The PowerWall and Battery Shelf in sunny hot Australia at 40°C. What can we do though?
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- For the last few days, we have experienced outside temperatures of around 40°C. During this time, I had a closer look at the #PowerWall, the #Battery2.0 and other components of the solar system to find hot zones, hot spots and other areas which need some attention.
With the FLIR camera we can easily detect these areas and can measure some extreme temperatures of up to 80°C! Some of these problems are easy to fix, some are not so easy to identify and are probably just what we will get in these climate conditions during summer.
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Thank you Andy! It is 19C in my apartment (energy saving due to the war-driven crisis), -5C outside, but I felt so much warmth coming form your roof through my monitor, that now I feel much warmer myself! :D
16C in my house... :D Same problems :D
Oh, that is great. In the next video, I can lay at the pool for a while and bake in the sun 😊
@@OffGridGarageAustralia that would immediately impact my performance at work... 🤣
Interesting Video. Bought some Fuse-Holders and thought about installing them - in rainy cold Northern Germany ;). Maybe not.
As i got to know recently: if you bundle cables in a duct, you have to adjust for wider cable diameters - even with DC-cables. I will watch that closely on my installation, when more DC cabling may go into the duct.
Do it and install them. You won't have any problems in North Germany with them.
Yes, the cables are already oversized a bit and only a few are carrying large currents at a time, so not all of them heat up the same time.
One side of the MCB has the bimetallic strip which gets hot, the other side doesn't. And fuses and MCB have different types of thermal overload protection MCBs have a bimetallic strip which bends and trips the actuation mechanism, whereas fuses rely on the fuse element to get hot and melt away this breaking the connection, you typically oversize the fuse and MCBs if you want low watt loss.
Ferrules should be unnecessary with those breakers. That is because they have a fancy mechanism instead of a screw that goes directly into the wire. Ferrules are needed when a simple screw is used because the screw can push individual strands out of the way.
Looks very nice to have cable runs inside trunking / conduit. But maybe its not always the best way. Grouping and enclosing cables reduces cooling and therefore increases resistance. 😮
Did anyone else catch the hard drive magnets holding his USB cables? Repurposing at its finest!
Fans along MPPT Controller - is exactly what I did. Else they get very very hot.(MPPT 260/100 and MPPT 250/80) I cut an opening in the backwall in order to accomodate the fans exactly behind the heat sink. (two fans per MPPT) They start blowing at 40 °C. It makes a huge difference even with tiny fans blowing from behind against the heat sink.
Fail safe? In case of broken fans there is still an advantage compared to standard monting.
But what about the other gear...?
The thermal camera showed you a strong clue that it wasn't the ferrules in the breakers.
* the wire showed a warmer spot at the breaker, cooling rapidly away from the breaker, both below and above the breaker. this indicates the heat is either from the connection or the breaker, conducted into the wire. the small size of the spot and rapid decrease indicates the heat is from further away. similar pattern ferrule and without indicates the ferrule isn't the issue.
* the upper connections were warmer. This is partially expected (heat rises, heat from roof?) but may indicate heat is from the breaker.
A correctly crimped ferrule should not be a significant heat factor unless high current relative to the wire size as the resistance added by the ferrule should be insignificant. But perhaps the terminal and the ferrule are not correctly shaped. A square crimped ferrule is better for flat connections. A hex crimped ferrule is sometimes better for round/curved compression plates.
AC is treating the symptoms not the cause.
Better roof insulation. Move the combiners away fron the roof even down by just 100mm or so and isolate with thermal insulating mount. In combination with breakers not fuses and ferrules in screw terminals and bare wire in clamp terminals. Problem solved at the cause. In hind site just better planning 😊
38°C in the garage! WOW! that is hot! And here I was complaining my garage is ~32°C.
15:00 is that busbar copper or brass? Brass is bad conductor
24:47 JK at 37°C. Is that measuring from the top of the cells? or did you tuck it in between cell# 1,14,15,16?
The resistance of a fuse increases with increasing temperature
Yes, but is this not the same with all cables and also the breakers?
