

The victron convertor is great. Dutch of course.

I think the floating voltage is coming from the inverter, and going to the DC side of the inverter. Maybe add a big diode to the DC input side of the inverter, and see if the floating voltage disappears.

Old school GFI now called GFCI in the hardware store (US NEC). They are the same.

I went off grid ten years ago and built my own home single-handedly. In June 2021 I bought a Tesla model 3 and wanted to charge it using the sun. Here is my setup: I have three 300 watt panels. I have a flat roof and leave them flat as I live in the middle of Oregon. (If I tried to point them south I would only get rays between 11am and 2 pm.) On a sunny day I get almost 800 watts. I feed this energy into a 60 amp MPPT charge controller keeping six 100 amp hour Battle Borne batteries charged. The key is using a 3500 watt inverter (pure sine wave). On a sunny day my Tesla wants 1500 watts if I set it to 12 amps and get 6 miles of range. On a cloudy day I need 1000 watts so I change the Tesla charging down to 8 amps and get 4 miles of range. I use thick wires so I do not loose current and protect batteries and inverter with 300 amp and 200 amp circuit breakers. If I tried to use 12 amps it would drain the batteries real quick so I keep it at 10 or 8 amps and it charges for 14 hours a day. This actually is as good as if not better than someone on the grid using 120 volts AC. Make sure you use a bonding plug (connect neutral to ground) if Tesla won't charge. Some inverters don't need one.

You made me LOL when you were laughing saying you could watch the wattage on your phone all day long. I laughed because that's what i do for most of the day somedays.

Its a neutral to earth bond / reference that the charger is looking for, As you are not connected to the grid where the neutral is connected to the center tap of the delta /star transformer, so your RCD / GFCI cannot trip . Solution might be a small consumer unit from the inverter with a bonded earth to neutral across the busbars, then connect your load(s) to a suitable circuit breaker. Test for earth loop impedance to be sure !

Great video again! Here are some thoughts, don't take them for granted: If you build a pure IT-Net without bonding "N" to ground, you should use an IMD/Insulation Monitoring Device/"Isolationswächter". Because an RCD will not trigger, it monitors the ungrounded system between an active phase conductor and earth and gives some security. Especially when using it in the garden, where water can shorten the system to ground. If you want to build a local TN-C-S system, you need to ground the battery-side also. These 70V come from a Y-capacitor in the inverter, which suppresses high-frequency distortion. It connects the primary and secondary side of the inverter and shifts the potential of the battery-side. But I don't know if all this cheaper inverters can work in a configuration, where the DC side is grounded too. Most of them are constructed for an IT-Net. Last thought: You should use an "Allstromsensitiven" RCD, which means it can detect DC too. A normal AC-RCD can be blocked by overlapping DC current. I think in Germany it's mandytory to use this types of RCD in photovoltaic-inverter systems. Great work so far, like to see charging your Tesla in a safe and solar way.

Hello deh am from the Caribbean, st Lucia the reason why u are getting the high voltage on the inverter side is the grown wire have to be on a separate grown rod

It does have isolation but it has some high value resistor between. It will be fine.

Great topic. While I will read all the comments, I'll add some variables that may, or may not be relevant: My 2019 Magnum MS4448PAE will not charge my Chevy Volt or Bolt. However, I discovered this only occurs when the Magnum's load is light. When I turn on my resistive diversion load (water heater element) the Magnum charges both of my EV's just fine. This is an undesirable remedy as my diversion loads are successive, which is to say that if I'm plugging the car directly into my system, I've already reached my hot water capacity. Additionally, as I have two systems (48V and 24V), my old workhorse 1995 Trace SW4024 charges either EV perfectly regardless of the load imposed on this old inverter. While the solution may sound simple, (just use the Trace inverter instead of the Magnum), I have many reasons (primarily due to system balancing) that I had expected I would be able to charge the EV's through the Magnum. -- Steve in Wisconsin

When using the Juice Booster 2 you can set "Earth Off" in order to charge the Tesla without earth. I guess it will also work in your setting.

Let me add this, earthing- grounding, by code, is for lightning protection. While some people think that grounding is the holy grail of safty, others feel it's mostly a waste of time. There are some important uses. One, it makes these smart devices work. Second, it gives, current a path to flow, other than your meaty body, if there is a fault. Good luck.

