6000XP Cooling Fan Observations

Ambrotos said:

@SunBandit I suspect you may have it backwards... I believe fans 1 and 2 are for the PV charge controller, and fan 3 is for the inverter. During "peak PV", are your AC loads still relatively light? If so, that might explain why fan 3's exhaust remains cool. Does fan 3 exhaust heat up if you put 3 or 4 kW of AC load on your inverter?

-A

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I'm pretty sure that's incorrect. When I had only grid charging, and loads were live, and no PV at all, the two upper fans ran, and the lower one did not.

Ambrotos said:

@SunBandit I suspect you may have it backwards... I believe fans 1 and 2 are for the PV charge controller, and fan 3 is for the inverter. During "peak PV", are your AC loads still relatively light? If so, that might explain why fan 3's exhaust remains cool. Does fan 3 exhaust heat up if you put 3 or 4 kW of AC load on your inverter?

-A

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From what I have observed, fan 3 speed ramps up in tight correlation with PV input. Fans 1 and 2 ramp up in tight correlation with load.

Alright, thanks for the correction. I'm still mid-install, so I don't have as much hands-on time as you.

Here is what I came up with.

I used 2 layers of foil bubble insulation to make ducts that vent into the attic from the garage. This solution is great.

--The garage is much cooler than prior (5-6 deg F),
--The fan noise is much much less. I did not make dB measurements.
--The cost was $32
--The material is lightweight so as to not require supports yet strong enough to act as a duct.

I used clear packing tape which sticks to the material well and metal foil tape to build it.

So far, I'm loving it.

ScrotpusGobbleBottom said:

I guess I should say that Im pulling in 3300 watts into each PV input with peaks nearing 4000. So Im using it pretty close to its fullest.
I know when clouds are rolling thru from the sound in my kitchen and the 6000xp is in my basement.

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Yeah, I only have 2-2.5kW worth of panels... I wonder if it's still going to be noisy at those power levels (single string with one MPPT input).

rfsam said:

Yeah, I only have 2-2.5kW worth of panels... I wonder if it's still going to be noisy at those power levels (single string with one MPPT input).

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Mine, before the ducts, were moderately noisy at 4kW solar coming in. (4kW here since I have 2 units, you have 1 I think)

Thank you! Did you have 6500ex before by any chance? I wonder how noisy 6000xp compared to 6500ex. I did have 6500ex before but moved to a modular system with Schneider XW Pro.

photons2e-s said:

Mine, before the ducts, were moderately noisy at 4kW solar coming in. (4kW here since I have 2 units, you have 1 I think)

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rfsam said:

Thank you! Did you have 6500ex before by any chance? I wonder how noisy 6000xp compared to 6500ex. I did have 6500ex before but moved to a modular system with Schneider XW Pro.

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No, had a smaller Victron system. That fan was noisy too at higher loads.