Hi all  I have my solar system set up and itis working perfectly. BUT when it rains I get a small shock from the solar panels the are build on a wood stand as shown in the picture.

I have 12 panels  of 450watts each in total these 4 are the only ones off the ground

Just to make sure is it best to earth these panels So that is does not happen any more or do I Nedd to connect something else

 

 

I have the same thing when it rains. My panels are on a zinc roof, and when it rains I can feel a small shocking sensation when touching the gutters while barefoot. It is a continuous sensation like alternating current. And when it rains in the night, I can see on my inverter's data graphs that the panels' DC voltage goes up to about 90V even though there is no sunshine.

I have the same problem, @Bernardf are your panel frames earthed? If not it now makes three of us now and thats probably a dead giveaway that the earthing will be solution.

I was meant to add the earth anyway, but havent got to it yet. 

 

1 hour ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

I have the same problem, @Bernardf are your panel frames earthed? If not it now makes three of us now and thats probably a dead giveaway that the earthing will be solution.

I was meant to add the earth anyway, but havent got to it yet. 

 

No the panel frames are not earthed.

To all those who have not yet earthed your panels, print this out, and cut it out along the line. Now you have your very own round tuit, keep it in a safe place.

 

9 minutes ago, YellowTapemeasure said:

To all those who have not yet earthed your panels, print this out, and cut it out along the line. Now you have your very own round tuit, keep it in a safe place.

 

Thanks @YellowTapemeasure, yep no excuse, we are sometimes our own worst enemy. 

The alternating current is actually coming from your inverter. Even at night, there is a bus-voltage (≈ 400V) near-square wave of potential between PV- and earth. That's a side effect of the way that modern transformerless high PV voltage inverters work. It's also the reason that inverters should perform earth leakage testing (insulation monitoring), but this often gets skipped (certainly in Voltronic off-grid models, i.e. Axperts with all their different names). That voltage is lethal. Usually, you would have no contact with bare PV wires, but when it rains, unless your panels are exceptionally well made and all the connections stay perfectly dry, there will be a moisture path from somewhere along the panel string to the metal frames of the panels. Moisture (water) is of course slightly conductive. At high voltage, it doesn't take much conductivity to shock puny humans. It's also possible that perfectly insulated panels can still capacitively couple a fraction of that square wave (with lots of high frequency components that couple much better than 50 Hz does) to the metal frame.

Be thankful that it's only tingly.

On 2023/03/08 at 2:35 PM, Coulomb said:

The alternating current is actually coming from your inverter. Even at night, there is a bus-voltage (≈ 400V) near-square wave of potential between PV- and earth. That's a side effect of the way that modern transformerless high PV voltage inverters work. It's also the reason that inverters should perform earth leakage testing (insulation monitoring), but this often gets skipped (certainly in Voltronic off-grid models, i.e. Axperts with all their different names). That voltage is lethal. Usually, you would have no contact with bare PV wires, but when it rains, unless your panels are exceptionally well made and all the connections stay perfectly dry, there will be a moisture path from somewhere along the panel string to the metal frames of the panels. Moisture (water) is of course slightly conductive. At high voltage, it doesn't take much conductivity to shock puny humans. It's also possible that perfectly insulated panels can still capacitively couple a fraction of that square wave (with lots of high frequency components that couple much better than 50 Hz does) to the metal frame.

Be thankful that it's only tingly.

Will this be fixed by earthing the panel frames?

Essentially, yes, but you might introduce other problems. Sorry, busy today, no time to elaborate. Perhaps research fault code 08.