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Posted

Hi All,

Does anyone know at what inverter internal temperature to start being concerned?
I have an Infinisolar 3kWPlus and the cooling fans have just been replaced, initially installed upside-down, but they don't seem to be blowing as hard as the previous (original) fans.
I am monitoring the inverter temperature and have set an alarm trigger at 55 Celsius but yesterday evening it triggered, reached 58 and the air temp was around 14. It was working a bit having just been brought back online...
I see reference in the manual to "over temperature" but cannot find what value they consider to be "over" and there is the following in the manual too

Quote

CAUTION!
Under high temperature environment, the cover of this inverter could be hot
enough to cause skin burns if accidentally touched. Ensure that this inverter is away from
normal traffic areas.

This implies the unit can get very hot, certainly way over 60, so I'm wondering if I don't need to worry as much when I see the temp in the upper 50's???
The highest temp recorded in the past year has been 67 Celsius...

Posted
26 minutes ago, RhysMcW said:

Does anyone know at what inverter internal temperature to start being concerned?

...

I see reference in the manual to "over temperature" but cannot find what value they consider to be "over" ...

Axpert MKS models only trigger over-temperature faults at 80°C or sometimes higher. I imagine that Infinisolars would be similar. Axperts don't seem to have an over-temperature warning.

However, it's quite concerning if the temperature routinely exceeds about 55-60°C. Is it possible that the replacement fans have a much lower flow rate than the originals? Fans differ widely in their flow rate (and the noise level at which they achieve those flow rates).

Posted
33 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

Is it possible that the replacement fans have a much lower flow rate than the originals?

@Coulomb, yeah, that's my thinking too. The fans were replaced by Mustek, took them over a month to "test" and agree the fans needed replacing then about 2 weeks to source fans, which they kept complying about being difficult to source due to their Amp ratings.
They mentioned the original fans had a rating of 0.3A and fans they tried with different Amp ratings kept triggering the error code 27 (fan fault) and then fitted R100 fans. I'm no expert but I thought that a rating of 0.3A or higher would work as the specs of fans I found mention "max current" and what I could find in 3-wire and with the current rating 0.3A or higher were around R300 or more...

@Mark, here's my graph for roughly the same time frame as yours

image.png.db09815d7c79f1d6e0405849266a7563.png

I currently run on grid during the night (batteries need replacing), that increase in temp at around 07:30 was when the PV kicked in so the MPPT would've started charging the batteries so doing a bit more work than simple bypass...

For the second half of August last year the average temp was 38 with it peaking at 46 only so that pretty much confirms for me the air flow from the fans is lower than the originals.

I think I'm going to install extra fans above to suck and below to blow more air through as I can't be bothered trying to deal with Mustek again...

Posted

I would tend to agree with @Mark generally it hovers between 25 and 50, depending on what the inverter is doing.

image.png.63258225d3b642b0e647e1efd32de35e.png

This is mine over the past 24h, 1st spike load shedding, 2nd spike general evening bulk loads, 3rd spike battery charging.

Battery temps tend to follow that graph.

image.png.fc81f27d53ebb17557e2aa1e778abfb3.png

Posted
3 minutes ago, RhysMcW said:

I think I'm going to install extra fans above to suck and below to blow more air through as I can't be bothered trying to deal with Mustek again...

It's not difficult to replace the fans yourself, if you can source suitable replacements. If you're interested, see for example this post, and any others in the fan section of the index (first post of the topic). 

Posted
4 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

It's not difficult to replace the fans yourself, if you can source suitable replacements.

yeah, when I got the inverter back from Mustek and powered it on I immediately noticed the fans were blowing down instead of up, being mounted at the bottom they will never achieve enough trying to suck hot air down. I changed the fans over myself easily enough, but mainly because I wasn't going to take the inverter back to Mustek as I'm sure they would've taken another month just to turn the fans around, the inverter is way out of warranty so wasn't concerned on that front...

I will try source suitable replacements but will still add the extra external fans, with a simple temperature controller to run them...

@Coulomb, read that post, it's amazing that a manufacturer would even mount fans at the bottom and have them try suck the air down. I'm certainly no expert but even I know hot air rises, so rather make the fans push the air up and out if they mounted at the bottom...

Posted
20 hours ago, RhysMcW said:

yeah, when I got the inverter back from Mustek and powered it on I immediately noticed the fans were blowing down instead of up, being mounted at the bottom they will never achieve enough trying to suck hot air down. I changed the fans over myself easily enough, but mainly because I wasn't going to take the inverter back to Mustek as I'm sure they would've taken another month just to turn the fans around, the inverter is way out of warranty so wasn't concerned on that front...

I will try source suitable replacements but will still add the extra external fans, with a simple temperature controller to run them...

@Coulomb, read that post, it's amazing that a manufacturer would even mount fans at the bottom and have them try suck the air down. I'm certainly no expert but even I know hot air rises, so rather make the fans push the air up and out if they mounted at the bottom...

https://youtu.be/MDO0WkKWpsw

 

Posted
On ‎2020‎/‎08‎/‎14 at 11:23 AM, Mark said:

Mine with original fans hovers between 25 and 50 deg1175831872_infinitemp.thumb.JPG.afd8883c860ccb5af9681ac9f79940a5.JPG...

Hi Mark,,

With what software do you measure this temperature?

Posted
On ‎2020‎/‎08‎/‎15 at 9:27 AM, flamegrilled said:

Hi,

I agree with the issue of fans that actually rather sit on top. However if you swop the bottom fans around would this not cause the hot air to flow all around the cabinet before being sucked out

Posted

Does anyone know the specs of the original fans in the Infinisolar 3kW Plus, specifically the Amp and air flow ratings?
I've been looking around for fans, there is a fairly wide range in terms of Amps and air flow and quite a price range too...

Posted

RhysMcW, here are the temperatures for my InfiniSolar 5kW Plus for the past week.

I found that the battery charger has a large influence on the temperature of the inverter, so I run mine at 70% of the max setting (70A) which is still enough to recharge the batteries around noon.  The RPi is in the same rack as the inverter, so it shows a similar heat curve as the inverter.

image.thumb.png.41d900610ae3615a2b2d6484eb5352f4.png

Sorry, I have no idea about the fans on the 3kW.  The 5kW model have four of them mounted at the top, and they suck through the inverter and exhaust the hot air out the top...

Posted

So I went rummaging through some stuff and found the old main board and fans from the replacement done in 2019.
Here are the specs of the original fans used in the Infinisolar 3kW Plus
Make: ADDA
Model: AG09212MB257310

Supply Voltage: 12VDC
Max curent: 0.3A
Air flow: 56.126CFM (82.912m3/h)
Fan speed: 3000RPM
Duty cycle: 50000H
Noise: 36.2dB(A)

 

It seems this particular model is a little difficult to find at the moment, found one on Aliexpress for $47 plus $40 shipping, so I guess I'll try find something close to that spec...

Posted
17 hours ago, RhysMcW said:

Here are the specs of the original fans used in the Infinisolar 3kW Plus

forgot to add the size: 92mm x 92mm x 25mm

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