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frankpaige
Member
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# Posted: 14 Jan 2024 10:26pm
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The present set up is 2- 200 watt Grape Solar panels. They are great. Do what they are asked to do. 5 lights and iPad/phone charging.
I sold my reloading equipment today and started thinking. Thats bad!
If there was an upgrade to where I could run a small fridge/freezer off the solar, what would I need? Do I sell the panels I have? And go totally big?
I will enclose a picture of the present system.
Any suggestions? Mixing and matching is not the best, I know.
The location is Colorado, with a great southerly exposure.
What did I miss? TY
Looking forward to spring, for sure.
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Steve_S
Member
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# Posted: 14 Jan 2024 11:13pm
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A few questions first.
- Is this a part-time or full-time use ?
- A fridge/freezer combo or separate ?
- Do you already have them or are you planning on getting new ?
- And seriously, ask yourself, IF you have regular electricity available, you'll use lights & other stuff too.
You have to figure out how much load you may have to service for anything in use. Most likely the fridge will be the heaviest startup, even the new efficient ones.
A typical system will have a Solar Charge Controller, Inverter/Charger and a battery.
These days, portable power stations with batteries that can use solar panels can actually provide ample power, if need be, a generator could be used to recharge. Most of these are no bigger than a small to medium sized generator and don't weigh as much.
Something like this in the 2000W capable range would likely handle your needs and if it has built-in solar controller you can just plug into, it's a WIN! Note also that many also can be expanded by adding another "module". There are quite a few January Sales on right now too.
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frankpaige
Member
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# Posted: 14 Jan 2024 11:28pm
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Steve,
Definitely part time.
fridge or freezer. One or the other.
I do not have them. Just came into some extra cash. Thought that maybe I would upgrade.
I did the power company estimate. 28-32K. NOPE!
I really have no enthusiasm for trying to charge with a Jenny. The Jenny is for microwave and coffee pot in the morning.
Have considered the propane fridges. Just not a big fan of what I see.
So? You believe that it is going to be more in the range of 2K?
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909
Member
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# Posted: 14 Jan 2024 11:32pm
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Just replaced my city home fridge due to a failed inverter compressor . It cost me $2000 for a brand new Frigidaire. For this reason I'd recommend sticking to a traditional compressor small fridge / freezer combo. They pull a bit on startup but are reliable, and cheap to replace or repair.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 12:21am - Edited by: gcrank1
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You need to know the running amps and the start-up load to determine how big a system you need.
BTW, Ive read several accounts where folks have put an aux 'stat on a freezer and had better results.
Fwiw, My 4.5cf Heier dorm fridge will pull a 100ah lfp battery down to the low voltage disconnect in less than 24hrs IF I dont get a recharge daily on the bat. Soooo, you have to have a big enough bat bank for 3 days autonomy IF the sun dont shine.
And the only way to make it work when we get there is to fill it up with frozen food or it takes most of a day to get to down to temp. If the solar wasnt putting put enough to run the fridge it was always in a battery depleting mode then I had to run the gen.
BTW, whenever I run my gen I want to have the battery charger also charging the bats. Do NOT ise the 12vdc taps to charge a bat! Waayyy too slow. Use a 120ac 'garage type' charger.
I gave up on the 12vdc camp cooler and the Heier 120vac compressor fridge for a YETI clone ice chest and havent looked back since. Used properly we have got 5 days out of my home freezer ice bottles in the clone.
My conclusion was 'going big enough' in solar to run about everything like home, but on a smaller scale, was 'too much'.
Our 100ah lfp bat c/w a 300w psw inverter runs our led light, fans, old small tv/vcr; it, ie, small stuff. With my old cheap,(early wrong purchase) 750w msw inverter I can make toast with our 600w 120vac toaster.
Anything bigger, like the microwave or the 1000w 40cup(?) coffee perc repurposed into a water heater gets the little 1700/2000 inv/gen and should always be charging bat(s) too when running.
Btw, I have 2 of those 100ah lfp bats so I swap out as needed. the low one mostly comes home and recharges here in 2.5hrs. on my power supply unit.
Or I can set up my newest fav solar portable array in the best position and charge the bat off that.
Fwiw, the way Ive run our current cabin as a test platform has defined how I will do the new one in the spring.
RV 30a plug to the outside to plug any gen into, that will feed a 1000w transfer box/psw inverter/bat charger inside.
Inside I will have the lfp bat(s) also connected to that tb/inverter/charger. I will run what we run off the battery as long as possible, can still swap out bats, and for 'big' stuff' I can plug in the gen and the transfer box goes all to gen and will also charge the bat(s).
