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Where do you have your Inverter and Battery installed ?

usphisics

New Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2023
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35
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Austin, TX
As the title said. Where do you have your system installed ? Outside shed, workshop, detach garage, inside the house, attic, where ?
I just started to study about solar as Im really serious thinking to install it in my house. And I tons of questions already started to pop up on my mind. One of them is where to install everything. In my case as I lived in Austin TX and here is super hot during summer and during winter it can be really cold and also because I don't land, shed, workshop, detach garage, just a small house in a small lot, the only 2 places that I can image is inside the garage (small garage) or in the attic.
The problem with the garage is the temperature during summer, it can go over 110F easily easily and I don't see me installing a AC in the garage just because of the solar equipment.
Now attic probably is a good place as it is spray foam insulated. I now that it gets hotter than the house but not as hot as the garage.
I just added a thermometer outside the house, one inside the garage and one in the attic so I can compare all of them and have a real metric to be sure.
What do you guys think ? Is it okay to have inverter and batteries inside the house ? In my case inside the attic if it is not super hot ? Any concern about security ? As I said I'm really new on this solar world but my mindset still saying me that maybe it is not safe to have inverter and batteries inside the house. I'm looking to use EG4 LiFePO4 batteries.
Again, please let me know what do you think and your experiences and everything else.
Thanks a lot and sorry the long text.....
 
My Battery inverters under the deck, with a drip cover. They are NEMA 1.
GT PV inverters on an outside wall. NEMA 3R. In too sunny a location, I didn't RTFM before installing.
San Jose, mild weather.

What do you guys think ? Is it okay to have inverter and batteries inside the house ?

You should tell us the chemistry, makes a difference.
Oh, you did say LiFePO4. Relatively safe. Does your location every freeze?
Would be best not to have them in the house for safety, at least if not UL listed ESS. Maybe anyway.

Insulated box outside? An air conditioner for that might not consume so much. Little heat generation.

Can you partially bury the batteries, keep at earth temperature (while protecting from flooding over the terminals)?
 
My Sungold tp6048 is mounted in my workshop thats attached to the house. I dont have batteries on it yet but they will go in there too. My smaller system that runs the 12volt wifi cameras around the house and other dc loads is in the same workshop using lifepo4 batteries.

Wanted it all located inside something I could setup an air conditioner in if needed at some point and protected from the cold too.
 
All answers are really nice and it points me to install everything in my attic as have it inside the house is not a safety issue.
Thank you everyone, I will keep my researches and hopefully this week I will install my Emporia so I can audit my usage better.
Thank you again everyone and if someone else want to share where you have your system installed, please feel free to leave a comment (y)
 
Batteries in attic? How much do they weigh? One assembled unit, or individual cells and re-make connections up there?

I think basement is more moderate in temperature, for homes with crawl space not slab.

Attic often gets quite hot. Heat would shorten battery life and reduce max inverter output power. A thermostat controlled fan sucking air from house and blowing into inverter and over batteries could help.

Consider LiFePO4 improved safety, not 100% safety.
 
Batteries in attic? How much do they weigh? One assembled unit, or individual cells and re-make connections up there?

I think basement is more moderate in temperature, for homes with crawl space not slab.

Attic often gets quite hot. Heat would shorten battery life and reduce max inverter output power. A thermostat controlled fan sucking air from house and blowing into inverter and over batteries could help.

Consider LiFePO4 improved safety, not 100% safety.
Hi there, thks for the comment, weight is a good point to take into consideration. So Im planning to use the EG4 LifePO, starting with 1 and in the future going to 2. So the weight is 109lb per unit.
My attic is spray foam insulated, so it wont be SUPER hot but probably still hot. Yesterday I had 1 thermometer sensor installed in my attic, 1 in garage and 1 outside and they have a app that tracks temperature and humidity per hour, day, week, month and year. So it will give me a good visibility.
Thank for the comment @Hedges
 
My system is in an attached garage. My 42 kWh pack is LFP and has temperature protection by both my BMS and Inverter.
I am considering modifying the inverter part of the equation because the inverter temp sensor is really only used to modify charging for Lead acid batteries. What I am considering is an over temperature device on my pack that will shut down the inverter through the Rapid Shut Down circuitry.
 
I mounted a whole-house on-demand water heater on the side of our house, most optimum spot for plumbing; it's not much different in size than an inverter. I then built a siding enclosure around it to match house.

You might be able to build such an enclosure somewhere on the back or sides of house, and as it could be insulated/ventilated, and positioned for whatever is optimum location in your scenario, it would work fine and blend in. It could easily hold an inverter & battery bank, and if positioned closest to your existing electrial panels or such.

Alternatively, many folks get a little storage shed (plastic, etc.) and position that on the sides/rear of the house. This can be made to accommodate a generator, and it should just as easily accommodate solar gear. Same thing on insulation/ventilation. Youtube vids abound ...

Hope this helps ...
 
I don't have much, but I'm just starting. I partially cleaned out my clothes closet (5 * 7ft), and the wall closest to the ground mount array, which is about 50ft away. I put Hardibacker board on that wall and mounted my EG4 6500 on it.

The closet is in the master bedroom, and the inverter can get a bit loud at times, but that's because I've had the door open to give it some air, plus I had the PV wires coming thru the window. It's not so loud so as to affect our sleeping.

I'm in the process of running the PV wires thru the floor via conduit, like I did the input and output lines for the inverter. Should have the wire runs done in the next few days. Once I get everything done in there the door can be closed, but I'm thinking I may have to put an exhaust fan to help keep it cooler when the door's shut.

I placed it so that I'd have room to mount another one next to it for split phase even though that's not a probability. I think I have room for a couple server rack batteries, but they'd have to stand on their ends, which should be okay.
 

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Similar to others, mine is under the house. Cinder-block wall / floor with corrugated metal panels on top to slow flames burning thru the floor. Home wide linked smoke detector and fire extinguisher within arm's length. Ambient temps are 50F to 75F thru the year. Batrium BMS->SACE shunt-trip, heat monitoring/alerts, and very low stress / cell operations.
 
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