Question Auditory behavior idle and under load: decibels and noise

@laurjam 

To make sure you're not making the wrong assumption, the Chargeverter has a cooling fan and it's fairly loud too. Mine is only intended for emergency charging, and when it's running there will also be a generator running just outside. So, no issue for me. Just don't think you will be able to use it for "silent charging" at night from the grid.

I just measured 56 dB at 6 feet using a phone app.

@jlankford Not sure how the Chargeverter is involved, but no intention of separate charger.   Yes, 56 dB is super obnoxiously loud but agree who cares if a generate is also at work.  Not my case.

I'm after the quietest DD-DC solar to battery inverter in terms of fan noise dB, but also the subjective noise quality which can be far worse than the dB.

So far, EG4 has not responded to my  inquiry here or in the email I sent.  Maybe it's the holidays.  Deferring decisions until I can (somehow) get information that I can make a decision from.

Posted by: @diglloyd

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@jlankford Not sure how the Chargeverter is involved, but no intention of separate charger.   Yes, 56 dB is super obnoxiously loud but agree who cares if a generate is also at work.  Not my case.

I'm after the quietest DD-DC solar to battery inverter in terms of fan noise dB, but also the subjective noise quality which can be far worse than the dB.

So far, EG4 has not responded to my  inquiry here or in the email I sent.  Maybe it's the holidays.  Deferring decisions until I can (somehow) get information that I can make a decision from.

laurjam mentioned the possibility of using a Chargeverter to mitigate the noise.

@jlankford A-OK.  I had missed that then. I would not consider a separate unit unless it had some huge advantage like low noise, so it's a good data point to have. Thx.

@caesarv @jared Thank you again Caeser.  This was the most helpful note of all.  My understanding is that the 12kPV should perform the same as the 18kPV other than having a bit less input/output capability.

I am hoping that EG4 could provide some specific guidance eg at 80°F with 4k PV input and 300 watt AC load do the fans run at all, and if they run, at what dB?

My observations using my 13 kW solar array follow. You can read about my system in detail here:

https://macperformanceguide.com/autoTopic.html?dglyTP=solar+power

Regarding noise under cool conditions (up to 65°F or so, summer has not arrived):,  the 18k PV with either 2 or 3 14.3 kW EG4 batteries:

• When solar input exceeds  6kW or so, the fans ramp up  rapidly.  At 12 kW solar, they are screaming with a high pitched noise at least 65 dB at 3' from the unit. VERY annoying, and there is no reason for it that I can see, since nil heat is being generated in turning the solar into battery charge (should be 99.9% efficient).  Exit air from fans has no trace of warmth.  Just seems stupid.

• Silent with low AC loads (ignoring the first point).

• Silent under about 5 kW AC-out.  Starting at ~5+ kW, the fans ramp up in a very binary way to the same obnoxiously loud high frequency sound issue.

The weird thing is that the fans are very much binary — on or off. And once they are on, the noise really ramps up.