Have you tried connecting the clip wire to the green ground , but disconnect the green from the inverter . Connect clip wire str8 to the green ground wire and see what it does . Props to you that it may work on the Tesla charger . You might can invest in a low frequency- transformer- inverter .

Thanks ....

It sounds like a bit of capacitive coupling between the A.C. and D.C. terminals on the inverter. A high resistance may, or a suitable capacitor to ground will drain that low power A.C. from the D.C. side. The resistor will also conduct the D.C. which may or may not be a problem. If the D.C. side isn't grounded or if you can use a large enough resistor to not conduct too much D.C. to ground it should be fine. Are you supposed to ground one side of the D.C.? In the U.S. we are for grid connected systems and some equipment for that market does build in that D.C. ground bond. (I don't like it, but that was code years ago when I knew it.) Your Telsa charger does not need an actual ground, it needs only the neutral and ground terminals connected. (In other words, connecting neutral and ground terminal is necessary and sufficient, while the actual ground is neither necessary nor sufficient.) It may be that if you disconnect the inverter from the ground that you will eliminate that floating voltage, but I doubt it. Most likely the coupling is happening internal to the inverter and is simply some incidental capacitance between the D.C. and the chassis. Then you put A.C. on the chassis by connecting the chassis to the A.C. terminal. Your inverter might be intentional coupling or even a bond between the D.C. and the chassis, and you need to know that for each piece of equipment before you tie all your chassis ground together. If one vendor connects chassis to D.C. negative and another vendor connects chassis to D.C. positive and then you connect all the chassis together... The GFI (also known as GFCI) used in the U.S. does not need a ground nor a neutral to ground bond. They are purely differential devices - if the difference in current between the hot and neutral lines is too much, it disconnects the hot output. It is nice when equipment does not bond A.C. neutral to ground, but is designed to allow that bonding. That way the equipment can be used to provide backup power to the home and failover needs only switch the hot and leaves neutral and ground always connected to the home system as code requires. In that case the home system provides the neutral and ground bond, and it would be unsafe (and not code approved) to also bond it in the inverter (or generator).

So you connected the active or neutral to house earth to make the charger work ? Which one Active (blue) or neutral (brown) ?

Hi Andy, here’s a bit of trivia from the US about EV charging. I have a Chevy Bolt, it comes from the factory with a charger the plugs into standard 120 volt outlets. In the US one wire is 120 volt, one wire is neutral, and 3rd is earth ground. As you noted, in the meter box, the earth ground and neutral are bonded. But some guys have made a cheater adapter the puts 120 volts one wire, the other 120 volt (split phase in US) on what was the neutral, to get 240 volts input to the charger, keeping the earth ground connected as before, and it works fine. I can’t say for sure what Tesla does in the US, but I understand they come with different adapters, so maybe the US Tesla chargers would work in your case. Anyway, thanks for the videos, I really enjoy watching.

I second the suggestion from Gabriel Orzeszko below: get a 3 KVA (or larger) isolation transformer. NOT an autotransformer, but a real isolation transformer with no electrical connection between primary and secondary. The secondary will now have no potential between either side of its output and earth ground. To be shocked, you would have to be in contact with both output terminals. Choose either output to be "neutral" and jumper it also to the ground terminal on the Tesla charger. That's now your MEN link. The leakage you are seeing definitely indicates a low quality inverter. I suspect there is capacitive coupling to the chassis.

There are a lot of comments here already but i think this Will help... When the power suplier delivers power to you, they have phase and neutral Wire... The neutral Wire is created at the high voltage to low voltage transformer house or on those pole Transformers... They just conect One of the output legs of the transformer to a ground rod that they drive into the ground. And that creates the neutral Wire that comes in the low voltage lines to your house. You should try to conect One of the inverter outputs to a diferent ground pole that should be at least 20 meters away from your main earth rod...that should emulate what they do at the transformer houses or the Transformers that get mounted in poles... Hope you see this because i had the same problem and that is how i fixed it.

Hello. I have just faced the same issue. However my setup is different. I have three strings of 7000 wp each. They are connected to a three hybrid Deye inverters of 8000 w each. The letters are connected to a battery bank of 1000 ah. When the grid is on the Tesla charger works like a charm. However when the grid is off, then the Tesla charger throws this error: “insufficient grounding”. Would connecting the neutral phase to the ground on the connection coming from the load ports on the inverters and going to my electric distribution board solve the issue?

