fridge on 12v solar and battery what watts (1 Viewer)

Yomper

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Oct 4, 2014
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Hi i'm picking up my newly acquired crew van the type network rail use but this one is an 06 reg and clean only used by the samaritans with 79k on clock. Bought it as it has eberspacher heater leisure battery's etc and side windows. I will never use 240 hook up and want to run my fridge (haven't bought yet) on leisure battery and solar alone. Would a 300w solar panel work all year round bearing in mind when fridge isn't actually using power battery's will be topped up. Sorry for newbie question
 

scotjimland

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Jul 25, 2007
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If you buy a three way fridge , ie 230v mains / Gas / 12vdc .. the 12v dc is only used when driving and on Gas when no EHU. to run it on 12v from the leisure battery when not driving is not recommended..

A 12v compressor fridge is more suitable to run off of a solar panel.. and whether it would work all year round would very much depend on which country you are in.. a UK winter you may be lucky and see the sun for a few hours each day.. with 16 hours of darkness in northern parts of the UK .. it wouldn't work.

My advice.. . buy a 3 way fridge , and rather than solar, use the money to instal refillable gas bottles or a tank,
 
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Jul 1, 2012
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Have 12v compressor fridge, 2x 110Ah batteries and 80W solar panel. Rarely use EHU and it seems to work just fine. Just done 3 weeks in North of Scotland which doesn't have terribly long sunny days this time of year.
 
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scotjimland

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Yes, solar panels work even on cloudy days .. it's the number of daylight hours and latitude that determine the charge ..
How many hours did you drive each day.. ?
With 220 ah battery bank, and if were driving every other day you wouldn't need solar..

Yomper hasn't told us where he intends to be in winter , or if he will be driving every day.. or static for several days or weeks.. there are too many variables and unknowns to give him a definitive answer.

My advice is based on the scant information provided ... gas is dependable and cheap to run if you install refillable bottles or an LPG tank..
 
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dave newell

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Not in th depths of winter it won't run a compressor fridge for long. I have three 110AH batteries and a 155Watt solar panel and at the Cotton Arms New Year meet a couple of years ago we lasted almost two days before having to resort to a genny. Trouble is in the depths of winter you need more lighting and more heating so you use a lot more energy than in summer.

D.

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Snowbird

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In my present van I have an AES 3 way fridge. It is wired to my 320 ampbattery bank and 250 watt solar system. Am in Spain at the moment and although am on hookup the fridge switches to 12 volt supply automatically during the day when the sun is shining. This I presume is saving on electric.
 
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gozomike

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The eberspacher heater will also take a lot of current out of the leasure battery. On my last van I had one and it was taking up to 10 amps for a short while on start up and then settling down to a couple of amps but it did this every few minuets when the thermostat kicked it in. A few hours was all I could run it for without running the battery down.
 
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