Nightmare Solar Controller Near Fire

[jage]

This was installed by SMB Fresno many years ago, it's your typical solar panel. Two trips ago it was reading the house batteries at like 3v and I was like "oh no, time to replace" but then I realized everything was working just fine on the house side and power ports were reading 12v+. I thought something was loose in the back of the panel.


FF to today, the panel has been reading fine since but I pulled it to see what was going on. Full sun, so I was being very careful as the solar incoming is always hot, well it wasn't just hot it was roached. The char isn't new and the wires weren't themselves hot, but the back of the panel was hot to the touch. Not welding hot but black part in the sun in Arizona hot. The hottest was behind and slightly below the digital read out. Again the incoming wires were warm, but it seemed a radiant head from the unit being so hot.


So, what the heck and what should I do about it? Any ideas? I know it's not the rear door auto open eject module because I serviced that last week.

[REF]

Get a Victron solar controller and call it good, surface mount it on a board in the same location so it has enough airflow for cooling, I wouldn’t stuff it back in that cabinet, that may have contributed to that one failing, although it is quite an old blue sky I assume.
Thankful it didn’t cause any more damage or a fire

[jonyjoe101]

Where your controller is located next to the skin of your vehicle with only insulation in the way, all the heat has nowhere to go.
I would add a small fan to blow on it. Even though the controllers are design to run hot, at a certain temperature they will reduce power output. Adding a fan will not be easy in that area, the fan can also be used to exhaust the air out of that area.
I think its a bad design with all the circuits exposed, it should at least have a metal cover to protect the circuits.
I keep the solar controller inside my van (with fan blowing on it) where it rarely gets over 100F, Areas that are not well insulated will easily reach 150F.

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by REF

Get a Victron solar controller and call it good

^^^^^^^

Brilliant idea.....put the Victron wherever you want. The display is bluetoothed to your phone, as are all of the settings.

What do you have for solar panels? Watts?

The Victron Smartsolar series have bluetooth built in. The 75/10 is about $110 and the 75/15 is around $120.

[jage]

Originally Posted by REF

Thankful it didn’t cause any more damage or a fire

No kidding. My first thought was that insulation did it's job, being fire retardant. My second thought was "Is this supposed to be mashed into insulation?"


At least I'm glad to hear that it's a hot component and this isn't a symptom of something else. This feels like burying a CPU in cotton and then me asking why my computer isn't faster. It did get hot enough to make the plastic of inverter panel brittle.

Originally Posted by boywonder

What do you have for solar panels? Watts?

A single [s]750w[/s]. edit: Kyocera 185 which is 185w -

Originally Posted by jage

Solar Panel Thread

I'm going to have to think about this since they should have airflow and even a fan. What is the expected max temp of an encased solar controller with no fan? Anyone know?

[Scalf77]

Commercial IC temp standards are 32°F to 158°F.

The specified operating temperature for this device is listed as 0 to +40ºC (32°F to 104°F). "Extended range –40 to +50ºC (-40°C to 122°F), will operate but may not meet/spec."

Blue Sky did make an optional mounting box (BSE part number 720-0011-01) it is 2.75" deep.


I agree that it would be a good time to switch to Victron SmartSolar unit.

[1der]

Originally Posted by jage

A single 750w.

I'm going to have to think about this since they should have airflow and even a fan. What is the expected max temp of an encased solar controller with no fan? Anyone know?

That has to be a typo... maybe 250 or maybe 350watts???

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by jage

A single 750w.

Scratch the Victrons above.......they'll burst into flames when connected to 750W of solar.... ..You'll need a larger model......

....what panel do you have?...single panel??

[jage]

You guys, making me read my old posts, lol. It's a Kyocera 185 so 185w from June 11, 2011.

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by jage

You guys, making me read my old posts, lol. It's a Kyocera 185 so 185w from June 11, 2011.

Damn, here I was thinking that your entire PH roof was one ginormous panel.

Herb