How to maintain solar inverter cooling fan？

Solar inverter is a central component of any solar power system. It contains a lot of electronic circuitry and this needs to be kept cool in order to function properly.

 

There are two main cooling methods for solar inverter. One is passive cooling. Passive or natural cooling relies on heat being dissipated by the inverter’s cooling fin without any fan. This lack of air circulation creates hot spots which in turn reduces the lifespan of the solar inverter. The other is active cooling. With active cooling the fan(s) cool all the electrical components and heat sinks effectively lowering the temperature and avoiding any hot spots. This creates less stress on the components which in turn extends their lifespan. The cooling fan is important for the inverter because the heat dissipation performance directly affect the power generation.

 

Today we will talk about the solar inverter cooling fan maintenance in this article.

 

 

 

You need to make a detailed assessment about the surrounding environment before the installation of solar inverter. The operation of cooling fan will be affected by the dust, branches and leaves, which will result in loud noises and crash during the running process.

 

The cooling fan outlet will be blocked due to the long-term exposure to dusty environment. As a result, the fan speed drops and the power generation will be less and less. For inverters with forced air cooling, it is recommended that the installation location be far away from densely-populated regions due to their operation mode and heat dissipation needs.

 

 

During the installation, we need to take separation distance into consideration. If the two inverters are too close, the heat dissipation will slow down and thus leading to a lower power generation. The investigation reveals that about 35％of the customers installed the inverters with a unreasonable separation distance, which will cause a poor heat dissipation performance.

 

 

You are supposed to avoid rough assembly method or other installation methods during installation to prevent the fault of cooling fan.

 

 

 

When the installation is completed, we need to regularly detect the operation of the cooling fan through the monitoring system or ask the personnel to check.

 

 

We should regularly clean the external part of the cooling fan. Use a screw driver to remove the 6 screws of the external fan, and clean the fan cover and fan blades.

 

 

 

When the inverter is running, observe whether the external fan works; if it does not work, you can try to flip the fan blade to see whether the fan is stuck with foreign objects; if it still does not work after flipping, please contact the after-sales personnel.

 

 

If the solar inverter cooling fan breaks down, it will not only affect the power generation, but also seriously harm the interests of customers. We must pay much attention to the selection of installation environment, operation and maintenance, so as to ensure the stable operation of our photovoltaic system and gain benefits in the long term.