Off grid refrigerator

[AZlink]

Hello to you all, I want to start with the refrigerator, all I could find was Voltage 115V Amps 6.0 Hertz 60, if I want this 24/7 operational how many batteries, solar panels and inverter do I need? Read on web many info but not all clear yet, found a few off grid starter kits some are 100watts per panel some are 20, 60 watts and I ended up not knowing what to look for, my location is the Caribbean Puerto Rico to be specific the West, live away from the city very quite and nearest neighbor is 70 or more feet away............Why the fridge only? Because I can't buy a full off grid for the entire house, and by starting with the most important thing in the house wish is the fridge I can start understanding how this off grid really works,have visited few houses some off grid some tied grid but since it is already assembled I can't visualize the installation, is this was a car or SUV to be converted to turbo or supercharged then I am good at it but it isn't, thanks in advance ..............AZ

[Wy_White_Wolf]

Get a Kill-a-watt meter and run the frig for a week or 2 with that on it to get an idea as to how much power it uses.

Hopefully you realize that going off grid will cost you more than staying on the grid. Usually 10 to 20 times more.

WWW

[AZlink]

A 1,055.10 monthly bills is to much for a house that is empty from 6AM to 6PM, like I mention in other post is not the electricity price, is the charge of fuel to generate what they say I am consuming, 215.$ is what the meter says I consumed everything else is fuel, thanks for the replay...
Forgot to mention, I am off grid right now, I asked the energy company to remove the meter................AZ

[SunEagle]

A 1,055.10 monthly bills is to much for a house that is empty from 6AM to 6PM, like I mention in other post is not the electricity price, is the charge of fuel to generate what they say I am consuming, 215.$ is what the meter says I consumed everything else is fuel, thanks for the replay...
Forgot to mention, I am off grid right now, I asked the energy company to remove the meter................AZ

The amount you spend on fuel is high but a solar battery system just to run your refrigerator may have an up front cost that is pretty steep.

Without really knowing how many watt hours that fridge uses we can estimate it at about (115v x 6a ~ 690watts). So lets just use a figure of 12hours a day it is running those 690 watts. That comes to about 8300 watt hours a day.

You would need a 48volt 1000Ah battery system. That is 24 x 2volt 1000Ah batteries at about $400/ea plus shipping.

At least you are located close to the equator so you will have decent amount of sunlight. You will need a minimum of 2000 watts of panels (~$1/watt), a 60A MPPT Charge controller(~$500), a 48volt 1500watt pure sine wave inverter (~$600).

Plus all of the wiring, fusing, panel racking and storage building that is needed. You are probably looking at $15,000 up front costs and will have to replace those batteries in 4 - 5 years if you take real good care of them.

Are you sure you want to go off grid to run that fridge?

[AZlink]

Yes I am sure, I can't pay a thousand dollars monthly bill, I don't have a thousand dollar income, thanks for the replay with that formula, I will do this like my brother in-law did, buying everything one thing at a time until all was done, he lives at the very east of the island, by the way I found all the electrical bills since January all say I consumed between 500 and 700 kWhin a 30 day period, I assumed kWh means kilowatts per hour..................thanks AZ

[paulcheung]

The one thousand dollar is what currency? US or EC dollars? As bad as Jamaica we pay 50 US cents per kwh. if is US currency that is really steep.

[Sunking]

Yes I am sure, I can't pay a thousand dollars monthly bill, I don't have a thousand dollar income, thanks for the replay with that formula, I will do this like my brother in-law did, buying everything one thing at a time until all was done, he lives at the very east of the island, by the way I found all the electrical bills since January all say I consumed between 500 and 700 kWhin a 30 day period, I assumed kWh means kilowatts per hour..................thanks AZ

How wmuch do you pay for a Kwh with fuel charges, and where do you live?

[AZlink]

How wmuch do you pay for a Kwh with fuel charges, and where do you live?

I live in Puerto Rico, the bill says 29 cent per killowatt then they use a formula no one knows how and there is where they say the fuel used to generate the kWh I consumed.
All those bills since January are 200$ 19.80$ kWh and 180.20$ of fuel, a few months a go energy company announced the price of energy was going to be raised and there was the 1,055.10 bill, I went to their office but they said that was the price they can't make any adjustment, what bothers me is that I have a daily pattern that doesn't change, I leave the house at 6am, everything is shut off, computer internet they only thing plugged is the fridge and don't come back before 6pm I don't have A/C I only use fan, weekends we stay home do the laundry watch satellite TV and Monday again not in the house,, in the radio news and media everyday theme is the price of energy without control, the business closed because can't afford the energy, so the problem is not just me, there is a political issue involved but I hate politics, my last resort will be going to state, maybe Texas where few of my family are and Indiana hate the cold but if I have to do a sacrifice I'll do it...thanks for the help and info, it is greatly appreciated.........AZ
Forgot to answer, the currency is U.S. dollar.

