OK to lay an EG43000EHV-48 flat?

[ArtieKendall]

My garage walls are lined with shelving, so it would be very inconvenient to find a spot to mount the EG4 3000EHV-48 I'm planning to buy, and I don't want to put it on a handcart.

I was wondering if there would be any issues with just laying it flat on top of the EG4 battery rack. Maybe on top of a rubber pad to minimize vibration and stray currents. It would also have the advantage of making the wires between the batteries and the AIO very short.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[TomC4306]

I see no problem with that. Nice to keep wiring neat.
I think those units are like the MPP solar which ventilate top to bottom. The warm exhaust air comes out of the bottom .
Not convective cooling.

 

[TomC4306]

Figure out a way to strap it in place.

 

[ArtieKendall]

I see no problem with that. Nice to keep wiring neat.
I think those units are like the MPP solar which ventilate top to bottom. The warm exhaust air comes out of the bottom .
Not convective cooling.

Right, the fans blow air out the bottom, so it shouldn't affect the cooling. Another advantage I can see is that the on-off switch and circuit breaker will be easier to see and reach, since they're on the bottom also.

 

[ArtieKendall]

Figure out a way to strap it in place.

Thanks. I was going to bolt it to the rack, but a strap would be easier and do the job just as well.

 

[Johno1066]

You may have a problem with the setup as it is on the front of the box so may be a litle difficult to see once it is on top of the battery rack.

 

[ArtieKendall]

You may have a problem with the setup as it is on the front of the box so may be a litle difficult to see once it is on top of the battery rack.

It looks like the rack is about four feet tall, and I'm over six feet tall, so I should be OK, but thanks for making me check.

 

[TomC4306]

Thanks. I was going to bolt it to the rack, but a strap would be easier and do the job just as well.

Or bolts

 

[eleceng1979]

The manual says “recommended vertical”. Not installing per the manual will cause issues with warranty. Not to mention a record on here of you mounting flat.

When mounting on top of your battery rack, any heat from batteries is new transferred to the inverter. The PCB’s mount directly on top of the semiconductors inside. So when vertically mounted, any heat from semiconductors/heatsinks, get pushed up and away. When flat mounted, you now allow these pcb’s to become hotter. Internal case temps will be higher than normal due to this. At full power, best case, the inverter will put 180 watts of heat into the heat sink which is 614 BTU’s. Mounting on top of a rubber pad will make it worse as rubber has a poor thermal conductivity, essentially making the rubber hold more heat in. Not to mention being flammable with a low melt/auto ignition temp.

 

[TomC4306]

So when vertically mounted, any heat from semiconductors/heatsinks, get pushed up and away

Wrong.
These have forced air cooling that blows from the top of the case and vents at the bottom of the case.
Explained in an earlier post.

 

[ArtieKendall]

The manual says “recommended vertical”. Not installing per the manual will cause issues with warranty. Not to mention a record on here of you mounting flat.

When mounting on top of your battery rack, any heat from batteries is new transferred to the inverter. The PCB’s mount directly on top of the semiconductors inside. So when vertically mounted, any heat from semiconductors/heatsinks, get pushed up and away. When flat mounted, you now allow these pcb’s to become hotter. Internal case temps will be higher than normal due to this. At full power, best case, the inverter will put 180 watts of heat into the heat sink which is 614 BTU’s. Mounting on top of a rubber pad will make it worse as rubber has a poor thermal conductivity, essentially making the rubber hold more heat in. Not to mention being flammable with a low melt/auto ignition temp.

Good point about the rubber being vulnerable to melting. I'll use cement board instead.

As noted above, the heat should actually be less of an issue when mounted horizontally, since for some reason EG4 has the fans working against convection.

I will check with SS to see whether violating a "recommendation" will affect the warranty. Thanks for alerting me to that.

 

[eleceng1979]

Good Luck!

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