Can you offer some advice on refrigeration?

[Paul Land]

search for solar chest type refrigeration. vertical front load units will run the compressor each time you open the door, chest type will cycle much less often and for a shorter run time. chest types can also maintain temp for many hours w/o power.

Very close to what i use, chest freezer with temp control kicks on for seconds multi-times very cool but butt ugly. just set temp to 34-37F very low power consumption
freez1.png

[thastinger]

I didn't see where you're calculating LP cost. I'm dealing with this exact ordeal at my off grid vacation cabin. I've burnt through 320 gallons of propane in 14 months, and at $1.79 a gallon that adds up. I'm going with a Dometic 65 dual zone. They make a larger 95 qt version that you might look into. Not spending $500/year on propane will pay for the Dometic in 2 years. I leave the fridge on year around, because they take 24 hours to cool down and I like keeping cold drinks, condiments, etc there so I don't have to haul those everytime I go.

Do you have 120V power? I converted a chest freezer to a fridge and it only consumes .5Kwh a day.

[Moonie]

I didn't see where you're calculating LP cost. I'm dealing with this exact ordeal at my off grid vacation cabin. I've burnt through 320 gallons of propane in 14 months, and at $1.79 a gallon that adds up. I'm going with a Dometic 65 dual zone. They make a larger 95 qt version that you might look into. Not spending $500/year on propane will pay for the Dometic in 2 years. I leave the fridge on year around, because they take 24 hours to cool down and I like keeping cold drinks, condiments, etc there so I don't have to haul those everytime I go.

[LETitROLL]

Catch 22, you either get more cost and less selection with DC refrigerators or good price and great selection with Ac units but must run an inverter, the inverter will be the weak link and the new problem that you grow to hate with your plan, if you get a decent $500 to $800 dollar quality inverter then you wont have too many problems, but i have not seen too many sub $400 units that are going to be happy about cycling that fridge surge 10-20 times a day and hold up for very long, I like your plan on panels, batts, etc. just make sure you really check out inverters well and don't be overly optimistic about that side of things and then i think you will be okay. Everything else in the system may last many, many years but i would not expect the inverter to unless you spend the extra money for a premium heavy duty one, the startup surge on ac fridges is very significant and many times a day over weeks, months, years can take its toll.

[Basketcase]

And don't be around when the ice melts and the container fails catastrophically.

Exactly. I used to work at a restaurant and we'd get meat packed in dry ice. We used to put the dry ice in the big olive containers (plastic). It was fantastic. Of course this was when you could do stuff like that without getting put on a list.

[J.P.M.]

And dispose of "extra" dry ice in a 2 liter bottle

And don't be around when the ice melts and the container fails catastrophically.

[Basketcase]

And dispose of "extra" dry ice in a 2 liter bottle

[J.P.M.]

Don't forget to use gloves. That stuff is cold.

~ -110 F. or so, FWIW. And on a serious note: Handle only in well ventilated areas.

[SunEagle]

And for all treehuggers, mostly carbon neutral too.

Don't forget to use gloves. That stuff is cold.

[J.P.M.]

When you purchase your load of groceries for the 2 week visit, get a chunk of dry ice, it will help cool down the fridge the first day

And for all treehuggers, mostly carbon neutral too.

[Basketcase]

When you purchase your load of groceries for the 2 week visit, get a chunk of dry ice, it will help cool down the fridge the first day

That's actually a pretty good idea. I may try that.

[Basketcase]

On "bad days" your PV solar power may drop to 10%; even less if covered with snow. More "cheap panels" can
be used to raise that, and the same panels can lengthen your solar day with multiple orientations. Bruce Roe

The house is only used in summer so no snow to worry about. If the charge drops to 10% for too long that could be problematic though. Is that likely in July? I have a perfectly pitched, directly south facing roof for my panels that has no obstructions such as trees.

[Mike90250]

When you purchase your load of groceries for the 2 week visit, get a chunk of dry ice, it will help cool down the fridge the first day

[bcroe]

Since panels are so cheap, I feel like I can keep my battery bank smaller because it will be charging longer throughout the day, and even on bad days I should have plenty of charging. I'm trying to make it idiot proof so when I'm not there and there are people using the house, it will just work.

On "bad days" your PV solar power may drop to 10%; even less if covered with snow. More "cheap panels" can
be used to raise that, and the same panels can lengthen your solar day with multiple orientations. Bruce Roe

[Basketcase]

I think you did miss something but went back and forth so much that it would be easy. I'm using 4, 6v batteries all in series to get to 24v at 230AH. At 50% dod, that's 2760 watt hours. I'm using my existing 30 amp mppt controller that will allow me to run 1000 watts of panels. It will limit it's output to 30 amps, but with an oversized array it will provide that 30 amps for a longer period of time. Say I get 5 hours of 30 amps of charge, thats 3600 watt hours. There is no paralleling of batteries. There is a series-parallel config of the 4 panels though.