Running a chest freezer as a chest refrigerator on a trailer

[Sunking]

The only way I know to get an idea of what power it needs is to put a Kill-a-watt on it and run it in fridge mode and see what goes on there. Which I have no problem doing - but I wasn't sure of how many panels and other equipment/batteries I'd need to swing this.

The only way to determine is to know how much power it uses in a day. Run the Kill-A-Watt for a week or more to get accurate data.

[Mike90250]

1) if you have to have "approved unit" to meet food health codes, it will likely fail. If all they care about it, is that it's cold inside, likely OK.

2) Condensation. Where will it go ? Bottom of the unit, you either have to bail or sponge it out daily. Yucch.

3) it will still take 12 hours to chill down. And it will take a long time to chill warm foods. May need an air circulation fan to assist.

4) power requirements. Ah - the good stuff. You will have to ask an electrician to measure the Peak Starting Amps of the motor, with a $400 meter. Most won't have that, you will have to try 3 or 4 of them. Then you chose an inverter that can supply the starting surge. The batteries and cables have to be able to pass that surge, without dropping voltage below the inverter shut-off voltage. You can use any plug in watt meters (kill-a-watt) to measure power over a several day period.
Generally, you need to harvest 1 - 1.5Kwh a day to keep a unit cold. If that's an area with 4 hours of good sun, you need 500W of PV. Likely you will need a 24V inverter to make things easier.

Or you get a Co2 fire ex, and blast away inside the cabinet each time you need to use it, the Co2 snow will chill it right down. Or drop a block of dry ice inside the day before you need it. A lot more simpler.

[vexter0944]

Well all depends on how much energy the fridge will use in a day and your location. Chances are you trailer is not large enough to hold all the panels and batteries required to do this. All depends on how much power it needs and location.

Thanks for the response! Much appreciated!

My location is very close to St. Louis, MO. As far as space...I have 26' of trailer with a fair amount of room left over to figure something out if it will work....of course it would depend on what equipment is deemed necessary. I believe this is my freezer - http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/pr...055&navAction=

The only way I know to get an idea of what power it needs is to put a Kill-a-watt on it and run it in fridge mode and see what goes on there. Which I have no problem doing - but I wasn't sure of how many panels and other equipment/batteries I'd need to swing this.

Based on something like this - http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.pdf - I wouldn't think it would use too much power - but I'd have to confirm obviously as my model and the author's could be quite different. The freezer would be mounted on the trailer inside out of weather.

Thanks again!

[Sunking]

Well all depends on how much energy the fridge will use in a day and your location. Chances are you trailer is not large enough to hold all the panels and batteries required to do this. All depends on how much power it needs and location.

[vexter0944]

Hello everyone - total newbie here - but been doing enough reading to make me join up and do some posting and see if I can get some ideas/thoughts/help

I have a concession trailer which is parked on a lot with no electric available when stored. I have a freezer on board that I plan on using as a chest 'refrigerator' with one of the Johnson controls - http://www.amazon.com/KegWorks-Freez.../dp/B0002EAL58

I'd like to setup a solar panel/battery/inverter system to run the freezer while it's in storage such that when I go get it to do some catering/vending the chest freezer would already be cooled down and ready to go. This way I wouldn't have to store the trailer where electric is available or wait on the freezer to cool down when I get the trailer out of storage.

I'd like to permanently mount the panels to the top of my trailer and then I can build something to store the battery(ies) and inverter and other equipment needed to do this. Once on site, I would plug in to normal electric or my generator to run the freezer.

If someone could help me put together the parts needed or point me to a premade system that would help a lot. I can try to get specs off the freezer (as I'm sure that will help a lot) if needed. I understand the theory, but I'm not 100% on the parts needed and/or the wattage panels needed and amount or size of batteries needed.

Thanks and I'll be watching the thread - appreciate the help!