SolarEdge users: What's your inverter temp during high production?

[sensij]

Where you been ?

You OK ?

Welcome back.

Thanks! I'm fine (thanks for asking), but am not going to be a CA resident much longer. A new opportunity came out of blue at the beginning of the year, and I've started working in the Pacific Northwest this month. With so much transition, not as much time for the things I enjoy.

Once I finally get settled, the rain gauge on my Davis will have a lot more work to do. And yes, count this as yet another example of why the long term "savings" of a PV system isn't always realized. At least the next owner of my house will have a good 18 years left of grandfathering. (And I'm totally fine with it... The experience of diy installing the system was worth the cost, and I'll be testing first hand if it adds anything the the market value of the house)

[J.P.M.]

Ooops, sorry. I was completely wrong on that one. After I downloaded my historical data from PVOutput into Excel. It turns out that I had ~80 days (July and August) last year where my inverter reached temps between 46C (115F) and 64.7 degrees C (148.6F). Ambient temps from Weather Underground on those days were 90-95 F.

While knowing what inverter temps. are is the end goal, it's often more useful to keep the difference between inverter temp. and local (immediately around the inverter) ambient temp. in mind when trying to figure out ways to analyze and maybe change and probably lower inverter temps.

[JSchnee21]

Ooops, sorry. I was completely wrong on that one. After I downloaded my historical data from PVOutput into Excel. It turns out that I had ~80 days (July and August) last year where my inverter reached temps between 46C (115F) and 64.7 degrees C (148.6F). Ambient temps from Weather Underground on those days were 90-95 F.

[J.P.M.]

That was true a while ago, but now there is an option to pipe the weather station data into an extended value field, allowing both it and inverter temp to be logged.

Where you been ?

You OK ?

Welcome back.

[JSchnee21]

I seem to be a day late and a dollar short to this discussion, but I have the SE 11.4kW inverter connected to a 12.2kW DC array and it typically peaks at ~112 degrees F regardless of the outdoor temp. Inverter is mounted outdoors on East face of house with some shading (once the leaves come in).

The inverter's temperature tracks with output up to ~112 F, then the fans must be shifting into high gear or something as I can see oscillations where the temp drops down to 105F and then cycles back up to 112 repeatedly. I don't think I've ever seen it exceed 113 or 114F.

Not sure if you can get to this PVOutput link or not:

https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=58372&sid=52103&dt=20180326

-Jonathan

[sensij]

They are the Inverter temperature. You may display either the weather station or the inverter temps but not both.

That was true a while ago, but now there is an option to pipe the weather station data into an extended value field, allowing both it and inverter temp to be logged.

[lwsmiser]

They are the Inverter temperature. You may display either the weather station or the inverter temps but not both.
How are you monitoring your system? I am using PVOutput.org in Australia. The offer a free service which you can access in your web browser. It is free but you can contribute $10 or so and get additional services to store information on their server. Check it out online if you are not already using it. I am presently sending consumption data to the site using a Raspberry Pi dedicated computer. More info if you wnat it.

[TundraLu]

I think you should disable/remove the Weather (Wunderground) API. It is writing into the same temperature field as the SolarEdge API, so whichever of them writes last will be the one that shows. It looks like in most cases, the true ambient temperature is showing, but every now and then the SolarEdge inverter value sticks.

You can see on my test system that the temperature reported by the inverter only shows up during daylight hours. The fact that you are still getting temp data when the sun is down shows you still have another active data source.

Looking at your temps are those the inverter temps on that system?

[lwsmiser]

I have a 6.3 kW system with an SE7600A inverter. I have monitored it daily for the past year. The inverter is inside my unfinished garage on a North facing wall. The highest I have recorded is 145 F (~63 C). On the hottest days I open the garage door a little as well as the back door allowing lower temperature air to enter. Today the top temp was 124 F ( ~51 C) which is more typical...cooler on cloudy days...hotter on clear days. My output for the past year has exceeded the deigned value by 18%.

[Stuntman]

Did you read the fine manual?

I believe I remember seeing it in there.

Installer didn't leave me any manual.. but I imagine if nobody knows how off the top of their head, I can try to find a .pdf for it somewhere and look it up! What is it about people that bother to RTFM reply? NBTD? (Nothing Better to Do)

[foo1bar]

Is this an easy thing to change? If so.. anybody know how I can do this?

SolarEdge SE10000

Did you read the fine manual?

I believe I remember seeing it in there.

[Stuntman]

Replacement communication board - Displays in degrees C

I just had my communication board replaced on my SolarEdge inverter.. seems to work great.. only real issue is that the temperatures now display in degrees C. I'd like to have them in degrees F like the original board did..

Is this an easy thing to change? If so.. anybody know how I can do this?

SolarEdge SE10000

[sensij]

I'll be posting my zigbee issue in it's own thread later tonight.

If you search the forum, you'll find several reports of Zigbee drops with SolarEdge. Their implementation seems to be hit or miss under many residential environments... while a device like the Rainforest Automation Eagle is rock solid. If Wifi is available, hooking up a wireless bridge is an inexpensive alternative to Zigbee (that is what I did).

[skipro3]

I'll go into this in another thread, but today I received a new Communications board from Solaredge. I installed it. It must be older stock because now I get the temperature on the inverter's display whereas before, I didn't get that display page at all.

This is a new solar installation, less than a week old.

The Communications board is the one that has the display screen on it, the SD slot and where the Zigbee slave radio card mounts. I am having trouble with zigbee dropping and they sent me this card. I think they meant to send me a replacement zigbee slave card. In any case, I now have the older version card and the temperature display.

I'll be posting my zigbee issue in it's own thread later tonight.

[pure3d2]

have you donated some $ to PVOutput to enable the advanced features? I have the same updated firmware on my inverter as well...

Cheers
BMak

Ah I forgot about the advanced features requiring the donation. I will send them some money once my power company sets up my net metering.