Solar sizing to add a refrigerator?

[Nick Rosen]

Hi,

living off-grid and want to replace our propane frig with a large 3 door modern type. I’m already undersized in the solar panel dept. but want to upgrade and add as many watts of panels as necessary to keep the little woman happy. The manufacturer listed number on one frig we looked at was around 500 watts or killowatts. Not sure if this is how much it uses in a day/week/hour/year. help

baddog

[wes loder]

Have you looked into SunFrost refrigerators? Expensive!!!, but use little power and offer various options, but three doors are not one of them (very inefficient). You might be able to save on the extra cost in terms of fewer panels needed. WES

[hardworkinghippy]

The Steca is advertised as being very efficient and allegedly runs on 75 watts of solar:

https://www.stecasolar.com/index.php?Gefriertruhe_en

Otherwise, why not try ways of keeping food fresh without electricity – using outside storage or a non insulated north wall, build yourself a cellar or salt or sterilise food ?

[Nick Rosen]

Thanks for the posts. I will look into Steca to see the cost effeciencies. The Sunfrost is very pricey. With PV panels getting lower in cost it may be cheaper to add say 4 200 watt panels to my system. Yet to be determined.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

This is by far our most popular system we sell It is suitable for a conservative off-grid home designed to use kW per day.

off-grid system

[Anonymous]

hi we have been off-grid for years and have a Sundanzer frig. https://www.sundanzer.com

this is a chest type and was wonderful till the following problem started late last year when the batteries would not charge so changed charge controller same as we had, a morning star 10A still had the problem then we were away for 10 months, ( all turned off ) when we came back problem is still there. last month bought 2 new 6v 225a batteries connected in series and they aren’t holding up either. we have 2- 75watt panels that have run this in upstate ny for years, till last year any suggestions what happened. but do love the frig and also have a freezer on a totally separate setup in different building.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been off-grid 10 years and have also migrated away from the propane refrigerators!

I wrote up a series on refrigerator tips you may want to read:

https://www.genverters.com/lifestyle/quick-refrigerator-tip-1/

Recently I purchased a Kill-a-watt power meter, and just today began measuring the real world power consumption of our unit. Will be updating the article soon. For the 6 hours I tested today it looks like an average of 25-30 Watt-Hour! More details soon.

Thank you kindly,

Marshall

[Author]

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