Have you actually measured the temperature of the steel pipe that goes from the shed to the garage? That's fully in the sun and the cables in it will certainly be very hot.
Never measured it but can do. It will have around 50°C. The cable inside is in a conduit and with 16mm oversized for the current it needs to carry.
Talking about overheats how are your inverters doing? I am having an issue at the moment with a recently installed Multiplus II 3000. It claims 2.4kw@25degC. I am getting overheat warnings after 40 mins when drawing 2.25kw@6degC! I opened up the casing to find only one computer type fan positioned below and to the right of the toroidal transformer. Victron claim the temperature quoted is that inside the unit. In any event I shouldn't be getting overheats at such low ambient temperatures. I even got an overheat warning at 0degC. The installation is well ventilated. I think that these units need greater airflow within the casing. What performance output v temp are you getting with your high ambient temps?
The Multiplus is fine but the Phoenix is very sensitive to heat and I can only pull 8A from it in these conditions (~1.7kW).
That sounds like a problem with the Multiplus. I can run mine with 3.5kW in 35°C for hours with no problems.
Post in the Victron Community forum.
Thanks very much Andy for that feedback. The info you provide confirms for me that there is something wrong with my Multiplus. That is definitely worth another SPAT. I guess that your Multiplus is the 4000 model so 3.5kva on that is equivalent to mine running at about 2.6kva which is above the specs they quote (2.4kw@25degC). Certainly there is something wrong if I can't get 2.25kw@6degC without cutout. Feedback from the forum leads me to believe that, because the fan isn't noisy (which is normal), either I have a faulty fan or it isn't receiving full voltage.
Cnaom it is certainly not a company with quality controls, tolerances and fine materials like ABB, Siemens, Bticino, Hager, Schneider, Chint, Eaton and all the famous one. Just a loose contact between fuse and line, poor materials can generate this amout of heat. Save money on safety systems can be dangerous, like saving money on car tyres/brakes, the only two things that keeps you on the road. it would be interesting to understand who makes these products for noark, maybe they design and produce themselves.
I ran into heat issues with my solar system on my sailboat similar to your issues. The way I’ve combat it is I 3d printed brackets to mount multiple 120mm computer fans blowing onto the charge controllers and onto the breakers and just that alone was enough to solve my heat issues during peak of the summer here in Florida, USA
I've been moving away from ferrules in compression connections like are found in main lugs, circuit breakers, and SSRs because bare wire provides surface area for contact, after hot spots were found on equipment in the field. Bare wire runs an average of about 10c cooler in the products I work on.
Also, if you can pull your ferrules off, they were NOT crimped correctly. The ferrule should never be able to removed that easily.
I must admit that I wondered about that, I can't pull off my ferrules after I crimp them on.
The crimps were fine. When he squeezed them it was in an orientation that reversed the crimp. That's another reason why ferrules are not a good idea: a little mechanical force in the wrong direction and the crimp is loosened and you're *much* worse off than without them.
@@awo1fman Some of the first ones he pulled off he didn't need to "reverse crimp" was what I noticed. What can I say except none of the ferrules I've used could be pulled off by hand, I've always had to cut them off. Probably a good thing his weren't that way, since he didn't need to shorten the wires.
@@awo1fman I strongly disagree. A proper crimp should never slide off that easily. That would fail a pull test spectacularly. Read up on what crimps should be. I recommend starting with NASA-STD 8739.4A. Also, there are international standards for absolute minimum pull limits. For those cables, it's around 250N. Ref DIN 60352-2.
These are edited videos guys, they will not show every detail, im sure Andy really knows what he’s doing. 👍
The torque will have a bigger effect on the temperature then if there is a ferrule or no. Maybe get a torque screwdriver. Nice video keep it up
Computer fans. Watch our video on Victron B2B cooling. Great stuff as always. Ant.
Very interesting. Another great video. Did you see (EG4 Hybrid AC/DC Solar Mini Split Air Conditioner Heat Pump | 12000 BTU | Direct Solar Input) maybe those old panels could power it during the day to cool you Garage.
