Electricity novice here. Thanks for reading!
I have a 3000 watt DC to AC inverter attached to a 12V battery bank. The inverter has "DC ground lug" on the exterior of the inverter's case which the manufacturer says should be "tied into the DC ground of the system".
My "system", however, is a small box on wheels that I take around with me. There is no vehicle chassis or house ground that I can tie into.
As I understand it, the purpose of the ground connection is to bleed off current in the event that the inverter's case should ever become energized, which in turn would trip a breaker.
My questions are as follows:
How much metal does the ground wire need to be connected to in order for the ground connection to work as intended? Is it enough for me to attach a strip of metal inside of my "mobile power box" and attach the ground wire to that? A car's chassis is massive and I see that it might conduct a lot of energy, but I'm not sure how much mass is enough.
Can the ground in a system like this be tied into the negative side of the battery bank? The battery in this case is not tied into a vehicle chassis, so I'm not sure that would even make sense.
Thanks in advance!