Lightning strike!

 Several months ago, a lightning storm occurred. During that storm, a bolt struck my solar array framework. The array was not adequately grounded. A steel cable connects the array to the house, outside, and is used to support the electrical wiring that runs from the array to the control center inside the house.

Subsequently, when the bolt struck the frame, the cable acted as an electrical conductor. The lightning jumped from the outside metal wall fastener to the system iniside. There was a flash of light from the storm's bolt and a smaller flash inside the house along with a loud pop sound.

The lightning blew out the charge controller and damaged the inverter. The batteries, two, did not last long after that.

The charge controller was replaced by a better version from the same company, used but cheaper. 

The inverter was a stroke of luck purchase on eBay. The unit has an automatic sitch inside that detects an existing line voltage. This makes transistioning from generator to invereter/batteries easy and automatic. Prior to that, I had to manually connect and disconnect power cables.

I added a bolt and washers to connect the cable to the array frame. This creates a direct path to ground for lighning.