We had some serious bonding today, with Akeena Solar and Clausen Electric, Inc. working together to ensure our complete electrical system and house was bonded correctly.  And thoroughly.

Bonding

According to Wikipedia,

Electrical bonding is the practice of intentionally electrically connecting all metallic non-current carrying items in a room or building as protection from electric shock. If a failure of electrical insulation occurs, all metal objects in the room will have the same electrical potential, so that an occupant of the room cannot touch two objects with significantly different potentials. Even if the connection to a distant earth ground is lost, the occupant will be protected from dangerous potential differences.

After reviewing the alternatives, they concluded that we will run rigid (metal) conduit coming from the roof in the 20 ft interior concrete wall to a metal junction box.  The metal junction box will be accessible from the crawl space under the raised pantry floor.  The metal junction box will carry a ground wire to the junction box in the Mechanical East room, which is where the inverters are located.  Thus, the entire solar system will be bonded to the house.

'It's all good,' says Will Shippee (right) of Akeena Solar (Ron Ivancich of Clausen Electric on left).

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