I didn't find trying to resell my old solar stuff was productive so I now have the big system, 6x100w array/50w ssc and a smaller 2x100 'portable'. Last year I didnt even put up the 600w as intended (new ground mount, etc.
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 05:50am
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A fridge can be hard to calculate because you can only guess how much it will run. Temperature its stored in and times its opened are variables. I use a 4.5cuft dorm size but the bottom is a fridge and the top a separate freezer.
For the cost of one propane fridge you can buy a solar system and $200 dorm fridge.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 08:37am
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So most of you off grid cabin folks are using AC fridges through inverters? I'm still using an RV fridge on DC, perhaps foolishly thinking it saves me battery.
Moving it outside the front door of the cabin, instead of inside 10' from the woodstove, has really cut down on run time, at least in winter time. But I just read this in the manual for GC's fridge:
Quoting: gcrank1 My 4.5cf Heier dorm fridge
Do not install your refrigerator in any location not properly insulated or heated,
e.g. garage, etc. Your refrigerator was not designed to operate in temperature
settings below 55Ëš Fahrenheit.
Wonder why that is?
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 09:19am
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Quoting: paulz Do not install your refrigerator in any location not properly insulated or heated
Because most fridges are used in heated homes, so that is what they sre designed for. It is possible to build s fridge that work in cooler temps, but they cost more. Look up "garage fridge"
Note: using a typical RV fridge on DC is about the most inefficient way of cooling. Most RV fridges that can operate on propane/ AC/DC have resistance heater elements to supply the heat instead of a propane flame. For off grid use any kind of resistance heating can be a bad idea. Of course with sufficient solar and storage that can work.
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Steve_S
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 09:24am
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I use a Danby "Apartment" sized fridge, it sips power and is EnergyStar rated to 220kWh per year. They are CHEAP and not overly fancy tech and COSTCO often have them on sale.
Propane Fridges are not good when run on electric and they use a fair bit of propane... plus $$ and other possibles... 99% of offgridders use electric only.
A small simple solar system can manage things but so can devices like a Bluetti system, which you can travel with (not having to leave it behind) which may be attractive, also useable as backup at your FT home. That in itself may be worthy of considering too.
I didn't say $2000 dollars...
I said a system capable of handling 2000 WATTS.
That wattage handling will support Microwave, fridge and generally most things. 2000W÷120V=120V/16A (gross) but that is 1 Full 120V/15A Circuit
Look at this Bluetti 2000W model ON SALE
https://www.bluettipower.com/products/bluetti-ac200p-2000wh-2000w-portable-power-stat ion
OR from EcoFlow similar model
https://us.ecoflow.com/products/delta-2-max-portable-power-station
NOTE ! Some of these even qualify for IRA Rebates !
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 09:32am
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Paul, my experience with 2 dc 'chests' is that the dc heat exchanger runs All The Time, No Cycling.
Like anything else that is a constant draw off a battery bank it becomes pretty much mathmatical.
If you have enough bat-bank and solar to not only keep up, but give about 3days of no/poor solar you are probably golden.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 10:00am
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Mine uses a compressor. Doesn’t run too often, especially outside when temps often match (about 40).
https://img.saleyee.cn/Resources/GoodsAttachment//2021/202101/202101282127215709_988f 6568-6c38-46c9-8450-a30f21f22635.pdf
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 12:09pm
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I'm super happy with my stand-up freezer conversion. The extra insulation really helps keep the draw down. In fact, in winter we don't actually run the fridge since we just keep some 1 gallon jugs of water outside. When we arrive we put those in the fridge with our food and it will easily keep the fridge at low temp for 4 days. In summer we run it and it just sips power.
There is 2 downsides. 1. Freezers do not have a defrost so you will get frost build up (not really an issue for occasional use). 2. The inrush current (surge). The model we chose has a very high inrush current.
Its a super easy conversion. Basically if you can cut/strip a wire and drill a hole you can do the conversion!
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jan 2024 03:00pm
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I tested family's 2022 RV fridge and it's just as efficient as my full sized side by side fridge with ice maker. Lol
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FishHog
Member
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# Posted: 16 Jan 2024 07:13am
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I switched from propane to electric 10ft3 fridge 3 years ago. Expensive, but I went with Unique 12v as I've had good luck with their equipment in the past.
I added 2 additional solar panels, but on a separate array, and separate Charge Controller. Going to the same battery bank as my existing.
Worked out very well for us.
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