19" rack mountable solar equipment.

[kibi]

So, I'm sitting here designing and laying out the plans for my next big project. I'm figuring out how best to mount the equipment (charge controllers, inverters, switchgear, batteries etc.) into my 42U 600mm or 800mm deep bay. Suddenly the penny dropped and I wondered for a minute why, in general, no solar equipment that I know of is designed to be mounted in 19" bays. As most of the equipment that  I have chosen needs to be installed with vertical orientation, I'm here merrily designing brackets and shelves to fit within the bay on which to mount the equipment without giving it a moments thought until now. It would surely make for much neatly presented installations and all the cabling would be safely dressed in the rear of the bay, just like most other installations in 19" bays (except for most IT installs which are usually horrific) in which equipment is installed.

Was the Classic designed so perfectly in form as to deliberately discourage people from mounting it in a 19" bay? The Classic's appearance has certainly presented me with some design challenges for my bay layout. Their beautiful appearance needs to be flaunted one way or another, behind perspex if doors on the front of my bay are necessary.

The closest that any equipment might come to being rack mountable would be an APC UPS pimped to run at continuous duty.

[Robin]

This is about the third request we have received for rack mount Classics in 5 years. We have talked about doing it, but until we find a customer, it just doesn't pan out. The development would be expensive. I did see a rack mount controller a couple of years ago at a show for communications gear. I can't remember the name of the company. I have also never seen their gear appear in any of the solar arenas, so maybe it was too expensive or something like that. I was trying to make an inverter layout work for rack mount, but it isn't looking like that is going to work either. I will continue to try though. I have a long time before the mechanical details need to be finalized.

[kibi]

Sure, I understand that it would be totally unfeasible especially if nobody else in the industry is doing it either.
I was just wondering if anybody knew why wall mounted kit is the industry standard instead of rack mount.

[Resthome]

Who wants to buy a rack for home and take up that floor space? Not me.

[phxmark]

Rack mount equipment would make sense for a communications rack in a remote radio site.  I know some of the radio shacks on mountain tops have very limited space.

[kibi]

Who wants to buy a rack for home and take up that floor space? Not me.

The main reason for wanting to mount my equipment in a bay is due to lack of floor space. I would like to use a 600mm deep bay (about 4 square feet), but will stretch to an 800mm deep bay in the unlikely event that the kit won't fit in the shallow bay.

I am failing to come up with another method of installing 40KWh of batteries, three classics, three 3KVA inverters and switchgear into a space which takes up less than four square feet of floor space. I think I can just about do it, but rackmountable equipment would make it a sure thing.

My current installation is much lower capacity. Wall mounted kit (1x inverter, 1x classic and 1x switchgear cabinet) with the 9KWh batteries on the floor taking up six square feet of floor space plus the floor space directly below the wall mounted kit which cannot be used for anything practical.

Given that a four square foot bay is too large in your opinion, would you have any tips on how I could condense my planned 40KWh systen down to take up less floor space?

[Resthome]

Who wants to buy a rack for home and take up that floor space? Not me.

The main reason for wanting to mount my equipment in a bay is due to lack of floor space. I would like to use a 600mm deep bay (about 4 square feet), but will stretch to an 800mm deep bay in the unlikely event that the kit won't fit in the shallow bay.

I am failing to come up with another method of installing 40KWh of batteries, three classics, three 3KVA inverters and switchgear into a space which takes up less than four square feet of floor space. I think I can just about do it, but rackmountable equipment would make it a sure thing.

My current installation is much lower capacity. Wall mounted kit (1x inverter, 1x classic and 1x switchgear cabinet) with the 9KWh batteries on the floor taking up six square feet of floor space plus the floor space directly below the wall mounted kit which cannot be used for anything practical.

Given that a four square foot bay is too large in your opinion, would you have any tips on how I could condense my planned 40KWh systen down to take up less floor space?

IMHO Power Equipment can produce a lot of heat, and packing that kind of equipment into a rack even leaving space between them can be problematic unless you have some kind of force A/C for cooling the rack. You have folks on here that are setting up fans and other devices just to try to keep a wall mounted Classic cooler. Your situation may work out well for you, but I would not try to pack all that equipment into a 4x4 space, but that just me.