I wonder if my MC4 inline fuses have much resistance. I finally got my solar all sorted. Only if I could get more days with sun as I am in the shortest days of the year and day after day full clouds. I am looking into adding a wind turbine since we have plenty of wind where I am at and solar for December in north USA only handles my loads if the sun comes out partially. I had to use Grid power for 2 days (10 days of shitty cloud cover). I could have done another day but didn't want to take my batteries under 50V. 50-54 is where I keep them.
Spray foam the entire garage and put in a mini split then you'll be comfortable in the entire building
With all the excess power you generate you considered a 12/24v fan turning on when temp exceeds a certain temp installation on the roof directly above the connection boxes
You can always put the fuses back in during winter for a bit of extra heat LoL....
Hahaha, yeah, I could actually 😊
Put a mini-split AC in your garage. You've got the power. I'm in sunny hot Arizona and put in a garage mini-split. Best investment ever.
I have no wall space to put it anywhere near the PowerWall.
AC is treating the symptoms not the cause.
Better roof insulation. Move the combiners away fron the roof even down by just 100mm or so and isolate with thermal insulating mount. In combination with breakers not fuses and ferrules in screw terminals and bare wire in clamp terminals. Problem solved at the cause. In hind site just better planning 😊
Andy, I had the same problem with fuse holders like those, and fuses in general. I switch to breakers, and problem solved.
Ah, great to hear. Yeah, the combiner box in the roof space is now like 25°C cooler with all breakers installed. A further insulation of the roof in this area will bring it down a bit more.
On my charge controllers I run a small a small PC fan, I have it connected to a timer that I turn on in the summer.
the fan just sits on the top and blows air over the fins at the back
Hey! How do your panels behave? I mean you have a lot of them, what happens when your batteries are 100% and panels are still producing a lot of power and all that power has no place to go, as a bonus it's extremely hot outside. Do they overheat?
The Solar charge controller take care of that and control the charging of the batteries. If they get full, they turn off charging and the panels will sit there producing very little power (depending on your load). They actually cool down then as there is no current running through them anymore.
Mini-splits are good for air conditioning, efficient and also can DIY.
But where to put it? I have literally no wall space for such an installation.
Solar direct DC heat/ac pump...please get sponsored and show us an install.
There is none here in Australia.
Struggling with -5°C in the van here in Switzerland. And since it's so cold I can't discharge my LiFePo4 with my diesel heater
I like your detailed tests Andy. 👍
We have -20 celsius and 50cm of snow, and no sun at all for a week😀
I would rather like to have + 40 and turnig heat into cold by runing air conditioner, than -20 and can turn cold to heat. Need to move to sunnier place for winter 😂
It's just crazy to think about the difference between our both places right now and the different problems we have. Stay warm over there!
Yeah...always use ferrules.
Yep, big fan of ferrules. Especially with these large cables.
Always Learning good fron you so much useful information
Thank you Andy your the best
Best regards from Philippines 🇵🇭☕☕
Thanks a lot, my friend!
I would give all that a cuddle right now. It is -6c if we turn the gas central heating up to a comfortable temperature it cost £9 to £13 per day. A lot of Grannies are going to freeze to death this winter in the UK
Putin is harming sooo many people 😢
@@FutureSystem738 The UK energy crisis started well before Putin kicking off with all the uk energy retailers going bust and the price cap rise.
October last year our supplier went bust and screwed us over, in January we knew the price cap was rising for the second time to 34p per unit that came into affect in April.
Interesting look at the heating of wires/connections. I think you were fine with the ferrules as nothing was improved without them. The only thing I could think of might be a small oscillating fan hanging from the beam and blowing on the power wall. You said it's only hot for a few months so an A/C unit seems like overkill. Great video as always.
Yeah, I will put the ferrules back on on these connections. Not a fan of bare wires.
Instead of a fan, a cm or two of foil back insulation under the roof - leave a small gap between foil and roof - will be a fine passive solution.
