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zabbaskeema avatar image
zabbaskeema asked

Orion DCDC temperature high!

Hi all and especially Victron people please for an answer to this.

I hooked up a 48/12 30A DCDC to my system, it is meant to charge a 12v Lithium bank (480Ah, irrelevant here)

It happily sends 25/30 amps in the bank if I put it into "charge" mode.

The thing is the heat it produces!! In a well ventilated spot my laser probe gives me a wooping 75ºC at the base.

Documentation mentions it will derate itself if the load is too great - great.

But is this normal??


Soon I will have another one in parallel which in practice will have them both work half longer to get whatever Amps needed into the bank - but still, they are rated for continuous use and that should not be a concern.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Patrick

Orion DC-DC Converters not smart
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1 Answer
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wkirby answered ·

The datasheet says that it's 87% efficient.
If you have the output going at full chat, 30A = 360W, then the input power would be roughly 420W.
So, 60W is going away as heat. 60W is quite a lot of heat to be generated in a box that size, so I'd expect its temperature to rise quite high.
The ambient temperature plays a big part in the converter's ability to dissipate its own heat.
If the ambient temperature is high and you are running the device a maximum power for extended periods of time, then mounting the unit to a metal backing or some sort of forced cooling might be beneficial.

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