Victron Quattro

[Hkalan]

Greetings,

I have ordered ordered a 68 foot motor yacht that I will live on full time, and am now planning the 24v 8kw Quattro inverter placement.

I really have no choice but to have the 24v, 1,097Ah battery bank in the engine room, but I know with every beat of my heart, that the engine room is NO place for the inverter and Apollo 80 amp solar charge controller.

I am trying to place the Quattro in a good location outside the engine room, but as I live in the tropical climate of Hong Kong, I am not sure how much ventilation the Victron Quattro will require.

Does anyone have knowledge of the "real world" use of the 5kw or 8kw Quattro and the amount of heat it produced that would need to be removed.

There are several locations I can install the unit that is within the 0-5 meter distance on the other side of the wall (outside the engine room), but I am thinking I need to get a small DC computer box fan to help move the air out of the space to keep the Quattro at a good operating temp.

Your input is much appreciated !!!

Thanks in advance !!!!

Alan

[mcerdos]

If it helps, I have a Victron Skylla 80 amp fully automatic 220/24 in the engine room and it has worked fine for 12 years both in tropics and cold climate weather. The engine room is vented by blowers.



Greetings,

I have ordered ordered a 68 foot motor yacht that I will live on full time, and am now planning the 24v 8kw Quattro inverter placement.

I really have no choice but to have the 24v, 1,097Ah battery bank in the engine room, but I know with every beat of my heart, that the engine room is NO place for the inverter and Apollo 80 amp solar charge controller.

I am trying to place the Quattro in a good location outside the engine room, but as I live in the tropical climate of Hong Kong, I am not sure how much ventilation the Victron Quattro will require.

Does anyone have knowledge of the "real world" use of the 5kw or 8kw Quattro and the amount of heat it produced that would need to be removed.

There are several locations I can install the unit that is within the 0-5 meter distance on the other side of the wall (outside the engine room), but I am thinking I need to get a small DC computer box fan to help move the air out of the space to keep the Quattro at a good operating temp.

Your input is much appreciated !!!

Thanks in advance !!!!

Alan[/QUOTE]

[btrayfors]

Alan,

First "real world" observation: at 22N, Hong Kong ain't really tropical! It may sometimes feel like it, though.

Second: you're right to be concerned about engine room heat...not great for any electronics and not great for the batteries, either. Sometimes, though, there's really no choice, though on a 68' motor yacht one would think you could find space.

Third: wherever you install the Quattro, a muffin fan is likely to be a good idea. They're cheap, move a considerable amount of air, and draw very little current. Install a 4" or at least a 3" one if you can.

Fourth: envy you. Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities in the world. BTW, the U.S. Consul there is a friend and member of my yacht club.

Bill

[Hkalan]

Good morning from Hong Kong,

Thank you for the feedback.

As I was raised near the arctic circle in Canada, any place with palm trees growing naturally is "Tropical" to me LOL

I am very confident the boat builder (Grand Harbour - Taiwan), Victron, and experienced individuals like yourselves can assist me in finding the proper place for the inverter and Solar controller to be outside the Engine room, but the 1,660 pounds of batteries will have no choice but to be in the Engine room to keep a proper balance of the vessel. Each of the 4 batteries are 26"x24"x10" and that is not a small package LOL



As we are still in the construction stage of the vessel. We made a change in the lower aft deck, next to the steps coming from the main deck saloon (very close to the engine room where the batteries may be, seems to be a great room for the inverter,controllers, and other electronics... here is a picture.



Thanks again for your input !

Alan

[Hkalan]

Hello,

I have found the solution to the inverter and controller outside of the engine room. The four 6 volt 1,000 Ah batteries is the only open issue at the moment.

I know that putting batteries in the engine room is a possibility.

So this brings me back to the temperature issue, as the Trojan IND17 batteries are all tested and rated for performance and life at 25 degrees (C). Thus I have a very costly part of the system in an area that will be quite often much hotter then 25C all summer.

How will that shorten a battery life when connected to the Victron Quattro ??

Thanks in advance

Alan

[FlyingCloud1937]

Originally Posted by Hkalan

Hello,

I have found the solution to the inverter and controller outside of the engine room. The four 6 volt 1,000 Ah batteries is the only open issue at the moment.

I know that putting batteries in the engine room is a possibility.

So this brings me back to the temperature issue, as the Trojan IND17 batteries are all tested and rated for performance and life at 25 degrees (C). Thus I have a very costly part of the system in an area that will be quite often much hotter then 25C all summer.

How will that shorten a battery life when connected to the Victron Quattro ??

Thanks in advance

Alan

Does it matter whether it's the Victron or any other charger/inverter or is it a matter of the bats or the charge/inverter.

Bats will provide higher voltage and lower amphrs as a result of higher temps. the reverse is also true.

(The Victron...especially true do to it's design build will provide lower amps charge or invert due to it's temp(this is true of all discrete temp design) Others will provide marginally better) In the day everything elec.. was built to a 60 degree temp rise.

Today, very few are.

L

[Hkalan]

Hello,

I completely understand that, but yet I do not understand... LOL. The manufacturers need to make the inverters/chargers/batteries to be efficient in warmer temperatures for one model, and a model for cooler temps, as well as the perfect world model.

The Hong Kong weather that I live in full time only has 4 months that are an average of 66 degrees F, and the other months are an average of 82+ degrees F, and that is the outside temp. We have not even started talking about the inside temp of a boat sitting in the baking sun at the marina...

Who comes up with this 60 degree stuff... LOL

Alan

[Fuss]

Originally Posted by Hkalan

Hello,

I completely understand that, but yet I do not understand... LOL. The manufacturers need to make the inverters/chargers/batteries to be efficient in warmer temperatures for one model, and a model for cooler temps, as well as the perfect world model.

The Hong Kong weather that I live in full time only has 4 months that are an average of 66 degrees F, and the other months are an average of 82+ degrees F, and that is the outside temp. We have not even started talking about the inside temp of a boat sitting in the baking sun at the marina...

Who comes up with this 60 degree stuff... LOL

Alan

Well, what he means is that it doesnt matter wether its a Victron Quattro or some other sort that is connected to the batteries. He then asks a question of wether its a matter of the batteries or the inverter charger.
(a bit hard to understand sofar isnt it)

He then goes on to say that batteries will provide higher voltage and lower amphrs as a result of higher temperatures. the reverse is also true.
(this statement seems a bit confusing too, with phrases like "batteries will provide higher voltage")

He then goes on to say that due to the desigh of the Victron, it will provide lower amps charging or less watts in inverter mode if the temperature is higher.
He says this is true of all discrete temperature designs.
He then says that others (I guess he means makes of inverter charger) will provide better results than the victron.
He then goes on to say that in the past all electrical devices were made to handle 60 degree temperature rises, and that these days very few electrical devices are designed for 60 degree temperature rises..

I hope that helped your understanding.

For me, I find the above post completely confusing with questionable statements and answers.

It goes a long way to explaining why its so hard to get any meaningfull information out of these forums and you really have to do your homework to decide which posters are worth taking seriously and which ones are not.
Once you have done this... the forums are a great source of information.

[Hkalan]

Thanks everyone,

I do appreciate any advice, and will make use of it where applicable !

Thanks again !

Alan