[inetdog]

I live in Puerto Rico, the bill says 29 cent per killowatt then they use a formula no one knows how and there is where they say the fuel used to generate the kWh I consumed.........AZ

Sounds a lot like the airlines where they cannot raise ticket prices so they tack on an unpublished fuel surcharge that varies from month to month.
Only in this case the tail appears to be wagging the dog.

[Mike90250]

Figure a decent, efficient fridge will consume about 1.3 KWh per day. So that's what a PV system needs to provide, 365 days a year. The sunny days are not a problem, it the cloudy/rain season that gets you. In clouds, solar PV is basically useless.

Figure on about 5 hours of sun in good weather. Add up the load of the fridge 24/7, inverter losses, recharge efficiency and you need to harvest about 2.5KWh in the 5 hours. That's about 600W of array. Feed that into a 24V battery bank, inverter, fuses, circuit breakers, mounting rails, wire, hardware, charge controller, combiner boxes, lightning arrester, and the price tag gets pretty high, pretty quick. Add in battery maintenance, generator & it's maintenance, and you have a bill. And start saving again, because in 5-7 years, you are going to be buying new batteries again. No generator = dead batteries in 2 cloudy days, buy a new set soon.
That's the harsh reality of it.

[paulcheung]

The power company bill like that in Jamaica too, We don't have day time or night time rate, the power charge is controlled by the ministry of energy, power company can't change that rate unless it approved by the ministry, but they can charge you more any month when cruel oil price increases, also we have a foreign exchange adjustment too. The power charge is usually less than 20% of the total bill.

With off grid, you can work around the refrigerator consumption, I turn the freezer and the refrigerator to the coldest setting and run it in the day, and use the timer to turn them on and off during the day and night. I turn on the freezer and fridge at 8 am and turn the freezer off at 4 pm and put one hour on at midnight, the fridge on 8 am and off 8pm and also have one hour on after the midnight , so two of them not on the same time, it kind conserve the battery consumption in the night. my PV panels will power all the day load from 7:30 am to 5:30 in Summer and from 8 am to 4:30 pm in Winter. Cloudy days the generator or the grid do the work.

Cheers.

[AZlink]

Have 2 generators, 1 is a noisy powermate Coleman 4,000 continuous watts and a 15,000 watts that only works with a electric starter but stater died and hard to find this Subaru V twin piston OHV, the Coleman I am doing some mods adding a small car muffler to lower the loud noise to mild noise...................thanks for the added info, very helpful indeed...
Paul great timing played to control battery consumption............AZ

[Sunny Solar]

AZLink I just dont see how you can be using 500 to 700 kwh a month???.. When im in Philippines We consume on average 220 kwh a month.. 270l fridge,1hp split aircon in bedroom on 10 hrs every night. instant hot water for showering.60" TV/video ..Lights are totally.from solar power.
solar setup 240w panels 2x100ah 12v"truck" batteries 1000w TSW inverter.
I can run the fridge from 8am to 4pm on electric company "repair " days.. There are many. Batteries will be still at 12.6v at 4pm.

[AZlink]

AZLink I just dont see how you can be using 500 to 700 kwh a month???.. When im in Philippines We consume on average 220 kwh a month.. 270l fridge,1hp split aircon in bedroom on 10 hrs every night. instant hot water for showering.60" TV/video ..Lights are totally.from solar power.
solar setup 240w panels 2x100ah 12v"truck" batteries 1000w TSW inverter.
I can run the fridge from 8am to 4pm on electric company "repair " days.. There are many. Batteries will be still at 12.6v at 4pm.

Sunny that is exactly what the people are demanding the energy company, that there is over billing and abuse with the price of energy, since this fight goes for ever and no ending the only thing done last week was the new administration of the energy company announced another raised to the energy will be soon be applied, I can't afford those bills like I said before I have no meter in the house I use the generator for fridge and TV until I can figure how to start the solar thing on my own of course reading and learning from all of you advising and sharing your ideas...........AZ

[paulcheung]

AZ,

The problem with off grid setup does not scale well, other wise we could help you to setup a small system to run your fridge and the TV.

When you ready for larger system, most of the components in the small setup won't be able to use back except the panels, you have to sell them or give them a way.

The fridge you mention is consuming too much energy, you need to get the compressor changed, I have mine changed because my usually draw about the same amount like yours. 5 to 6 amps at 110volts. I spend $250 US dollar to change the compressor, since then the fridge draw only 2 to 3 amps except when it defrost.

If you still want to start small know the problem for upgrade, then you can tell us so we can help you to setup a system for your need at the moment.

Cheers.