Positive Ground Vs Negative Ground Solar Panels

The slide in camper has a chassis ground common to all the interior and clearance lights.

Positive ground vs negative ground solar panels.

And all switching fusing control done on the positive side. But before we address each of these it s important to understand the actual definition of ground. I have a not so typical question on charge controllers. Common negative grounding is simply having all negatives linked to ground.

The panel frames may be mounted to chassis ground and the solar controller may be mounted to. Originally the voltages on the wires were positive with respect to earth. 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. If grounding is necessary it must be completed on the positive line.

There are three main reasons for grounding in an off grid power system. 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. Chassis or mechanical and electrical. 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.

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. There are two types of ground. They both relate to leakage to ground. This is called negative ground since the negative side of the battery is grounded to earth.

Positive ground the positive terminal is defined ground. Negative ground means that ground is referenced to the negative terminal of the supply voltage. Common positive systems can be a massive can of worms. 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.

As the negative terminals of different devices are all at different voltages in a common positive system. I am also powering some clearance lights with the truck trailer plug. Safety v oltage transients and t h e sheer fact that they are required for some loads.