It is truly reassuring to know my groceries are safely stored regardless of utility power i have fulfil.
How many solar panels to run minifridge.
The beginning stages of research with solar power is always how much power with how many panels.
An amp hour is a way of describing a battery s capacity.
Wattage use for a mini fridge can be found with the same formula.
This off grid system has been working great since may 2013.
We are in the process of specifying a solar system for our ranch.
And it is really great that you re thinking of using solar.
While there are a lot of variables to consider a 5 5 x 3 foot solar panel can produce roughly 250 watts of electricity.
Lower wattage models can range between 85 to around 100 watts while running 4 but many mini fridges can go up to 250 watts 5 here are some tips for keeping your mini fridge s compressor from turning on too often and boosting the starting wattage.
If we assume the panel gets about four hours of direct sunlight per day again plenty of variance here that s 1000 watts or 1 kwh of power in one day.
The answer to this question what can you run with a 100 watt solar panel can be a bit tricky.
It s definitely a smart way to go.
The solar panel math.
Thus a total of 30 kwh per month with one panel.
Roughly our fridge draws 1 3 amps per hour.
The average refrigerator found in the united states uses approximately 57 kwh per month while the average freezer uses 58 kwh for a combined total of 115 kwh.
We set up the solar panels which we procured from windy nation.
For this example if you are using 404 kwh per year that is 1 11 kwh per day.
The 160 watt panel with 3 good hours of sunlight which is about average will get you 480 watts to use daily if the fridge runs 5 hours at 80 watts.
So you are going to need a total wattage of 300 combined solar panels.
Lastly you will need the solar panels to keep the battery charged.
Here is an after the fact implementation of how i power my refrigerator from the sun.
Typically a battery is rated assuming a 20 hour cycle.
How did i come up with 300.
Divide that by 30 kwh per month per solar panel and you get 3 8 solar panels.
A bit of quick math and conversion to kwh will tell us that each solar panel produces about 30 kwh per month.
Which when you consider the solar setup draws about 5 amps per hour total we have a decent amount of amps per hour leftover to do with what we please.
A typical solar battery provides 12 volts of electrical energy for a certain amount of amp hours.
For example we consume about 1500 kwh per month which averages out to about 50 kwh per day or 50 000 watt hours per day.
It denotes how many amperes can be drawn from a battery and for how long.
The fridge will draw about 60 80 watts but not run all the time as it reaches temp if you only open it 4 to 6 times a day quickly it won t run as much probably only run about 4 or 5 hours a day.