Another idea. Get a grid tie inverter with limiter. Plug tesla to mains. Grid tie inverter reduces amount charger is pulling until main power is near zero. Ecoworthy is one brand.

Try to connect the ground to the output in the inverter (neutral and ground pin) and not connect it to the chassis of the inverter it self. than measure again on the DC output. I think DC - is on the chassis what makes your connection to DC. You can also do this with A short extension cable outside the inverter.

May i sugest a diode in that wire you plug in inverter? (white one ) im no eletcrician, but might work. Best regards from Portugal

it would seem the popular choice is a ??$1200 Victron ?? - der you need at least a MultiPlos II 5k 48v due to your Tesla charger draw is about 2500W for several hours. I had a Victron MultiPlus 48v 3k which cost me a lot more than $1200 and it couldn't handle 1650W - 1800W continuous for even 3hrs (kept doing thermal shutdowns). Andy, Victron is good but don't go by the apparent specs buy bigger or you'll regret the experience. For me the Victron 3k was an expensive and complete disappointment as it failed after

Keep the current setup, but protect yourself by adding an RCD breaker between the earth bonded inverter and the car lead. So now you have the car lead earth directly connected to earth. The car lead neural connected through the RCD neutral, and the car lead live trough the RCD live, now you are safe again.

The EVSE that comes with Teslas in Norway have this ground check disabled. This is because over 90% of homes have TT or IT power. So there is no neutral power pin (Both are live ). So any EVSE that are being used in Norway can be used on the inverter in the video. The EVSE he had for the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV will most likely work.

i think if u just sand ur grounding rod it will make a better contact and work. good luck jan

I have the same problem trying to charge my brothers tesla of my eu2000i. I'm going to bond neutral to ground in my generator. I can not see what the downside would ever be.

Great vid. Here in Canada its called islandable. There is a few inverters that are equipped with this. Outback, Magnum, Aims, Triplite and a few more. The Aims may be cheaper then the Victron. Also if you plan on running the Tesla charger then I would go with a bigger inverter. Maybe a 5000w. Thanks for sharing

I have a Victron Multiplus 3K and have just measured the AC voltage between the AC earth and the DC +ve and DC -ve. There is no AC voltage on either.

This will be an IT arrangement rather than a TN-S or TN-C-S that the inverter is producing. What the inverter is doing is actually unsafe though as the ground pin should not be going to ground. IT arrangements are safe because it’s isolated from ground. You should only ever have one class 1 item (anything with metal conductive parts) plugged in to such an inverter at any given time, or any number of class 2 items (double insulated). What you’re doing by essentially converting the IT to TN-S definitely isn’t safe particularly as you haven’t got a protective device to kick in (RCD or GFCI). Victron will have your back on this and have implemented it in a compliant way. It’s expensive but better to be safe!

I'm having this same Ground issue from my 3.5kw inverter using my Nissan leaf EVSE.

Do the link in the cable of the tesla charger...

Try to use an ECLB ( FI-Schutzschalter in german) on the output - maybe, and only maybe, it could do the trick. I presume that you don't feel the potential because you are wearing flip flops with a rubber, insulating sole. It would be interesting how the Victron does it - I presume some galvanic separation between DC and AC - as it should be.

Hi Andy, I'm from Perth, Western Australia and also have an off-grid garage. I note that you are tying your island (off-grid) network to the GRID earth which is definitely not good. For a few dollars more, buy your own off-grid system earthing rod and keep everything isolated so you don't get the AC induction voltages seen here in the video. I checked my system for the same things you are experiencing here and both my off-grid inverters are correctly earthed with no induced voltages in anything (cases, load panel earth, etc.). Have you turned off the GRID supply Main Switch and done the same checks? I run a 4000W/16000W LF inverter for heavy loads (bore pump, air compressor, arc welder, etc.) and a little cheapy 3000W/6000W inverter (both pure sine) for lights, drills, saws, etc. and due to the high system power (>31kwh of battery (LiFePO4 + AGM + Supercapacitor). I needed proper earthing to safe guard against the possible >16000W of instant output. I have actually measured >14000W peak from the system so made sure by consulting an electrician, that my system wouldn't blow my arm off or kill me. My point, try to keep your off-grid completely decoupled from the Grid supply, including the earth.

