Heat Dissipation Method of Solar Inverter

Solar inverter is the core equipment of photovoltaic system. Its main function is to convert the direct current generated by photovoltaic modules into alternating current that meets the requirements of the grid. As a power electronic device, the inverter, like all electronic products, faces challenges brought by temperature. Up to 55% of all electronics failure cases are caused by temperature. The electronic components inside the inverter are also very sensitive to temperature. According to the 10-degree rule of reliability theory, starting from room temperature, the service life will be halved for every 10-degree increase in temperature, so the heat dissipation of the inverter is very important.

The solar inverter cooling system mainly includes radiators, cooling fans, thermal grease and other materials. At present, there are two main cooling methods for solar inverters, including natural cooling and forced air cooling.

Free Cooling

Natural cooling refers to the realization of local heating devices to dissipate heat to the surrounding environment without using any external auxiliary energy to achieve the purpose of temperature control. It usually includes three main heat transfer methods: heat conduction, convection and radiation. Convection is the main method. Free heat dissipation or cooling is often suitable for low-power devices and assemblies that do not require high temperature control and do not require high device heat flux density, and hermetic or densely packed devices that are not suitable for other cooling techniques.

Forced Air Cooling

Forced air cooling is primarily a method of forcing the air around the device through a fan, thereby removing heat from the device. This method is a simple and effective way to dissipate heat. This cooling method is best used if the space between components within the part is suitable for air flow or suitable for installing local heat sinks. The method of improving the forced convection heat transfer capacity increases the heat dissipation area and produces a larger forced convection heat transfer coefficient on the heat dissipation surface. Increasing the heat dissipation area on the surface of the radiator to enhance the heat dissipation of electronic components has been widely used in practical engineering.

Free cooling uses no fan, resulting in low noise, but low efficiency. So it is generally used for low-power inverters. Forced air cooling needs to be equipped with a fan, which is noisy but has fast heat dissipation, therefore, it's generally used for high power inverters.

Different types of solar inverters are available at Microtek.

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