Solar Refrigerator

[BritishPete]

For mine I assembled 3 wire baskets (vegetables/dairy/other) one above each other with spaces in between for easy access and all attached to each other by light weight aluminum angle, these went to one side of the freezer then on the freezer step I placed one more basket for my beer collection. That left the basket supplied with the freezer which still slides left to right. The bottom of the freezer between the baskets and compressor step is for a gallon of milk and a gallon of orange juice. I find I definitely have more room and better accessible too than the fridge I had before which was a real pain because I had to sit on the floor to see what was in it. also I am saving about 300 Kwhr per year

[Sunking]

Convert a chest freezer! I did and use only 180W per day average. It's a simple job costing only $25 and one hours work

180 watts is meaningless without a time element. Electrical energy is Watt Hours.

[john p]

we tried a chest freezer converted to a fridge.Sure it uses less power ,,BUT it drove us mad in a month.. Its just so hard to use even half its space usefully. deep baskets donthelp much either.They take a lot of effort to lift them out,and very time consuming.
ive actually toyed with the idea of using all the components in a chest freezer and building them into a home made fridge with about 6 to 8 inches of insulation .I think if the "cabinet" was built from marine plywood and lined with aluminium.iot should be then very effecient and user friendly.? but havnt seen anyone else actually with a built and tested one.

[BritishPete]

A chest type is inconvenient but a real energy saver. One takes their choice - extra cost or inconvenience.

180 watts is excellent.

my original 4.7 Cu ft RV fridge was at low level and really hard to store/see things in. My 5 cu ft chest is fitted with multiple (5) stacked wire baskets and is much easier to access. Best of all the chest cost only $162 from Walmart

[russ]

A chest type is inconvenient but a real energy saver. One takes their choice - extra cost or inconvenience.

180 watts is excellent.

[BritishPete]

Convert a chest freezer! I did and use only 180W per day average. It's a simple job costing only $25 and one hours work

[Mike90250]

Any loads you can shift to the sunlight hours, are loads that run at 70% efficiency, instead of 50%. After batteries come up out of bulk and the PV demand drops back, run your gear day-times, not night, if you can.

[bidaw]

My neighbor has a home dialysis machine which runs from the time he goes to bed at night til he arises in the a.m. Between the fridge that holds his insulin and the little pump on his dialysis machine, he has a critical minimum for his PV-powered log cabin. That is a bit more critical than most of us face, but you get the drift.

Wow...this was me last year...that is before I got my transplant in April. All of that time on dialysis at home allowed me to solder up over 20 DIY panels that I currently charge my batteries with. I agree though, having backup power in that situation is critical!

[Keith]

Solar Fridges and Freezers

And now a word from our sponsor. If you are interested in looking at solar refrigerators or freezers, you can look at them at SolarTown's website, which has them either as a standalone product or as kits with the charge controllers, solar panels, and batteries. http://www.solartown.com/store/catal...-and-freezers/ Depending on where you are, they come with about 2-4 days backup. You can also purchased a direct drive, which comes without the batteries, but you have to be reasonably certain that you are going to have some sun soon. And for all of these, you can also purchase an AC adaptor.

[SteveC]

For the potential at your location try PV Watts http://mapserve3.nrel.gov/PVWatts_Viewer/index.html

Fridges are not all that high of a consumer but they are on 24 hours

Also, there are a few things which will be on anyone's "must-be-powered" list. The fridge and the freezer are two of those items. You can do with fewer lights on, you can decline to turn on the TV after supper, and so on, if your batteries are low and the weather is cloudy and etc. But you don't want to turn off the refrigeration units if at all possible, for obvious reasons. So you will have a certain minimum of power you always want. My neighbor has a home dialysis machine which runs from the time he goes to bed at night til he arises in the a.m. Between the fridge that holds his insulin and the little pump on his dialysis machine, he has a critical minimum for his PV-powered log cabin. That is a bit more critical than most of us face, but you get the drift.

[russ]

For the potential at your location try PV Watts http://mapserve3.nrel.gov/PVWatts_Viewer/index.html

Fridges are not all that high of a consumer but they are on 24 hours

Chest type freezers are usually chosen as the chest type is naturally more energy efficient if not as convenient - the cold doesn't run out every time you open the door.

[DeniseT]

The chest freezer conversion seems like the most practical. The original poster mentioned only 4 hours of sunlight, is that normal? I live in the midwest and want to install some solar panels to use to power some of my house. Is a refrigerator with a refrigerator water filter one of the highest energy consuming pieces in a home?

[TnAndy]

To put everyone's question to rest...yes, I did mean watt hours! Thanks for the correction mike. The measurement was done with a killawatt ... And my measurements are an average over 2 months. The watt hour rating is really that low!

There are several articles on the subject that peaked my interest on this to the point of me buying a used chest freezer for 40 bucks and a digital thermal switch off ebay for less than 20. I butchered an extension cord...set the temp that I wanted to refrigerate and away it went! Do a google search on chest freezer conversion or solar chest fridge. I'm sure you can find it. If not, pm me and I'll send you a link.

As to ease of use...this is a garage fridge...cold drinks and extra storage for when the ole lady buys too much for the main fridge in the house! Hey, I had to have something to use my diy panels with....this was as good of project as any. It really does work great!

Yep.....I did the same test with a fairly standard 9cuft chest freezer (120vAC) and an external thermostat ( obtained from "Kegman.com" ). Opening/closing several times day, using a Kil-a-watt meter to record power use over several weeks, it was less than 200w/hrs/day to maintain an internal temp of 36-38 degrees.

This is my plan for a backup fridge should the grid go down in a long term way.

[Alessandro8100]

I'm working on solar refrigerator...one of my friend tell me about this and i see is really good..this is really helpful for me...thanks for everything....Nice sharing...keep it up.

[bidaw]

To put everyone's question to rest...yes, I did mean watt hours! Thanks for the correction mike. The measurement was done with a killawatt ... And my measurements are an average over 2 months. The watt hour rating is really that low!

There are several articles on the subject that peaked my interest on this to the point of me buying a used chest freezer for 40 bucks and a digital thermal switch off ebay for less than 20. I butchered an extension cord...set the temp that I wanted to refrigerate and away it went! Do a google search on chest freezer conversion or solar chest fridge. I'm sure you can find it. If not, pm me and I'll send you a link.

As to ease of use...this is a garage fridge...cold drinks and extra storage for when the ole lady buys too much for the main fridge in the house! Hey, I had to have something to use my diy panels with....this was as good of project as any. It really does work great!