does shade or sun matter for inverter location

[solar123]

I am putting a solar system with a solaredge central inverter. If I put it outside, next to my electrical panel and meter, it would be on the west wall of my house which gets sun from 2-7pm. I have had some installers suggest I put the inverter in the garage, which is on the other side of the west wall from the meter, to keep it out of the sun to keep the temperature down and improve efficiency, and I have had some say keeping it outside is fine.

Does anyone have any opinion on this?

[skipro3]

I've hosed down my solaredge inverters cooling fins on a hot day and immediately saw a rise in output. They are less efficient hot.

[sensij]

I've hosed down my solaredge inverters cooling fins on a hot day and immediately saw a rise in output. They are less efficient hot.

Can you point me towards your pvoutput data that captured this?

[skipro3]

Can you point me towards your pvoutput data that captured this?

I thought I did once in an earlier thread, but I'll see if I can find it again.

[skipro3]

O.K. I found it; August 1st;

http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=43187&sid=39456&gs=0&dt=20150801

Here is a screen shot of the graph. I highlighted the temperature graph since it's more predominant compared to the generation, but if you look, you can see generation is tracking temperature.
I tried to perform the test at the top of the bell curve, where things would not be so much affected by the sun's energy.

I put notes on each event;
11:25am starting with putting a fan under the heatsink and letting extra air flow try and reduce temperature and increase inverter efficiency.
12:40pm with the fan still on, I hosed down the inverter's heat sink. A big drop in temp and an increase in output that is obvious.
2:00pm the water dried and was no longer cooling down the heat sink, I wet down the heat sink again, but this time without the fan.
3:20pm I turned off the water, but by this time, I'm well past solar noon and the effect isn't observable over the rapidly setting sun.

[sensij]

Here is a screen shot of the graph.

Thank you! Interesting that on the next day (8/2), the inverter was even hotter and produced more power than on 8/1 (except for the fan+water spike), I guess it must have been a slightly better irradiance day, or perhaps lower cell temps for whatever reason.

With respect to the OP's question, wherever the inverter would be coolest make sense. Most inverter installation manuals specifically say to install where it won't be exposed to direct sunlight, putting your warranty in jeopardy if the installation doesn't comply.

On the other hand, I have my inverter outside on a south facing wall, and I suspect it runs cooler there (with breeze assisted convection) than it would inside, where the air circulation is poor. I would worry more about a west facing wall, potentially getting more direct sun in the afternoon when it is already hot outside. The south wall actually gets some shade midday when the sun is high overhead, from the overhanging roof eave.

[skipro3]

Here is a close-up that shows the correlation between temperature and output. Notice around 9:30am or so, a cloud passes overhead, slightly dropping the temp. As soon as the sun comes back, but before the inverter warms back up, the power gets a little boost there too.



I have my inverter on a South facing outside wall under a covered porch that is 10' of cover/overhang. It's always shaded and there is a prevailing breeze most times;