I have installed an inverter with a RCBO on the 240v side; I have linked the 240v earth with the negative so it’s not floating. I see online it’s recommend that you connect the 240v ground to the 12v ground, is this advisable?
It somehow doesn’t feel right, if I ever have a fault on the 240v side and the earth becomes live, the van will then also become live with no route to earth, if I were to stand outside the van and touch the chassis would I become that route to ground?
Would it not be safer to keep the 12v and 240v grounds separate and let the RCBO prevent any issues on the 240v side?
I would appreciate any help to understand what the safest thing to do is and why some advise connecting the two.
For most people those are the same things. Technically theres a difference between earthing and grounding, but in most cases the terms can be used interchangeably. Would be nice to know what you connected where exactly.
I guess its a vehicle, so its body will be connected to the battery negative as well as the Phoenix PE lug, so the AC outputs PE is also connected to the vehicle body, and if the neutral-earth bond is left connected (which in most cases it should be) also the neutral wil be connected to the vehicle body.
The body needs to be connected to the AC PE, otherwise an RCBO could not work properly, or not work in all cases (with an isolation between vehicle body and AC PE, the AC phase touching the vehicle body would not trip the RCBO but still put the vehicle body at 240VAC in regards to the AC PE).
Thats what a typical AC installation in a vehicle looks like, everythings bonded to the body.