@@Sylvan_dB Yeah, that's what they tried with the cloths under the ceiling. It works quite well actually.
How about some cheap DC fans (PC fans) to move some air over the hot components? Can be hooked up to a thermostat sensor. I've had some good success doing this instead of the huge cost and electrical overhead of installing a refrigerated AC. A little bit of airflow goes a long way!
Meine Mutter sagt, platziere die Batterien unten und VECC oben
First, I would focus on the Batteries. I would put a heat pump on them set at just 30°c. Then I'd look at the VECC's and want to control the temperature at 20°c.. No?
Three coats on here. Sometimes I think about just flying the Gulfstream down there this time of year. Maybe stop over at Fiji or Hawaii for a spell. But having this much money makes winter awesomeness Vail - Telluride - Jackson Hole baby!
The heat pump increases efficiency by lowering the temperature to where the battery cell und BMS generate peak power with good buffer for load and charge while the VECC need be cooler to extend the life of the fish oil inside which is stinky when burned
Makes my day every time I see you have posted another video.
Great, I'll dome some more... 😉
Lucky you !!! , here in the UK it is full on brass monkeys , freezing inside and out .
As is in Lower Bavaria currently 🖖
Drill a 120mm hole behind the chargers. Install 120mm fan on the inside of your aluminium, that will then cool the heat sink on the charger.
Nice Video, but Andy, why are you using 63A breaker between the batterie and the 70A MPPT, this is a bottleneck.
Where is the "Deutsche Gründlichkeit"?
Best wiches from Germany, outside -9°C, Batterieshelf outdoor at 16°C.
Because there is no 80A MCCB from NOARK with a 35mm terminal.
and 70A is only peak power for a limited time. So far none of the breakers have tripped.
But I agree, I run them hard and an 80A or 100A breaker would be better in these locations.
Measure the volt drop across the fuses under load
I forgot doing that 🤦♂️
Instead of throttling back your charging I would just get a inverter Ac unit.
Having conditioned a garage is almost a must for me here in Florida during peek summer.
Not just for cooling the equipment but me also when working on projects.
Set it to 80 and it makes it tolerable even with your door open.
Interesting. RUclipsr Mispronounced Adventures did a couple of interesting videos on cooling Victron B2B's. The 25mm cables near end of video that get warm, can you not put your DMM across its length? The voltage measured would give you an idea if you'd benefit from an increase in size.
We will do some more testing in the future and measure the voltage drops across some points as well.
You over killed all your cables. All these temps must just be ambient temp heating up cables. I have 35mm cable to my 5kv inverters and they never get hot. PV is the same but I have high voltage, rather than high amps. This keeps the inverters so much cooler. My high amp inverters got so hot in the summer you couldn't put your hand on them and had tornado fans running to keep them cool. So you should be well within tolerance with 70mm cable on a 3kv inverter. I'm trialing a Renogy charge controller. For $350 you get the same performance at half the price. Plug and Play. Running perfect. Also, paid $20 for a fire alarm. Something all solar installers never install. All that investment and they never put a cheap smoke detector in. Weird.
It is absolutely the ambient temperature inside the garage with fuels these hot connections and devices. I'm working on it...
I sense a DC powered split air-conditioner coming, maybe ground mounted with your older panels?
They don't exist down here in Australia. Saw Will's recent video about the G4 or what it was called. Nice AC.
I also don't have the wall space to mount one...
As far as I know, if the Victron Solarcharger are over 40 C, they reduce the outputpower. I put a little fan on my charger controlled by the cerbo and a temp sensor comming with the Multiplus II.
Yes, that is correct, they will throttle down. I have not seen it yet. They still output close to 4kW, the max they can do, under these hot conditions.
Run some cooling in the garage. You got plenty of power in the summer
I noticed that with my FLIR it will show reflected temperatures.
if the cables and bus bars are shiny then you are seeing the temperature of the tin roof above.
If you use a pease of cardboard to sheald it when using the camera it may make a differance.
