Outdoor Housing for Battery and Inverter 14 March at 1:47PM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 14 replies 380 views

aj9648

I have run out of viable space (that Mrs will let me use) to house my inverter and battery for when my solar arrives next month (GivEnergy).  So have been looking at alternatives.  Originally looked at stainless steel and GRP kiosks but that was going to cost me nearly £1500.

So now i am thinking just making a 2m x 1m x 0.4m wooden box with a plywood mounting plate to house this and sit in my front yard in the corner.  Insulate it for the cold months.  The drive is north facing so hardly gets any sun. 

Has anyone done this in their system?  i was a bit sceptical of using wood but i reckon it should be ok as long as its pressure treated, can brave the elements and was thinking of putting a rubber roof on it.....

Any thoughts if this is viable ?

ispookie666

Viable 
Might need to have some sort of heating for the cold months and be well-insulated. The charging rate is throttled if the battery temperature drops below 5.  Battery can be permanently damaged if the cells freeze. 
Plenty of people have done this, maybe join the Givenergy forum on the book of faces 

yp70479

If mounted outside you definitely need some form of cover. Check out the GivEnergy installation guides to make sure you leave enough space around the inverter to disperse the heat generated. My battery and inverter are on a west facing wall, so I have a frame covered in greenhouse shading to prevent overheating in the summer. But it has a solid roof to protect from rain and snow in the winter. I built a box from 5mm polystyrene that I push over the battery in the winter, but can remove in the summer. Are you on a time of use tariff (like Economy 7), because the most effective way of keeping your battery warm over sub-zero periods is to use it. While the battery is charging and discharging it generates heat and keeps itself warm. So if you decrease your charge rate over the off peak period so that it charges over the whole or most or the off peak period it will stay warm over night. Temps here went down to -8 C, but the battery was fine.The battery can discharge at sub zero temps but cannot charge. In theory the battery BMS system should cut in to stop it trying to charge if it does get too cold. This only happened to me once (before I insulated and found out about heating through maintaining charging) but the battery still works fine now. If you build a wooden box I would make sure that any insulation can be removed in the summer and that there will be adequate ventilation in the summer months  - if it gets as hot as last year!

EricMears

aj9648 said:

I have run out of viable space (that Mrs will let me use) to house my inverter and battery for when my solar arrives next month (GivEnergy).  So have been looking at alternatives.  Originally looked at stainless steel and GRP kiosks but that was going to cost me nearly £1500.

So now i am thinking just making a 2m x 1m x 0.4m wooden box with a plywood mounting plate to house this and sit in my front yard in the corner.  Insulate it for the cold months.  The drive is north facing so hardly gets any sun. 

Has anyone done this in their system?  i was a bit sceptical of using wood but i reckon it should be ok as long as its pressure treated, can brave the elements and was thinking of putting a rubber roof on it.....

Any thoughts if this is viable ?

Don't publish your thoughts here (a local crim might be watching !) but are you confident that a wooden box in the front yard will be safe from thieves ?

UncleK

Sounds viable. Mine are in a non-heated but well insulated hobby room 2 x 5 m and the batteries and inverters keeps that at 13 degrees no problem.

ecraig

I often see pictures of Tesla power walls being mounted outside with no special cover.
My neighbour has 2 solaredge batteries on the side of his property. Again. No special cover.
Why do you need a small structure to house it if it already comes waterproof??

EricMears

ecraig said:

I often see pictures of Tesla power walls being mounted outside with no special cover.
My neighbour has 2 solaredge batteries on the side of his property. Again. No special cover.
Why do you need a small structure to house it if it already comes waterproof??

Perhaps if it's inside a wooden box it will be less attractive to the light fingered ?

ecraig

Would they not get electrocuted?!

ispookie666

ecraig said:

I often see pictures of Tesla power walls being mounted outside with no special cover.
My neighbour has 2 solaredge batteries on the side of his property. Again. No special cover.
Why do you need a small structure to house it if it already comes waterproof??

It would depend on your and your installers risk apetite.  The BMS should be clever enough to throttle charging or stop it if the temperature of the cells drop below freezing (this is not synonymous with ambient temperature).  

yp70479

I have heard of a couple of cases of water getting into the inverter if the installer didn't refit the seals properly, or water building up in the dongle. If you look at the GiveEnergy installation manual for inverters they do suggest a cover of some kind or mounting out of the direct line of rain or snow

aj9648

ecraig said:

I often see pictures of Tesla power walls being mounted outside with no special cover.
My neighbour has 2 solaredge batteries on the side of his property. Again. No special cover.
Why do you need a small structure to house it if it already comes waterproof??

Hi. - I don’t have any wall space outside either - big bay window and the side entrance into garden is super narrow. 

So I’m thinking I need a 4 sided structure - would a wood structure be strong enough to hold up a battery and inverter?