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Should solar inverters be serviced?

[Deleted User]
[Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Mortgage-free Glee!
in Green & ethical MoneySaving
Mine will be 3 in October. It's fine as far as I know but should it be periodically serviced?

Comments

  • Ectophile
    Ectophile Posts: 8,350 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Mine never has been, and the people who installed it have never suggested I have it serviced.

    It's just a box with electronics inside. I can't see why it needs servicing any more than a TV would.
    If it sticks, force it.
    If it breaks, well it wasn't working right anyway.
  • mac2008
    mac2008 Posts: 266 Forumite
    Nah, nothing that could really benefit from a routine service as far as I know. I Suppose one could clean out the fans if operated in a dusty environment if the manual says so?


    Perhaps better to monitor output periodically (maybe compare to PVGIS) to detect if there is any significant drop in performance.
    My PV system: South West England, 10x 250Wp Trina Solar panels, Fronius Inverter, South facing roof, 35° pitch with no shading.
  • EricMears
    EricMears Posts: 3,326 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    The fans (and indeed the rest of the circuit boards) could indeed do with cleaning off occasionally - else one day the whole thing might burst into flames ! And of course if there's a filter in the fan system to stop dust accumulating that might need to be cleaned out occasionally.

    However, if the inverter is in a reasonably clean environment that's unlikely to justify an 'annual' service - perhaps once every 20 years would do and of course long before the unit actually catches fire you'd get a warning whiff of charred fluff to alert you to need for a service.
    NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq5
  • Fruit_and_Nut_Case
    Fruit_and_Nut_Case Posts: 4,617 Forumite
    Mortgage-free Glee!
    mac2008 wrote: »
    ...the fans...
    EricMears wrote: »
    The fans...
    Made me jump there. Then I checked and confirmed that the trusty SolarEdge uses convected cooling. No cleaning for me, then. :)
    Are you for real? - Glass Half Empty??
    :coffee:
  • mac2008
    mac2008 Posts: 266 Forumite
    Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »
    Made me jump there. Then I checked and confirmed that the trusty SolarEdge uses convected cooling. No cleaning for me, then. :)

    Convection will still suck in dust! Perhaps running a vacuum over the vents if they look grubby.
    My PV system: South West England, 10x 250Wp Trina Solar panels, Fronius Inverter, South facing roof, 35° pitch with no shading.
  • nigelpm
    nigelpm Posts: 433 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    No, a waste of time and effort.
  • Martyn1981
    Martyn1981 Posts: 15,649 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    mac2008 wrote: »
    Convection will still suck in dust! Perhaps running a vacuum over the vents if they look grubby.

    Hiya Mac. Just being (too) pedantic here, but the SolarEdge heat sink is, in my opinion, a thing of beauty. It's mounted on the back of the inverter. It's the entire size of the inverter (top to bottom, & side to side), with fins that stick out towards the wall of approx 1.5 inch, but the inverter is mounted approx 3 inches from the wall. So all convected dust etc travels up a tunnel (chimney?) between the wall, and a massive single piece of aluminium heat sink. :)

    My fanless SMA's ...... not so lucky, dusty little b*****s! :(

    Mart.
    Mart. Cardiff. 8.72 kWp PV systems (2.12 SSW 4.6 ESE & 2.0 WNW). 28kWh battery storage. Two A2A units for cleaner heating. Two BEV's for cleaner driving.

    For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.
  • mac2008
    mac2008 Posts: 266 Forumite
    Martyn1981 wrote: »
    Hiya Mac. Just being (too) pedantic here, but the SolarEdge heat sink is, in my opinion, a thing of beauty. It's mounted on the back of the inverter. It's the entire size of the inverter (top to bottom, & side to side), with fins that stick out towards the wall of approx 1.5 inch, but the inverter is mounted approx 3 inches from the wall. So all convected dust etc travels up a tunnel (chimney?) between the wall, and a massive single piece of aluminium heat sink. :)

    My fanless SMA's ...... not so lucky, dusty little b*****s! :(

    Mart.

    Ah, so you mean the SolarEdge electronics are cooled by conduction and the heat sink is then cooled by convection? ;) That's ok then :)
    My PV system: South West England, 10x 250Wp Trina Solar panels, Fronius Inverter, South facing roof, 35° pitch with no shading.
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