Did you ever sort your 71v AC on your solar DC side of the circuit? If not is there any reason you don't link the negative common of what appears to be a totally floating solar DC system through to mains ground? Even to give some small protection to static build up during electric storm conditions? I realise a direct or close proximity strike it will all be kaput! If you have some sort of ground connection then your capacitive pickup of mains will be gone from all of your equipment. Your inverter will still need it neutral to ground earth link to allow the Tesla brick to be happy.

Get the Victron it is correctly setup for the MEN system and depending which model you get have a internal relay that switches internal MEN in or out depending on if it detects a upstream MEN if you are using it with a normal AC input/ Bypass input. Ive got a MPP solar inverter that does a similar thing, acts as a UPS with bypass and internal relay that switches the internal MEN in if the upstream disconnects, not a isolated/ transformer unit either. Long term i will be moving to Victron also.

Victron should send you an inverter to review or at the VERY least give you a very decent discount... Though I'm sure the tesla would be fine to charge this way I'm sure posting the video for the world to see may void your warranty just cause they can be like that now and then, from what I've heard, regardless to be safe I agree with you

Insulates ground wire through hole in the shed sheet, attaches to ground spike thats screwed to shed sheet with metal bracket and screw. hehe

that smile on your face :) makes me think of a series from my youth.. "love it when a plan comes together" ;)

Check out Renogy. I just installed the Renogy 2kW inverter charger. It has an automatic neutral-to-ground bonding switch while in inverter power mode but when using grid power, the neutral-to-ground is disconnected, which is correct. I paid less than $600 USD, but the unit works on 12VDC (sailboat) and inverts to 120VAC.

Do you actually have 240 between live legs or is it a split phase 480VAC system there? In the US most homes have a split phase 240VAC system. The wires in a 4 wire system are L1, L2, N, Ground. If you have a 480VAC where you are, then the legs would be the same with L1, L2, N, and Ground. If it only is a 240VAC system, then you really have no Neutral, you have L1 and L2 only with a ground. Inside one of PowerJack's US inverters there is a connection between the chassis ground screw and the outlet ground pins along with a connection to the center tap of the transformer. That allows the GFCI receptacles that are hard wired to a panel to function properly when fed from the inverter. Push the Test button on one and it works. Reset, and the indicator light comes on saying all is good. Hook up one of the 120 Volt only units where you don't have the grounded system to Neutral and you can destroy the inverter. That is common on the High Frequency 120V units. As I have both types, I built a transfer switch box for use with one of the refrigerators. If plugged into the house and using power from it, it operates with the house Neutral and Ground. If it is being supplied by the 120V inverter, it uses the inverter Ground connection. If using the 120V side of the 120/240V inverter, it uses the inverter Neutral/Ground system. If you attempt to use the 120V inverter with a GFCI receptacle, it will not function. You will find some 120V inverters that have GFCI outlets and those have extra circuits in them that allow them to work.

Dear Andy, you created No. 1 battery, do not ruin your project with that sh.t immature inverter. Victron is expensive but rules and works flawlessly (I have 2pcs in split phase) and you have all under control. Use that black brick just for experiments or sell it. Create your AC network safely and systematically..... & charge your great & expensive jewel Tesla with care. Enjoy your channel. Daniel Slovakia

Make a short cable between the inverter and the Tesla cable with the MEN link in it. Otherwise see Dayle Edwards comment. Don't run out and drop $1200 yet. This has a simple solution. Thanx :)

look at the mpp solar , or deye/sunsynk/sol-arks

I have a Victron Phoenix 3000 cause the chinese one caused interference on the AM band

I didn't see any reason to connect any of my solar battery inverter system to earth ground. If the whole system is floating there should be no safety problem. Stand in a puddle and touch any single wire and not get shocked. So I connected the outlet ground terminal of my inverter to the neutral and all was well so the Tesla charger sees no voltage difference between its input ground an neutral wires and runs. Of course the other solution is to add an isolation transformer to the output of the cheap inverter. I think that is basically what the expensive inverters are doing.

I charge the Tesla Model 3 and a Nissan Leaf with MPP Solar LV2424. A gasoline powered inverter generator had ground faults and would not work until I installed a small resistor between neutral and ground. The generator had two outputs. One to car, and the other to cord with accessory box having neutral tied to ground via resistor. I believe it is a carbon 10K ohms. Just try a few from your junk box.

