Sun exposure for battery & hybrid inverter (Australia, Sydney)
Hello,

We're looking at the H3-10.0 & EQ4800-L9 combination. Having gone through placement options with a contractor and a few companies it seems the only feasible location is on a north west wall. There is another house close to ours so it is not completely exposed to sun, but it would receive direct sunlight in the afternoons in spring, summer and autumn. A few questions:

- Should this be a deal breaker / no go?
- I have seen some UV protection barriers being advertised for batteries and hybrid inverter - does anyone have any experience on whether these actually work to deflect heat?
- We could have the hybrid inverter mounted next to the meter box in complete shade, but this is ~10m away. Is this possible to separate battery and hybrid inverter by 10m?
Re: Sun exposure for battery & hybrid inverter (Australia, Sydney)
The inverter / battery are designed to be fitted outside but they do have operational temperature limits - They will be fine with the ambient temp in summer in Sydney the inverter can operate up to 60C but will derate the MPPT power above 45C, the batteries will operate up to 55C.

The inverter effectively self manages itself to avoid over-heating but the batteries must not be used above that 55C temperature or they will be damaged.

I would imagine that in a prolonged exposure to direct sunlight, the local temperatures will get close to those operational limits and so it would be strongly recommended to provide some kind of shade or sun screen for them - something like a hit and miss fence that can keep them out of direct sunlight but let them get the air flow they need to cool.

The battery should be less than 3 metres away from the hybrid and as mentioned it’s more critical they are shaded than the inverter so ideally located together.

It is possible to overrate the DC wiring between batteries and inverter as long as volt drop, resistance etc.. would all need to be taken into account to do it properly - Fox warranty is max 3 metres so your installer would need to get them to sign it off if the distance was greater.
Re: Sun exposure for battery & hybrid inverter (Australia, Sydney)
Thanks for the reply, very much appreciated! They have offered UV protection similar to this: https://www.simplycovers.com.au/battery-covers/
Does anyone have experience with how effective these are?
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