A PowerVault is a weather-resistant chest that provides for safe electrical usage outside the confines of a sheltering building. More details about the vault design in general is in PowerVault Gen-1

Vault-6 is multiple-MPPT solar collector and pairs with Vault-4 to store the harvested energy at 48V in 20kWh of batteries.

Vault-6 came into existence after the first pass at Vault-4 completed with space for two MPPTs and 15kWh of storage. When two more arrays were added, it pushed beyond the Vault-4 design and there was no easy way to add the additional input-current capacity without giving up some of the space within Vault-4s shelving system.

Instead of fiddling with this, having Vault-6 take on all responsibilities for collection improved several things:

  • Significant additional space (enough for 4 mppts) was added
  • The layout of Vault-6 was much cleaner and more visible than the shelving system
  • Additional OCD devices were added to make wire size changes simpler
  • Space inside Vault-4 was added allowing an additional 5kWh of storage
  • Cooling could be added to the collectors without harming the insulation characteristics of Vault-4 and the batteries

Table of Contents

System Overview

Vault-6 is a 48V collector (BESS + solar harvesting) designed for:

  • Multiple MPPTs (four or so)
  • Medium-amperage (200A+) DC-out from the collector
  • Control system space (e.g. a Victron Cerbo)
  • Ability to react to BRB (Big Red Button) pushes by shutting down the TIGO (or similar) rapid-shutdown-devices

It has no abilities beyond the above: it is very focused and the component boundary between it and the BESS & Control Cabinet is very clear.

PowerVault-6 Open Front