Have you talked to Tesla in Norway most of houses has a it net. That’s more like what you have now. We hav seprat ground straight to earth. No link to the active leads. But we can stil charge Tesla or Nissan as I have.

Well, the inverter you have is basically for use in a vehicle for powering chargers, and such. The victron is designed specifically for what you are wanting to do, off grid. 1200$ is actually very inexpensive, and on the low side for high quality inverters. You can't go wrong, and will be very happy in the end. And one more plus, is you will have the ability for more charging options.

I have ran across this exact problem and found cheap inverters have no isolation between the battery and ac output, and have destroyed an inverter making the connection you made the solution was finding an isolated inverter, Meanwell makes the very inverter that you need and the quality is very very high. www.meanwell-web.com/en-gb/dcac-inverter just be sure to choose the correct dc and ac voltages. best of luck with your offgrid system

Victron to Chinese and now I’m back to victron. They sound expensive but they are worth it and you will end up paying the same over time.

Andy, I would call Giandel.com.au & have them splain why the 2 plugs do not allow for GFCI nor spikes in excess of continuous voltage?

The neutral/ground short is something I've seen done in videos where people try to charge their Tesla from a generator. Good work figuring it out for your set up! The nicer inverters like Victron Multiplus or Quattro have built-in grounding relays for this.

Don't Tesla's have DC charging? Can you skip the inverter and just feed the correct DC V&I to the fast charging connection? Edit: 480-volt DC might be tricky. Got a nice boost converter lying around? :)

Is there not something you can do outside the inverter, i.e. isolate it and do the earth-neutral elsewhere?

Let's see, $1200 or a jumper lead...tough one. If you spend $1200 and buy the Victron, what guarantees do you have that you your batteries don't have a AC imposed on them as well? I wonder if this AC imposed on the batteries varies with load on the inverter and if there is a DC offset as well?

Hey from Québec City Canada. My solar panels beat yours: it is MINUS 30C, full sun. Talk about efficiency.

And now you can use rcds, interesting, my latronics will accept men link according to their website.

A visit to John Ward on RU-vid reveals a few of the reasons the regulations are a bit picky, especially around EVs and islanded power. One thing to consider, if you have grid AC-In anywhere in the system, Should there be a grid fault involving the PME/NE conductor, ALL THREE conductors become live. An earth rod will fix that? Nope. Ground rods just aren't low enough resistance to handle that kind of fault current. It is still very likely the soil and ground around your rod is still dropping more than 70V, meaning all the exposed metal work will be 70V to earth and still lethal. A 3 pole transfer switch AND a separate local earth rod, and RCDs both sides should be enough for the inverter. Oh and a Neutral/Earth relay with the grid tie drops into island mode. For the EV... seek professional help, it is a special case because the car is insulated from the ground and the chance of latent high voltage is just too high.

If you add a victron inverter you can add a fix device and link everything to. View your data on the internet makes life simple. You need to have a bond between ground and neutral to be safe and a lot of these cheaper inverters don’t allow this properly. You will love the victron. Otherwise if you go with an axpert or must or something similar I believe they do it as well.

That rogue AC voltage is caused by the secondary AC bypass capacitor being connected to the DC negative jnside the inverter. These inverters are "split phase, each ac terminal goes from plus 115, to -115 volts at 50 Hz, there is no ground reference as such. To safely use this inverter requires that capacitor to be returned back to whichever split phase terminal you have grounded, and not to the DC negative. This is easy to do if you have confidence in disassembling the unit and identifying that component. The current involved is very low as you have discovered, therefore, you may find that simply grounding also the DC negative to the common ground will also work with no disassembly required. Your inverter housing is floating, its not connected internally to anything. This problem of rogue AC voltages is common with appliances that use common mode suppressor capacitors, where a capacitor from phase, and another from neutral are connected to the case, this then floating at half mains AC voltage. Certainly not worth spending $1800 to replace that inverter.

this so called ghost or phantom voltage i think..

I am not sure about the impact on the DC circuitry but on the output side you have basically done the same thig you would do in a switchboard where you only have an active and a neutral to start and you subsequently connect all of your neutrals to your earth stake, I dont see why this wouldnt work but you might want to use at least a 1.5mm cable in case power does go to earth for some reason. A dead short could send a lot of power down that jumper wire.

