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okbackwoods
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2013 12:39am
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I know this has probably been covered several times and I have read many of the post (not great on the math). I have a little cabin, I want to run 2 lights, and a small college room style refrig on solar, I am running eletric right now but want a back up plan incase it hits the fan. Can anyone tell me will one of those kits you buy from lowes work, the solar companies around said they dont deal with that small of request. Any help is appriciated
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VTweekender
Member
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2013 03:08am
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You have to take in consideration your area, so you can calculate your average daily good sunlight.......short answer you will need is a 200 watt panel, 20 amp controller, 200 amp hour deep cycle battery and a 1500 watt inverter... as a minimum system.
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Dillio187
Member
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2013 09:14am
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the fridge will make a small solar system non-feasible. They draw significant amounts of power.
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Steve961
Member
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2013 02:24pm
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Dillio is right, those small fridges are VERY energy inefficient. You only have two realistic choices if you want an electric fridge. One, spend more money for a larger solar system to power a standard Energy Star refrigerator. Two, spend anywhere from $700 - $1,200 for a DC powered refrigerator from Engel, Sundanzer, etc. A Sundanzer DC refrigerator would work with the system VTweekender mentions, and you wouldn't need the larger inverter then.
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VTweekender
Member
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2013 04:12pm
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There are a few new models of mini-fridges that are actually efficient enough to run on a 200 watt panel system. I can't remember the models off hand, there is a member here that has a meter on his new mini and is drawing only 365 watts a day under a little less than normal use (number of times opened daily).
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Steve961
Member
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2013 05:17pm
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Even better than that mini fridge would be a chest freezer conversion. Users are seeing around 200 watt hours per day with these conversions.
BTW, you'll probably need a minimum 1,000 watt continuous pure sine wave inverter to support it. The startup surge on the compressor is fairly large, and pure sine wave is recommended for longevity of a fridge. A high quality inverter such as this will run anywhere from $400 - $550.
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toofewweekends
Member
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# Posted: 5 Sep 2013 01:42am
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before you get into big dollar systems, figure how often you're at the cabin and running the fridge. We run ours a couple of weekends a month with a Honda 2000. Rather than run the generator all the time, we run it for 90 minutes or so, which gets the college-style fridge ($100) cold enough to make ice and chill the food. Leave it off for most of the day, and run it again with the generator maybe once more later in the day. Or plug it in if you're also running power tools, etc.
This way we've skipped the need for additional panels, batteries, inverter upgrade, etc. Could also buy a separate ice maker ($80) for happy hour. With what you save, you could buy a new little fridge every few years and still be way ahead.
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okbackwoods
Member
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# Posted: 5 Sep 2013 11:11pm
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I appriciate all of the good information. I thought about buy one set of panels, inverter, batteries and such from lowes just to run the fridge, and later buy more for the lighting. Just not sure if one of the complete set lowes sells would run the fridge. I am running power to the cabin this weekend, so this is just for if the shtf situation comes up (and yes the wife thinks I am crazy), I say prepared. Side note I really enjoy this forum, its actually the only one I subscribe to because you dont have a bunch of idiots talking crap
Danny
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