Best way to insulate metal box, or should it be alright?

denno020

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I just realized today that while having a new electrical meter box on my wall to contain all my controllers etc is a great thing, it's actually just a metal box, and it's not in a place that is shaded most of the time! I probably could have chosen my location better but now that it's on the wall, I think it's a little late.

So I guess my worry is, should I add some insulation on the inside walls of the box? And would some polystyrene be good enough?

I have no idea how hot it gets in there, I put my hand on a few of the metal parts inside the box today when I got home, and they were warm, not hot by any means, but today also was only around 30 degrees.
 

David_AVD

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My meter box enclosures are up all year (much to my wife's annoyance) and everything still works each year. Zero insulation and one of them is on a western wall so probably gets quite warm at times.
 

denno020

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Oh that's good to know! I guess these controller boards do (seemingly) go through reflow soldering, which would be much hotter temps, albeit for shorter times.. The PSU's are behind the thick plastic inner wall thing too, which actually seems to stop a lot of heat from passing through, so I've sorta got insulation for them already
 

bpratt

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fan assisted vents go a long way too.

Next year I'll be putting up an electrical meter box out in the open, and other than obvious water deflection, I'll be adding at one or more fan assisted vents to it.
 

denno020

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fan assisted vents go a long way too.

Next year I'll be putting up an electrical meter box out in the open, and other than obvious water deflection, I'll be adding at one or more fan assisted vents to it.
Are you going to go with a passive fan (like the whirly birds you see on top of houses or trailers, just smaller), or an active one that is plugged into power all the time?
 

denno020

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So whilst the gear is all off, you guys don't mind if it gets a little warm?

Oh I have that exact same enclosure! (I feel like you might have mentioned that in my thread about purchasing the item)
Interesting the way you've mounted your power supplies.. I've done it straight to the back of the box (using gorilla double sided tape to mount brackets, which the PSU's will be screwed in to). You're also making use of the cutout in the bottom left of the door to pass your wires in :laugh: , that's fantastic.

Edit: Also, how did you pop out the bit of metal for the door lock? Did you get out the dremel to cut out the hole?
 

denno020

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Ummm... I don't recall if it came that way or if there was a pre-done section that I had to punch out.
Ahk fair enough. Mine definitely has a section that needs to be punched out, I'm just not sure if that literally means punch out with a screwdriver/hammer, or if I should be a little more delicate and cut it out :laugh:

Thanks :)
 

David_AVD

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I just went out and had a look at one of my cabinets. I think I can see where the small strip of metal was punched out by me. Use a large flat blade screwdriver (or a suitably sized cold chisel if you have one) and a hammer.
 

denno020

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I just went out and had a look at one of my cabinets. I think I can see where the small strip of metal was punched out by me. Use a large flat blade screwdriver (or a suitably sized cold chisel if you have one) and a hammer.

Thanks! I'll give it a go
 
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