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I have two Quattro 48/5k inverters. Once the upgrade is complete they will be installed in an insulated, not air conditioned, room that rarely exceeds 90F, and never goes below 40F.
Does anyone have any suggestions on clearances, especially between the two units?
Follow the manual's suggestions on clearances.
Also, you will probably need ventilation to the room. Figure roughly 10% of the power sent to the loads or consumed by battery charging will be additional heat load to the room. Fully loaded that would be about 1,000 watts of heat.
Keep in mind the Quattros will produce less power at elevated temperatures. Best to keep them as cool as possible.
The manual has zero suggestions on the clearance, at least as far as I read. One of the Victron people on the board said there weren't suggestions because they were self-regulating and it didn't affect the warranty.
That's why I was coming to the folks on the board to see if there was real-life experience such as yourself.
I think I will put a fan on them with a temp sensor.
Thank you again.
I found this in the Quattro manual:
4.1 Location
The Quattro should be installed in a dry, well-ventilated location, as close as possible to the batteries. The device should be surrounded by a free space of at least 10 cm for cooling purposes.
An excessively high environmental temperature has the following consequences:
- shorter lifecycle
- lower charging current
- lower peak power or full inverter shut off.
It's true the unit will protect itself from excessive temperatures but this could result is significant power output.
A temperature controlled cooling fan for the room you are putting the Quattros in is a really good idea, or at least design the ventilation so that the hot air from the Quattros, batteries and other charging sources (MPPT, etc) exit the room with natural convection (hot air rises).
I think I will do my fan idea...and I think I will put a manual vent at ground level that goes to my crawl space. It is always cooler there, nice place to pull cooling air into the room in the dead of summer.
Thanks again for finding that in the manual for me. I better improve my reading skills :)
