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Nate R
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# Posted: 13 Mar 2018 09:36pm
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If you're at a place occasionally, not full time, and have some solar, I've wondered about this idea...
I'm envisioning those of us who use a cooler most of the time, but are at their place for a week or 2 occasionally.
You show up with a cooler with food and ice. But after a few days, you'll need to replace that ice. You can buy ice every few days.....You can buy a propane or normal refrigerator for off grid... Or.....
Buy a 1 cubic foot freezer, and plug it in during a couple sunny days, and freeze a large block of ice for use after your first few days.
Something like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Whynter-1-1-cu-ft-Portable-Freezer-in-Black-with-Lock-ENE RGY-STAR-CUF-110B/205502147 Only uses 79 watts! I wonder if a Morningstar Suresine would be able to start this fridge?
This gives you some freedom to only run it when you have "extra" power available. BUT, what I don't know, is how much energy/watts would it take to freeze a block of ice from room temp?
Thoughts on the idea?
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 13 Mar 2018 10:11pm
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Yes, have an empty 1 gallon milk just with ice, toss it in, freeze it.
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silverwaterlady
Member
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# Posted: 14 Mar 2018 02:13am
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Here is a quick way to freeze water bottles. https://youtu.be/sQdLttUh_b0
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Bancroft bound
Member
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# Posted: 17 Mar 2018 08:32pm
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Just posted another thread.....
4.4 Danby all fridge draws 50 watts when running. Amazing the capacity!
We have a 1000w pure sine and 200ah@12v.
Full charge by 10 with full sun. Also run some LED lights.
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neckless
Member
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# Posted: 19 Mar 2018 11:59pm - Edited by: neckless
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u could put up some ice
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neckless
Member
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# Posted: 20 Mar 2018 12:02am
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put up ice
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neckless
Member
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# Posted: 20 Mar 2018 12:03am
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i have a hard time to post pics
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sparky30_06
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# Posted: 21 Mar 2018 08:33am
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Invest in pelican ice chests. well worth the money. make sure you get all your liquids and ice chest cold before you leave. drain the water top back off with ice and I have had it last 5 days with out a problem. Going to try dry ice next trip
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ICC
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# Posted: 21 Mar 2018 10:34am - Edited by: ICC
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Quoting: sparky30_06 Going to try dry ice next trip
Dry ice can keep things frozen or freeze those things that are not frozen. IIRC dry ice in solid form is about -70 F. Could also be problematic in any of the ice chests that have a gasket sealed lid as dry ice is solid CO2. It changes directly from the solid state to the gaseous state (hence the term dry ice). It expands a lot as it changes to a gas. 1 KG of dry ice sublimates to make 541 liters of gas according to my Linde gases handbook. So the cooler needs to vent.
Better idea might be to use a smaller cooler with dry ice to keep extra frozen water ice and, or to refreeze freezer bricks.
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cspot
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# Posted: 21 Mar 2018 07:21pm
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Water in the cooler helps hold the cold, so I only drain off if it is getting too full of water. There are some cooler packs like these that work pretty good.
http://www.arctic-ice.com/tundra-series/
I would not use dry ice due to the gas it gives off plus it can burn your skin. Not something I would want in my cooler.
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spoofer
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# Posted: 25 Mar 2018 04:08pm
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In northern ny, you only have to worry about a cooler during july and august....lol
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slgerber
Member
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2018 06:32am
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Another option would be to supply your ice box with ice from a small portable ice machine that you power from your solar panels. Amazon has one for sale for just $115 that is listed as drawing only 120 watts of power on 115v AC while in use. You could just choose to run it for a limited time in the middle of the day then unplug it. The advantage of this is that you wouldn't have to keep it running all the time like a fridge and thus you wouldn't need such a big battery bank.
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skootamattaschmidty
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2018 09:35am
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We have a coleman 5 day cooler. I made a box out of left over plywood and lined the box with leftover 2" styrofoam sm insulation. I put a hinged lid on the box and placed weather stripping around the lid so it seals. I painted the whole thing white. I freeze blocks of ice at home and put in the cooler when we leave and when we get to the cabin I put that cooler in my box. Even in the hottest August weather my ice blocks will last about 10 days. Like slgerber mentioned, we also have a portable ice maker that I can run off my solar. I'll make ice and place it in a ziplock bag and keep it in the cooler. Great for drinks and keeping the cooler cold. I can spend a month at the cabin and never buy ice.
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offgridjunkie
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2018 10:56am - Edited by: offgridjunkie
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I use one of these. No need for ice and power draw is low. No more soggy items. http://store.arbusa.com/Fridges-C11.aspx
URL
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 11 Jun 2019 09:22pm
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Thoughts on this one?
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-40-Quart-PowerChill-Thermoelectric-Cooler-with-Pow er-Cord/21156022?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227015578648&wl0=&w l1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40970021072&wl4=pla-78912816392&wl5=9053615&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl1 0=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=21156022&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlf-l4ePi4gIVGNtkC h2AFQzcEAQYAiABEgJN5_D_BwE
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 11 Jun 2019 09:48pm - Edited by: ICC
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See the word "thermoelectric"? Those all use the Peltier effect. A DC current is applied to the module and one side gets hot, the other gets cold. They are not highly energy efficient. The single stage units like that usually can not make the interior any cooler than about 40 F below the outside air temperature. Very limiting unless the exterior temperature never goes above 80 F and that would have the unit running more hours than not running.
The niftiest thing about these are there are no moving parts and are silent. Sometimes they have a small fan to move air over the exterior heat sink fins to help get rid of the heat. They are useful for some small applications, but IMO, off grid refrigeration is not the best use for the technology. Plugged into 10 cent per KwH grid power maybe makes sense.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 11 Jun 2019 10:52pm
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Ah, OK. I'm familiar with the Peltier effect, tried to make my own wood stove fan once.
Didn't see any wattage listing. My cabin never gets above 80 F, thought maybe plugged into solar during day and off at night.
Could have used a cold one last couple evenings.
Thanks!
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Brettny
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# Posted: 12 Jun 2019 07:35am
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If your looking at one of those small plug in coolers. Make sure you look at the wattage used correctly. Theres a large dif between 50w at 120v vs 50w at 12v. My parents couldnt use theres on there sailboat in FL. Think about how much sun a boat gets...alot.
On the other hand with a propane fridge/freezer i can keep ice in my $50 coleman extreme/5day cooler in northern NY. Even with not making ice with the propanr fridge after 80* days and no oce refill i have came home wirh ice after 5 days.
The key is not opening it, keeping the cooler in the shade and BLOCK ICE. I make ice in a square 5gal bucket in my chest freezer. About a 3.5gal block of ice per 70qt cooler. Yes it takes up a bit less than half of the cooler but a cooler with no ice is useless.
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KelVarnsen
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# Posted: 12 Jun 2019 09:31am
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Saw this on Indegogo yesterday. I have no idea how well it would work or how useful it may be to some of you.
GoSun Chill
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Atlincabin
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# Posted: 12 Jun 2019 09:50am
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We use a Coleman thermoelectric cooler for transporting food to and from the cabin (2-hour drive to the grocery store) and it works well in the car (plugs into 12V outlet). Too inefficient to practically run off of solar - you would be much better to buy a small efficient compressor fridge. There are some nice (but pricey) 12V compressor fridges out there if you don't have 120V. Pretty common these days in small campers. Look up ARB or Truckfridge for examples.
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 12 Jun 2019 09:57am
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Truckfridge makes some nice units. I have a 10 year old ARB that still works fine though it is a little worn looking on the outside--- from lots of SW desert camping.
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