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EG4 6500 operating temps

roknrolusa

New Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2023
Messages
3
Location
maricopa Az.
First post here guys. I searched for questions here regarding my question but no luck. The manual states 40c max or 104 F, anyone have experience running higher than this. I'm in Arizona and would like to house my equipment in an outdoor uncooled small shed, currently it's in my RV.
 
I don't think it will hold up by itself. Can you put a solar powered mini-split in the shed since you're in AZ?
 
That puts me into three ac units running, extra battery needs and panels will put me over my build expense at the moment.
 
The issue is the air flow is top down inside the inverter. Hot air coming out the bottom will cycle back into the intake and it won't take long to hit the 104F. This last Summer in TX I as running a small air conditioner in the shop and kept it at 90F. This kept the exhaust below 100F and I had no problems. Since then I added my own PDP that not only hides the wiring but has an additional fan to take the exhaust air away eliminating the air flow issue with these inverters. I'll have to wait till next Summer to see how well the system works in the heat.
 
Don't use this units in AZ in a non conditioned environment! Even with an ambient of about 25°C (77°F) they running too hot if you have a lot of battery charging power (MPPT or AC-in) coming in. I'm pretty sure they won't last long in high heat environment.
My EG4-6500EX are installed in an conditioned RV garage and it was still not enough to keep them nice cool. I've added an extra small 9,000 BTU ducted mini split to just keep the AIO's cool. Now they always run below 55° (131°F). Also I've added a separation shield between hot air outlet and cold air inlet to prevent the thermal shortcut like @danthexctman described.

They also loose PV power if the MPPT electronic gets too hot (see manual page 8):
1713485423203.png

In the picture you can see the separation shields (45°) between each AIO and on both sides (3D printed). This lets the hot air from the bottom separate (at least enough) from the cold air from the top. I "pump" cold air into the upper section which get sucked in from the AIO's. This setup is working very nice now. The 9,000BTU unit does not take very much energy and it's enough to adjust the cooling setpoint just 1°C (2°F) below ambient to blow out enough cold air (I automatically adjust the mini split via smart home rules to regulate the system).
1713485765315.png

Here is the ducted mini split unit which feeds the AIO's:
1713485823569.png

From what I've learned, it not required to cool the room (ambient) where the equipment is installed, it's enough and even better to inject cold air just into the units itself. This results usually in a much smaller required mini split which is cheaper and does not consume too much energy.
 
Yikes. That is a lot of work to keep these things cool. I just have one small EG4 3000 inverter in a van that I’m worried about.
 
Yikes. That is a lot of work to keep these things cool. I just have one small EG4 3000 inverter in a van that I’m worried about.
I know, it was an unplanned intensive work and expensive extension... the main reason was that the fans (3 per unit) inside the AIO's are extremely loud and our master bedroom is behind the inverter wall. So my wife showed me the red flag about the noise level :cool: ;)

Then I've noticed that the fans inside the units are NOT temperature controlled so I needed to mod all 18 fans in all 6 AIO and added all together 18 temperature controlled PWM modules to the units (luckily they are so small, they easily fit inside the case - see my posts starting from here). Now they are quiet when they are cool and the additional consequence was to add the ducted mini spit to keep them cool enough to be quiet enough - the ambient of 25°C (77°F) was not cold enough to keep them quiet.
 
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