How do I ground a Xantrex SW inverter in a home?

[jsolar]

Hi,
As a newbie learning about solar power, chargers, batteries, & inverters, I'm stuck on exactly how to ground my Xantrex Prowatt sw 1000 inverter. (http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Pow...er%20NA%29.pdf)

I've brought my fully charged 12v, 85Amp hour battery indoors and want to connect my Xantrex inverter. This will be used to power an LCD monitor (I'll add the desktop computer later).

My holdup is exactly how to ground this inverter inside a single family home. The manual says I need to ground the inverter and I've read many posts about grounding it to a grounding rod outdoors, or to the chassis of an RV, car, or boat, but nothing about how to properly ground it inside a single family home. Help!

With a fully charged battery, I'm anxious to use some of that stored energy but want to be safe.

Thanks,
jsolar

[Sunking]

It is done inside your house main breaker panel box. Refer to NEC 250.32

[toddbailey]

Please refer to page 5 of the manual.

The chassis ground terminal is where you connect the ground to.
you'll probably want to use a #10 or #12 grounding wire and depending on how closely you want to follow NEC code you can obtain a ground usually at any ac outlet or better yet directly from the mains panel, a copper water pipe coming into the building, or a ground rod outside.

You won't die and go to hell if you don't have the unit grounded and the inverter will work with out it but for a mater of safety you should have the unit grounded in case there is any sort of fault condition.

[Mike90250]

Beware - if you ground the chassis, be sure that it's OK per the manual, if OTHER parts of the SYSTEM are grounded, like a battery terminal. Not all inverters are designed to work into a "standard North America neutral ground system". (But I think the SW series is OK there - this is a caution to others with $30 automotive inverters with floating H bridge outputs)

[jsolar]

Sunking- Thanks for the reference. That NEC 250.32 has been way more info and too deep for me just learning the basics. I did finally glean the bit of information I was looking for and think I have a working solution to "simplify" my needs. I'm going to ground my inverter to an AC outlet.

Toddbailey - EXACTLY what I was thinking! Because the room I want to provide power in is located on the upper floors, I had no desire to run a grounding wire down to the remote corner of my basement. Spent 2 days trying to figure out an alternative when grounding it to an AC outlet came to mind. I picked up a grounding plug adapter and some 10 gauge wire from the local hardware store (home depot) and will be crafting the connector one of these evenings.

mike20950 - Thanks. Yes, I've read a some real unfortunate stories of those who tried to do the right/safe thing of grounding when it wasn't required and subsequently fried their inverter. I'm banking on the fact the manual is telling me to ground the chassis. We'll find out soon enough.

I really appreciate the input from everyone and will post pictures of my creation & connections when I'm done.