You maybe getting a false reading? if the wires going in are 12 AWG and the wires going out are the same,
then why would they be any different ? maybe the wires on top are showing radiated heat ?
As heat is a light wave use a mirror with your FLIR its very interesting... also a little bit of cardboard should sheald the boxes from the roof iron !
Yes, that tricked me again in the car port with the brass bus bar. I should have known better from previous experience...
Fuses have resistive losses that produce heat. They must in order to melt above their rated current. Magnetic breakers do not depend on heat to trip. Fuses are actually quite lossy. If you measure the voltage drop across a fuse running near its rated current, and calculate the power loss (P=IxE), it's actually rather high. You've made the right choice by substituting breakers. You won't get a valid estimate of the power loss through a fuse by measuring its cold resistance. The fuse link resistance has a positive temperature coefficient. To calculate the loss, you need instead to measure the voltage drop across the fuse with actual measured operational current while in the actual operational environment.
Thanks for your explanation. That makes sense to me.
Breakers do have a thermal trip mechanism as well, so they will heat up too.
While it is all rather toasty, i would say that You can be pretty content with those tests, shows you did your homework on wiresize, fill factor and termination. Nice. Ok, so active cooling, or build a dedicated passively cooled structure.
Active cooling incoming...
Thanks for the detail on the ferrule tests!! Extensive testing using the IR Camera (:
You could use pc fans that push air from behind onto the heatsink of the mppt‘s.
As I said, and the rest of the installation?
@@OffGridGarageAustralia install a fan into every device. The breakers dont really need cooling. You could still use your portable AC unit, but if you use that, you‘ll have to insulate your shed. Big difference.
I added a nut between the SCC mounting flange and the wall to allow for additional air flow across the back... Any spacer would do. Although you would think that your aluminum would help dissipate some heat as well.
The heat sinks on these controllers are massive and yes, the aluminium back wall could help or make it worse, depending if the sun shines on the outside wall.
Farrell vs no Ferrell temp comparison interesting, thanks 🙏! Thumbs up and yes still subscribed!
Thanks a lot, Dig!
Put in a cheap mini-split heat pump.
Keep in mind that the Amp rating does NOT ensure the wire will not get hot. It only ensures it will not get so hot that it damages the insulator or conductor.
Also, many of the hot spots were at the connection between the wire and a device. This is typical. Do any of the devices have torque specs on the terminals?
you are the nerd that lives inside of me... thank you for what you do!!!
Thanks, Jason. I'm really in a nice spot with my setup. I'm grateful, I have the garage and can just close the doors in the evening just to keep going in the morning again. And I've got a supportive wife, so that helps a lot too...
It’s so simple Andy. Just place some cold Spats on everything.
Great! I didn't think about that solution 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
I laugh my ass of every time... sounds like "the big shit roof" every time you say it lol.
Hey! Watch your language! 😂
you could measure for a voltage drop across the fuses vs the circuit breakers.
Even in UK summer my Victron MPPT controllers were becoming too hot to touch. I fitted a pair of 90mm centrifugal fans under each controller blowing upwards. These are controlled using temperature controllers which I have set to cycle between 35degC and 40degC. They work well. With your higher ambient temperatures you would probably need to accept higher settings to avoid the fans with all the time.
dont use ir camera, please us a human feeling hand ..if you cannot hold it: too hot
also: if temps are more than 10c above ambient, problably cables too thin
Were do I buy such solar combiner box that is used in your system Andy?
I made this myself from a switchboard and used fuses and breakers inside. All product links are on my website: off-grid-garage.com/
Air condition the Off-Grid Garage Already....you have Too MuCh PoWeR!!! 🔋 🔋 🔋
Great investigative work & experimentation Andy, the FLIR is a great tool for proving these theories.
I would lean toward using a 50-60C thermistor on each controller with it’s own small/quiet fan or a larger one to do them all, independent fans would also let you know (optically & acoustically) which controller/panel set, is getting hotter at the different times of day. I like the idea of A/Con a sectioned off work area which includes all ur power wall gear, u have plenty of power to at least do this for the extremes & would make a good solar dump also, but I thought ur wiring @ 10-20C above ambient doesn’t seem too bad under those conditions.
