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Thanks everyone for the help, I think my system is now protected. 

I'm just not sure about lighting protection. I live on the Highveld and we can get severe thunderstorms. I have grounded my panels and inverter but I see some people also ground their batteries, is it really needed? 

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18 minutes ago, TheOracle said:

Thanks everyone for the help, I think my system is now protected. 

I'm just not sure about lighting protection. I live on the Highveld and we can get severe thunderstorms. I have grounded my panels and inverter but I see some people also ground their batteries, is it really needed? 

Grounding the batteries is not common. I would only do it if it was a system requirement of the inverter. Many inverters explicitly tell you NOT to ground the batteries.

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1 hour ago, TheOracle said:

I'm just not sure about lighting protection. I live on the Highveld and we can get severe thunderstorms.

I think Heidelberg must be the worst place to stay when it comes to thunder and electrical storms. I have 8 x TV's and 2 x DSTV decoders. In one summer I lost them all, three times in a row, over a time period of about 8 weeks. I am not even talking about telephones, modems and gate intercom systems. Those are a given, I lose them every storm. I have 8 x ADSL modems lying around here, all have lightning damage. I now just buy the cheapest modem I can find. I have also thrown out all the lightning protection devices. Lightning goes through them like they don't even exist. They don't work, they only cost more money to replace every time. 

I never earthed my panels standing 10m in the sky on the tracker. Every time I earth something, lightning takes it out. It seems lightning looks around for something that is properly earthed and strikes it as it has a proper path to earth. I also have a two way radio I use for our local CPF. It has an external antenna that is about 4m above roof height that is not earthed either. It has never been hit by lightning in the last 4 years. 

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