Solis Inverter vibration issue..

[Micky-B]

I have the Solis RHI-6K inverter and seem to be having an issue with noise levels.
The fan noise is not an issue as the inverter is in an integral garage but when the fan comes on the unit itself has like pulsing vibrations, like a vroom vroom vroom etc about 3 pulses per second, I cannot hear this in the garage as the high pitch noise from the fan is all i can hear but from inside the house i can hear it through the wall and it's driving me mad.

Solis cannot help as needs to be looked at by a pro/electrician, but the installers are saying that the noise level is normal and that my cavity wall is causing the issue..

not much anyone can do of course but was wondering if anybody has same inverter could perhaps touch the side casing of your inverter when the fan is on to see if this vibration is normal for this model.

I force the fan to come on by doing a quick battery discharge but most annoyingly the vibration starts in auto mode early hours when in cheap import rate.

Many thanks for your time.

 

[SeaGal]

I have the Solis RHI-6K inverter and seem to be having an issue with noise levels.
The fan noise is not an issue as the inverter is in an integral garage but when the fan comes on the unit itself has like pulsing vibrations, like a vroom vroom vroom etc about 3 pulses per second, I cannot hear this in the garage as the high pitch noise from the fan is all i can hear but from inside the house i can hear it through the wall and it's driving me mad.

Welcome!

I have 2 Solis... an RHI 3.6kW and an EH1P 6kW. Both have fan noise - the 6kW being the louder, but neither I would say are overly noisy. I certainly don't have the 3Hz beat that you mention. As they have 2 fans inside, I'm wondering whether you are hearing the different in frequency between the two fans, either that or something physically loose around the fan's mounting?

not much anyone can do of course but was wondering if anybody has same inverter could perhaps touch the side casing of your inverter when the fan is on to see if this vibration is normal for this model.

Don't laugh, but I often touch the outside of my inverter if I'm in the garage when the fan comes on (yes really!! )... only to feel the temperature - I've recently added additional external fan assisted cooling - so I certainly would have felt any vibration, which I don't.

So... where to go from here? The installers are wrong and it is not normal IMHO (I'll tag a couple of other Solis users on here to see if they have any input - @rpdom & @peufeu). If you can't get any help from Solis or the installers, possibly reject the product if it is a new installation. Otherwise could you add some sound-deadening insulation between the inverter and the wall - e.g. like one of those solid rubber mats that you put shower-pumps on? Or add a wooden sub-frame to the wall and mount the inverter on the wood, so there is no direct metal to brick vibration route. Or open it up and see if you can see / fix / replace what is causing the noise - obviously invalidating any warrantee in the process.

FYI; @peufeu did a tear down of his EH1P, so you can see the fans in these pictures...

Solis S5: Various issues

Let us know if it powers up automatically when get PV again. Also, have you measured how much battery consumption reduces by when you put it in sleep mode? Results: Yesterday at midnight, battery SOC was 11%. I turned the inverter off using the GUI. This morning at 8AM, battery SOC was still...

diysolarforum.com

 

[SeaGal]

Further thought... could you add 'Solis' to the thread's title? That will likely get more Solis users responding.

 

[shopman]

My Growatt inverter did something similar with a fan vibration you could hear radiating through the wall of the garage. I fixed it by replacing the fan with one of much higher quality. If replacing the fan isn't an option, try mounting the inverter on rubber isolation mounts to decouple it from the wall.

 

[Micky-B]

My Growatt inverter did something similar with a fan vibration you could hear radiating through the wall of the garage. I fixed it by replacing the fan with one of much higher quality. If replacing the fan isn't an option, try mounting the inverter on rubber isolation mounts to decouple it from the wall.

I have the Solis RHI-6K inverter and seem to be having an issue with noise levels.
The fan noise is not an issue as the inverter is in an integral garage but when the fan comes on the unit itself has like pulsing vibrations, like a vroom vroom vroom etc about 3 pulses per second, I cannot hear this in the garage as the high pitch noise from the fan is all i can hear but from inside the house i can hear it through the wall and it's driving me mad.

Solis cannot help as needs to be looked at by a pro/electrician, but the installers are saying that the noise level is normal and that my cavity wall is causing the issue..

not much anyone can do of course but was wondering if anybody has same inverter could perhaps touch the side casing of your inverter when the fan is on to see if this vibration is normal for this model.

I force the fan to come on by doing a quick battery discharge but most annoyingly the vibration starts in auto mode early hours when in cheap import rate.

Many thanks for your time.

Further thought... could you add 'Solis' to the thread's title? That will likely get more Solis users responding.

Yes, "Solis" added, thanks... I am looking into rubber mounts sandwiched between 2 MDF boards and attach the inverter to this. My only concern here is that as I am taking the company to court over a mis-sold product they are being a bit sh*^'y and mentioning that any alteration to the installation will affect warranty if not carried out by themselves. bit of a catch 22...

The only grace I may have here is that they removed part of a backing board to set the inverter directly to the wall to see if the cement based board was exaggerating the issue... and because of this, the airflow requirement around the inverter is now somewhat restricted and the fan is on for longer, so as i have asked them to return to install as manufacturer requirements, if they do then i will ask the sparky (nice chap) to mount on my pre made vibro board...