Getting accurate Ambient Temp can be tricky, as you know this can vary a lot by sensor location, I believe the correct sensor placement for ambient readings is supposed to be 1m (3’ USA) above the ground in a shaded position. As others have said, a piece of wood will help to insulate the Nuvi from the iron cladding, but I do think it will be hard to get accurate ambient temps in that location, being high and close to the shed cladding could influence it greatly depending on many factors, ie: time of day & if Rolla-doors are open or shut even, wind, etc. Walls influence sensors in a bad way also, in that they can slow the sensor reaction time & if sun hits the wall or ground near it can channel heat, even the gravel on ur driveway with a slight breeze could blow across & up the shed wall to give false readings, but you will get used to this anomaly of temp differences. It would be a nice feature if you could calibrate the Nuvi temp sensor in ur settings to give u a more accurate ambient temp on ur monitor, as u can with volts & amps in ur BMS’s to match ur main shunt. Congrats on ur 50+K Sub’s, always look forward to ur vids. Cheers
I thought Circuit Breaker is not allowed as PV isolator in Aus?
IFAIK we should use fuse with gPv characteristic. Tipical DC beakers don't react fast enough for short circuit current for PV. Fuse should be: 1.4 x string short circuit current x pv amps tolerance
They are absolutely allowed if they have the specifications.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia ohh.. Nice. Could you be so kind and share the model numer od Noarc?
@@OffGridGarageAustralia IMHO and not to argue with you but... according to IEC 60269-6:2010 at least the first stage of PV fuses (whose purpose is to protect PVs, not cables) should be "gPV" characteristics not "C" (which Noark breaker are C, even if they are rated for DC and PV use - but maybe I'm wrong). The "gPV" and "C" characteristics for DC look quite different. Of course, every producer has some differences in the curve but in general, "gPV" should be blown almost just after 1,4 of the short circuit current of PVs. The "C" curve nad Noark DC MCB are rather ok to be the second stage of protection (after all your PV strings are in parallel). What is your opinion and all of you guys?
Hi Andy, why you not let any space between the breakers , so the heat can get out ?
That would involve a far larger combiner box. But yeah, could do...
Get a few of those PC slot fans to blow up through the MPPT heatsink fins
Yeah, but the rest of the system...
Hey andy, How do you get around the new Extra low voltage requirements for your solar panels and inverter. my understanding is that under the new Australian standards you cant work on any DC circuits that are over 60v DC. so that means you cant really run any panels in series without going over this? I am only asking this beacause i have been following along on your channel and want to build out a similiar setup as you at my own place.
Cheers mate
That's one reason why I stay under 120V DC and have only two panels in series. As soon as you go over it's considered electrical work and you need a sparky.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia yeh but it now has to be under 60V DC not 120V DC, most solar panels are over 30v so that means techncally you cant even run 2 in series without needing a licenced sparky. im thinking i might have to make my system all 24v so that i can do it legally and just run all of the panels in parralel.
Thats not a hot knive ...
Wondering what you are doing with all the power, are you running a massive Hydroponic system If you know what I mean 😂😂🤣🤣
Power supplies/inverters, temperatures are CRITICAL!!! Arrhenius' Law of Chemical Activity: The capacitor’s life doubles for every 10 degree Celsius decrease in temperature. Caps are why most power supplies fail... keep working that temperature!
Also the fuses are probably (correct me if i'm wrong) Ohmic resistors, so the larger the current the higher the resistance. Test to see what the resistance is at when they have current flowing - using a multimeter is probably best possible conditions & they'd be worse when running.
Breakers much nicer.. now you can switch them on and off
Yeah, well, could do the same with the fuses... but yeah, it is nicer...
I suggest that you look at the current in each of your circuits. As all of your terminations are new and shiny, there should not be any resistance problems. Although you did see the difference between the fuses and the CB's. Therefore the only reason for temperature difference would be the amount of current through the conductor. I do like your presentation style.