I had exactly the same situation recently when I grounded my powerwall to my house ground. I got 110V though and when I touched it, I did get a small shock. Measuring the current it was around 0.3-05A. I didn't like it and in my case have my powerwall already going through a properly grounded setup to run my house so don't really need to ground the battery itself.

Red wire from your earth box to earth stack NAUGHTY" should be green and yellow. FAIL?

How many amps does each solar panel have?

I would say get a cheap solar inverter to charge the battery and create off-grid mains electricity

Buy the Victron, it is cheaper because it will last more than 3 timers longer than the chinese inverter. Gruß aus Deutschland, Michael

Just give the inveter its own ground or don't ground it to anything but still bond the N to the G

Go for the Victron inverter. Safety first. I do not have sufficient technical knowledge to judge the Chinese inverters, but they usually take short cuts in their design, because they do not understand the implications and thus cut costs! I would like to see others who know, explain to us properly what is happening. An explanation not just based on economics but rather technical reasons for safety.

All Sensata/Magnum "Dimensions" series inverters and some AIMS inverters feature what you called "ME" or Bonded Ground. These are expensive & HEAVY due to the way they create 120V/220V via LOW-Frequency methods (HEAVY internal magnetics). There is supposedly ONE HIGH-Frequency inverter manufacturer called WAGAN whose "Pure Line" series features "ME" Bonded Ground wagan.com/collections/pure-sine-inverters-psw/products/pure-line-inverter-3000-watt

you need to replace the inverter...ugghh!!! I'm using an Ampeak 2000w inverter with 3 outlets and the top outlet is a true ground setup but the 2 bottom are shared floating grounds. so i plug my sensitive appliances to the top outlet and everything else goes to the floaters.. take your shoes off and touch the back of the inverter, don't get mad at me when something happens

Die Tesla Wallbox baucht eine saubere Erdung. Ich werde es bei meinem Aufbau so machen, dass ich die Zuleitung zur Wallbox am Hybridwechselrichter vorbei auf die Zuleitung der Bypass-Zuleitung überbrücke. Da Du eine komplett autarke Insel hast wird das schwierig.

Another great video Andy. Go with the Victron. I’ve got the 5Kva Multiplus II for my off grid set up although the earth neutral link is done in the switch box with that. I had a Giant Power 5Kva inverter/charger and it was still going strong when I replaced it but the Victron unit is twice the weight of the Giant Power.

Once you ground everything else it should go away you might need to ground one side of your battery I don't know if that is a problem

Get Venus OS and a Raspberry Pi..

Hallo, bei mir im Einsatz ist ein Effekta M1 48-5000 dieser macht bei Akkubetrieb eine sogenannte "Sternpunktnachbildung" N Leiter wird auf PE gelegt. Damit funktioniert dann auch alles sauber inklusive FI Schalter.In der Anleitung gut Beschrieben!PDF bei Effekta.Der Inverter ist ein Chinaprodukt, bauähnlich mit vielen,:z.Bsp. Steca Solarix 5000, MPP Pip 5048 und viele weitere. Die Dinger gibt es von 400 -900 Euro. Auch in verschiedenen Leistungsklassen. I use an Effekta M1 48-5000 which makes a so-called "star point replica" when running on battery. N Leietre is connected to PE. So everything works properly including FI switch. Well described in the instructions! PDF at Effekta. The inverter is a Chinese product, similar in construction with many: e.g. Steca Solarix 5000, MPP Pip 5048 and many more, available from 400-900 euros. Also in different performance classes. greetings from Germany

most of inverters have grounding problems, but what i did with my reliable power inverter was i linked inverters pcb to case as it was meant to be and all works

Hi Andy When you gets quality products then you get more watts out. Gets victron all the way and be a happy dude 😀

U could use transformer 240v to 240v 3.5kw to make galvanic separation...like victron....

Bootleg Grounds, Men-link is forbidden in EU. we use TNS grounding. Germany baned Bootleg Grounds, Men-link in early 1970.

your playing with fire that edge voltage that your getting is bad it causes a EMF / buzz in your electronics and can fry them and since is in your DC side it also strains the BMS and such and cause them to fail its bad all around not a good idea.