I live in the E. Cape about 1Km from the sea. My solar set-up is in a small purpose built building remote from the house. The solar panels are on a frame above the roof; the batteries and inverter are housed in the building. After about 4 years my Axpert (Mecer) 5 KVA inverter has failed, due to moisture inside it. The room does not leak, so the problem is presumably condensation.

To protect my lead acid batteries I switched to mains power each evening. One of the batteries failed anyway, in spite of this careful nursing: so I have now bought lithiums, which I hope will do better.

To protect the batteries and a new inverter it has been suggested that  a de-humidifier will be the answer. I would welcome any advice as to which de-humidifier to buy, together with suggestions as to how to operate it. Will it be sufficient to run it on solar power for (say) four hours a day?

Hmmm,

I would say that the best "dehumidifier" for this case is a set of MultiPlus and BlueSolar. These are designed to work on yachts, so their typical distance from the sea is 1m or less...

1 hour ago, Youda said:

MultiPlus and BlueSolar

I have a picture somewhere of a BlueSolar running under water during a flood in Australia (even though it is only IP44). As for the Multiplus, it's IP22 vs the Axpert's IP20, so technically it has no better protection against ingress of water. But they do seem to do just fine in humid conditions.

1 hour ago, Tropman said:

de-humidifier

The easiest remedy is to keep the temperature above the dew-point. The dew-point is that temperature where the relative humidity exceeds 100%, the air can literally no longer hold the water. So one way would be to put the inverter in a smaller enclosure and purposely make it run a bit hotter.

41 minutes ago, plonkster said:

The easiest remedy is to keep the temperature above the dew-point.

What Yoda said. 🙂 

You get small heaters for exactly that. Some years ago I stumbled on them and thought it would make the perfect solution for anything electronic outdoors. You stick them inside the enclosure and it keeps everything warm and toasty.

@Tropman I discussed this with @Chris Hobson.  I assume you are the site he installed the PT's at.  Enjoy them and the Infini

Didn't think of the heater option so that may be the cheapest.  Also an extractor fan maybe to get rid of moist air...

Thank you everybody for your suggestions; it has been most helpful.

Alternatively you can buy any inverter that isn't IP rated and coat it with conformal coating.

It is a laborious process, but I've done it for routers and things like that sitting outside.

Example of a guy not doing it sort of slap dash.

Personally I put more effort into it to make sure not a single mm is uncovered but then again I tested mine by submerging it in water, maybe his standards weren't quite that high

Edited March 15, 20196 yr by Gnome

On 2019/03/15 at 11:35 AM, Tropman said:

Thank you everybody for your suggestions; it has been most helpful.

Hi @Tropman  How is the new system running for you... let us know  

I had a box made for the (Infini) inverter, planning to enclose the inverter and put a container of silica gel in the box to extract any moisture. However the inverter overheated when the door was closed, so we have had to take off the door.

Then there is the problem of the lithium batteries, which also have sensitive electronic parts in them.

Latest thinking is to use a small extractor fan intermittently.

Other suggestion welcome.

Important news is that the Infini handles my single grouphead coffee machine, without complaint!!