Thank you.
I can check all cables with my connected MPPTs, shunts and inverters/loads and have over sized all cables a bit to the max current initially designed for this system.
If you can pull the ferrule off like you did I would be concerned
Well, I could pull them off that easy because I worked on them for two minutes to actually losen them enough. I just didn't put this in the video 😉
Also, l mount my inverter and controllers with a gap between them and the wall for better heat dissipation.
I live in sunny hot Perth.
Thanks Andy for your content
why don’t you have any bugs flying around the lights in the garage? The lights in the garage don’t attract millions of bugs?
Thank you Andy for your very interesting program and a Merry Christmas to you and family have a awesome New Year
Thanks a lot, Vic. Merry Christmas to you too!
Hi Andy, Do you know this Aussie company : Redflow. They have perhaps a solution for you!
5 degrees between upper and lower clamp is by convention. IR thermometer works poorly with shiny metal. Make black with Eding before measuring 👍😎
You make me cry. I have 30 cm snow outside the window and - 10 *C :) or 0 Amps
Fuse holder its shittt!
No one is using it!
I'm thinking if you had bigger distribution box's, and leave a single blanking plate in between the breakers so they are no hard against each other, this may allow the breakers to shed heat better.
Superb fault finding Andy👌
Do you think having MPPT with standouts would make any difference so cooling fins have air around them?
Thanks Andy for the thorough testing. Why didn't you choose the 250 Volts MPPT from Victron? For the same amount of power incoming from the solar strings you have less current.
I have made a few video here on the channel about that. The main reason is: shading.
If you use a combiner box twice the size you can have a space between each breaker for ventilation .
No more spooning ha ha
That I expected as you use low voltage string. so that power will became heat in high current network so that usually ppl use 500V String instead of 150V or 100V String
Hi Andy, try leave an air gap between the circuit breakers and see if that helps drop some of the heat soaking between components. Keep up the great videos, always a pleasure watching your videos.
Yes, the moral of the story children ..is....space stuff out, to permit ambient air to circulate. From -1C France.
I found the using the C45 copper lug for circuit breaker works much batter then ferules especially with big strand copper cable.
Great informative tests Andy. i have seen many comments about not using ferrules but you have proved that it makes no difference .
I don’t think many others have a clue as to how much copper you got around the power system$$$. Congrats on a cool system. Go big wire or go home 😅
Yea, it must be a lot. Due to the parallel strings on the roof, the sparky used around 200m of double 4mm wire to connect all the strings.
When you bundle the cables together in a solid ducting they heat up and copper is a great conductor of heat.
Use a wire basket and separate the cables to help with heat dissipation
It seems that your equipment and cabling gets only 10-15 degrees hotter than ambient temperature at full 70A of current. That's actually quite impressive!
😍😍😍😍
Makes sense to use ferrules in screw terminals and non ferule in the clamp terminals for best connection in either case.
No surprise fuses are in effect a resistor designed to burn out in over current.
VIDEO IDEA:
Hi Andy, love all your tests. Could you connect your NoArk breaker to a spare lifepo4 cell and induce a short and see if the breaker protects the battery from damage by testing its capacity afterwards. Thanks.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to stay away from any short testing with these batteries and breakers. I don't have the equipment here to safely do such testing in case something goes wrong. A garage is not the right environment for that. But we can probably have a 20A breaker loaded with 150A and see what happens.
15:20 Metal surfaces are like "mirrors" for infrared light. So you measured your rood temperature, most likely. If you would paint it black (matte), then you would see the bus bar's own temperature.
Yes, we saw this in previous videos when looking at the batteries and shiny bus bars...
Stop removing ferrules already :)
Maybe just measure resistance?
fuses work by having a resistance and generating heat ... too much heat and the fusable link melts. So it's not really surprising.
I wonder if ferrules would have been better,. Well the noark switches looks nice Andy:)
Root the pool water through the Batteries😂 like a tesla battery bank
You‘d heat your pool and keep the batteries at like 30°C