Sol-Ark with hot temp in Texas

[ksmithaz1]

I have a pair of EG4 240/50's with the same concerns here in Phoenix. My stuff is in a utility room off the garage, mounted to the western exterior wall. Insulating behind the cement board on just that wall made a tremendous difference in the ambient. I keep the door to the garage open with a harbor freight small shop fan blowing in (The ~$60 one). Hottest ambient I logged was right at 135F on a 118 degree day. Generally speaking the extremes are only a few hours. I was going to mini-split the room, but I changed my mind. The EG4's are rated to like 160F (w/degraded output), but batteries are to 140 anyway, so I'm going to finish insulating the rest of the walls, cut a 24x24 grille for the door, and put in a large roof fan, it can just blow in the attic, it's all right next to the gable vent. It only gets peak hot for about 3-4 hours a day.

 

[solarHandyman]

I have a pair of EG4 240/50's with the same concerns here in Phoenix. My stuff is in a utility room off the garage, mounted to the western exterior wall. Insulating behind the cement board on just that wall made a tremendous difference in the ambient. I keep the door to the garage open with a harbor freight small shop fan blowing in (The ~$60 one). Hottest ambient I logged was right at 135F on a 118 degree day. Generally speaking the extremes are only a few hours. I was going to mini-split the room, but I changed my mind. The EG4's are rated to like 160F (w/degraded output), but batteries are to 140 anyway, so I'm going to finish insulating the rest of the walls, cut a 24x24 grille for the door, and put in a large roof fan, it can just blow in the attic, it's all right next to the gable vent. It only gets peak hot for about 3-4 hours a day.

How long have you had your EG4 units? With those temperatures I would strongly encourage you to consider an 8000 BTU AC window unit instead. There are some really efficient units that can run as low as 600 watts. I'm worried your EG4 units will fail in those temperatures.

 

[Lt.Dan]

but batteries are to 140 anyway

With severe degradation though.

I also recommend Air Conditioning the space where your equipment resides.

 

[pvdude]

We had a couple weeks of 100° here, and the shed where the electronics and batteries (FLA) are located was getting too hot for the batteries, even w/ a 14k btu wall AC going all day.
The Schneider electronics has lots of fans, and they sounded like they were operating at full speed, putting even more heat into the space.

I used a thermal camera (HIKMICRO) to look for hot spots and then insulated them w/ foam board insulation.
For example, the back door is steel plate, South facing, really hot. 4" of foam added fixed that.

After insulation, the AC can now cool the space down enough.

I use "SensorPush" temperature sensors and Internet gateway w/ app to check on battery
and shed temperature.


Much more confident that next Summer will be less drama in the shed!

 

[RV10flyer]

I have a 12k, so not exactly the same beast but I am having temp problems and they are solving it by sending me a 15k:

Final steps of home install.

Replaced the inverter and the problem persists. Sol-Ark is awaiting receiving of my original inverter so they can hook it up in their lab and attempt to replicate the issue. We'll see what happens. Following, please keep updating any issues with Sol-Ark. Two brand new units back to back seems...

diysolarforum.com

Sol-Ark has great customer service!

 

[Armorer266]

Not one issue with heat. Tucson AZ Solark 15k mounted outside shade side of house except at sunrise to 10 am ish. 45 kwh Batteries in garage. system reports about 120 to 145 in the summer mid day air temp 105 to 115f when getting full 12kw pv more like 10 kw actual and charging batteries. I run the whole house 3000sqft, pool, 5 ton a/c with soft starter, electric dryer etc. Will hit 14kw+ watts when every appliance is one from time to time. No issues solark is before main panel. I am gridconnected I offset almost all my power in the summer, winter is surplus. Solar and batteries do time of use offset cause power company charges 3.5 cents an hour more from 3 to 7 pm. Power went out twice this summer for several hours ran everything albeit at night during monsoons aka cooler temps.