HouseofSmith
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2022
- Messages
- 1
Hey guys. Been lurking for a while but this is my first time posting. Having a hard time tracking down what's going on and was hoping someone had relevant experience they'd be kind enough to share.
I've put together an MPP LVX6048 inverter and built a LiFePo4 battery bank using Solar Overkill cells. I live in Tucson, AZ and have my equipment is mounted in my garage. Unfortunately, it gets ridiculously hot in there (poor insulation on top of high desert temps.) I anticipated the heat would have a strong effect on the batteries, so I repurposed my chest freezer I used for homebrewing beer and an Inkbird controller to maintain a 70-degree environment for the batteries, the BMS, and the Raspberry Pi running Solar Assistant for monitoring. I'm powering the system with 10 Canadian Solar 390W bifacial panels in a 2P5S configuration.
The problem is the inverter seems to be significantly throttling power when the inverter's internal temp exceeds 55 degrees Celsius. Solar Assistant shows that as high temp threshold. When it gets that hot, the current drops and will only pull a few hundred watts from the panels.
I attempted to correct by relocated the inverter into the chest freezer. When I turn everything on and it's cold, it will max out the batteries at a 40-amp recharge rate, pulling a little over 2kW. Problem is the inverter is putting out heat faster than the chest freezer can remove it. On my last attempt, I shut everything down when the inverter hit 59-degrees Celsius (136.4 F) and power started dropping off.
Is this expected? I can't seem to find anything in the manual to explain this. Only thing I see is the over-temp fault that should happen if the inverter's internal temp exceeds 100-degree Celsius (which I have not had happen.)
Worth mentioning... the chest freezer is small so the only way I can fit the inverter in there is to lay it on its back. There's not enough room to maintain the manufacturer's 50cm of space on each side of the inverter (where the vents are). That said, I don't think this is an issue of poor air flow through the inverter case since even the Inkbird is registering 100+ degrees.
If it's operating as expected, the only thing I've been able to come up with is to build a very small closet around the equipment, insulate, and run a high efficiency window unit (without the window) that can extract heat at a much faster rate than the chest freezer. I'm not particularly excited for this to be the answer and hoping someone can nudge me in a smarter direction.
I've put together an MPP LVX6048 inverter and built a LiFePo4 battery bank using Solar Overkill cells. I live in Tucson, AZ and have my equipment is mounted in my garage. Unfortunately, it gets ridiculously hot in there (poor insulation on top of high desert temps.) I anticipated the heat would have a strong effect on the batteries, so I repurposed my chest freezer I used for homebrewing beer and an Inkbird controller to maintain a 70-degree environment for the batteries, the BMS, and the Raspberry Pi running Solar Assistant for monitoring. I'm powering the system with 10 Canadian Solar 390W bifacial panels in a 2P5S configuration.
The problem is the inverter seems to be significantly throttling power when the inverter's internal temp exceeds 55 degrees Celsius. Solar Assistant shows that as high temp threshold. When it gets that hot, the current drops and will only pull a few hundred watts from the panels.
I attempted to correct by relocated the inverter into the chest freezer. When I turn everything on and it's cold, it will max out the batteries at a 40-amp recharge rate, pulling a little over 2kW. Problem is the inverter is putting out heat faster than the chest freezer can remove it. On my last attempt, I shut everything down when the inverter hit 59-degrees Celsius (136.4 F) and power started dropping off.
Is this expected? I can't seem to find anything in the manual to explain this. Only thing I see is the over-temp fault that should happen if the inverter's internal temp exceeds 100-degree Celsius (which I have not had happen.)
Worth mentioning... the chest freezer is small so the only way I can fit the inverter in there is to lay it on its back. There's not enough room to maintain the manufacturer's 50cm of space on each side of the inverter (where the vents are). That said, I don't think this is an issue of poor air flow through the inverter case since even the Inkbird is registering 100+ degrees.
If it's operating as expected, the only thing I've been able to come up with is to build a very small closet around the equipment, insulate, and run a high efficiency window unit (without the window) that can extract heat at a much faster rate than the chest freezer. I'm not particularly excited for this to be the answer and hoping someone can nudge me in a smarter direction.