Low Noise Inverter

Question: I currently have 3 Growatt SPF10.000's to power a couple of off-the-grid cabins. The inverters work fine, but the do produce an awful lot of noise when the load exceeds 1kW or so. The inverters are in there own little room but its still pretty audible and annoying. My guess is 65dB.
Any advice on 10-15kW inverters that are quiet(er)?

I think the sma sunny island are pretty darn quiet from vids I've seen online

Fan noise or hum?

Fan noise

Schneider XW's are pretty quiet but they're only 6.8kW continuous.

SMA Sunny Boy are quiet, no fan transformerless, for 10k you could to use two. Or, they can be safely over sized. 7.7kw inverter is rated at 12.3Wp. The new 7.7 hybrid 15.4 Wp. They may be hard to get right now and may have to be back ordered.

Get low noise fans from a pc shop and void the warranty installing them.

Kuma said:

SMA Sunny Boy are quiet, no fan transformerless, for 10k you could to use two. Or, they can be safely over sized. 7.7kw inverter is rated at 12.3Wp. The new 7.7 hybrid 15.4 Wp. They may be hard to get right now and may have to be back ordered.

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You would need a sunny Island to use those sunnyboys off grid

I had two EG4 6500s in my small shop. Great units, but they were rather loud under full sun. I could hear them a little outside with the insulated doors closes. I upgraded to Schneider XW pros this year and they are so much quieter. As Prowse has noted, low frequency inverters have a distinctive hum that increases a little with load. Still far better than the fans in my opinion.

This was a common topic back in the late 90 / early 2000s when PCs started producing enough heat that they became very noisy. PCs produce far more heat today than they did 20+ years ago, but the problem has largely been solved by much larger fans and better thermal designs (other than the server room, which can be defining at times due to the small, high-speed fans).

More recently I ran into this in 3D printers, where the early models were cooled by small high-speed fans. Modding for larger, quieter fans is still a hot topic, but newer models are getting better. I actually water cool mine.

Some fans are quieter than other, similar fans that produce the same air flow, but most "quiet" fans do so mostly by reducing the airflow, so just replacing the fans will likely cause overheating. The quieter inverters most likely do so due to higher efficiency and/or better thermal design / larger fans.

Who's going to be the first to put a water-cooled radiator on their inverter and put some large RGB fans on it?

Probably already a YouTube video on it.

pollenface said:

Get low noise fans from a pc shop and void the warranty installing them.

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That seems like the way to go indeed without spending a lot of $$$ for a new inverter....

magnet creek said:

That seems like the way to go indeed without spending a lot of $$$ for a new inverter....

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I've added a quiet 12v 120mm pc fan to the rear of my 48v inverter which spins 24/7 with a small buck converter to power it. The result is the internal fan does not come on as much and it's always cool to the touch.

In another instance, with a smaller inverter, I built a small enclosure around it like a wind tunnel, again with a quiet pc fan running 24/7

Reports are that the EG4-18kPV are quiet at 6kW load or less.

pollenface said:

I've added a quiet 12v 120mm pc fan to the rear of my 48v inverter which spins 24/7 with a small buck converter to power it. The result is the internal fan does not come on as much and it's always cool to the touch.

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I love the simple ideas best. But I now have an image that I can't unsee of you frequently opening the inverter case and touching the internal fan.

webbbn said:

Who's going to be the first to put a water-cooled radiator on their inverter and put some large RGB fans on it?

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better still, just bolt it to your hot water tank - immersion diversion solved.