 

[Micky-B]

My Growatt inverter did something similar with a fan vibration you could hear radiating through the wall of the garage. I fixed it by replacing the fan with one of much higher quality. If replacing the fan isn't an option, try mounting the inverter on rubber isolation mounts to decouple it from the wall.

Thanks Shopman, that is my plan B.

 

[SeaGal]

My only concern here is that as I am taking the company to court over a mis-sold product

Oh dear - what was the story behind that?

 

[peufeu]

As they have 2 fans inside, I'm wondering whether you are hearing the different in frequency between the two fans

Yes that's also my guess!

My inverter got thrown over the garden fence by the delivery man (quite a feat, considering the weight and the fence is 2m high) so one of the fans was stuck. I had to open it up to fix it

Now if you hear that noise strongly in another room it probably means there is a resonance in your house that by a sheer stroke of bad luck happens at that exact frequency. For this to cause problems you need a resonance and noise at the right frequency to tickle it. To solve the problem you have to get rid of one of these two factors.

- shift the resonance to another frequency (for example by adding weight to the resonating wall, but you'll have to find it)

- shift the emitted frequency, by changing one of the fans

- or add some damping, ie rubber mounts or rockwool inside the cavity wall

Note you are not hearing 3Hz, that's impossible. You're probably hearing some low frequency (vvoooommmm) modulated by 3Hz.

If you want a pre-made vibration absorbing board the recipe is to use constrained layer damping. For this you need to glue two hard boards (OSB, drywall, whatever) with some viscoelastic stuff, commonly sold as "bargain bin acrylic caulk". Silicone doesn't work, it's too elastic and not viscous enough. Lay one board flat, set fat beads of caulk on it every 5-10cm, then set the other board on it and press only a little, so you don't squish the caulk, it works best if it remains thick. Wait a week to dry, then you can mount it to the wall. Make a wider hole in the front board so you can screw the back board to the wall without having the screw join the two sides. Mount the inverter to the front board with short screws for the same reason. This should cost one OSB board cut in half and a few 2€ acrylic cartriges.

 

[rpdom]

So... where to go from here? The installers are wrong and it is not normal IMHO (I'll tag a couple of other Solis users on here to see if they have any input - @rpdom & @peufeu).

I was summoned

I haven't really noticed any noise from my 3K Solsis inverter other than a slight hum, but it is up in my loft and I rarely go up there to check on it.

But I agree that the noise you describe doesn't sound right.

It may be something harmless like some resonant harmonic of the fan with the mounting. Or I could be talking rubbish

 

[rpdom]

My inverter got thrown over the garden fence by the delivery man (quite a feat, considering the weight and the fence is 2m high) so one of the fans was stuck. I had to open it up to fix it

That could have been the same man who delivered my wife's wheelchair. I had to straighten up the brakes.

 

[Micky-B]

Oh dear - what was the story behind that?

The salesperson told lies about the availability of the product. Consumer rights act 2000 and something… if he had told me the items were out of stock, I would not have purchased from them.

 

[Micky-B]

I was summoned

I haven't really noticed any noise from my 3K Solsis inverter other than a slight hum, but it is up in my loft and I rarely go up there to check on it.

But I agree that the noise you describe doesn't sound right.

It may be something harmless like some resonant harmonic of the fan with the mounting. Or I could be talking rubbish

No that’s s-it on, I get all the hum and whining noises but if I touch the side of the front case I can feel this vroom vroom vroom…

 

[Micky-B]

Yes that's also my guess!

My inverter got thrown over the garden fence by the delivery man (quite a feat, considering the weight and the fence is 2m high) so one of the fans was stuck. I had to open it up to fix it

Now if you hear that noise strongly in another room it probably means there is a resonance in your house that by a sheer stroke of bad luck happens at that exact frequency. For this to cause problems you need a resonance and noise at the right frequency to tickle it. To solve the problem you have to get rid of one of these two factors.

- shift the resonance to another frequency (for example by adding weight to the resonating wall, but you'll have to find it)

- shift the emitted frequency, by changing one of the fans

- or add some damping, ie rubber mounts or rockwool inside the cavity wall

Note you are not hearing 3Hz, that's impossible. You're probably hearing some low frequency (vvoooommmm) modulated by 3Hz.

If you want a pre-made vibration absorbing board the recipe is to use constrained layer damping. For this you need to glue two hard boards (OSB, drywall, whatever) with some viscoelastic stuff, commonly sold as "bargain bin acrylic caulk". Silicone doesn't work, it's too elastic and not viscous enough. Lay one board flat, set fat beads of caulk on it every 5-10cm, then set the other board on it and press only a little, so you don't squish the caulk, it works best if it remains thick. Wait a week to dry, then you can mount it to the wall. Make a wider hole in the front board so you can screw the back board to the wall without having the screw join the two sides. Mount the inverter to the front board with short screws for the same reason. This should cost one OSB board cut in half and a few 2€ acrylic cartriges.

The 3Hz was someone else’s wording…. And thanks for the absorbing board advice…