Power Consumpion

John your calculation might be OK for a Waeco up to 60Lts but the 80Lt draws 3 times the power due to the fans...... Waeco specs- up to 60Lts .85amps and the 80Lt 2.9amps.

Vaughan I think you might be cutting it a bit fine with you limited power supply.

Olcoolone,

The Waeco figures you quote are the claimed average ones with the small fridge running as a fridge and the 80 litre one as a fridge freezer - not directly applicable to the OP's intended use, so I made a rough guestimate. As you say, I didn't get it right!

The Waeco specs show a running current of 7.5A for the 80 litre fridge compressor, which is almost exactly double that of my 40 litre fridge compressor. (The Waeco specs for the smaller compressor are currently not accessible on line.) 7.5 amps, rather than my 4 to 5 blows the scheme further out of the water.

There are really too many variables to make an accurate assessment of the energy budget, but it's pretty clear that it isn't a viable.

Cheers

John

What about just upgrading to an 80ltr Waeco? Would I still struggle with power if I ran this as a fridge & not run my current 50ltr?

It all depends on what your expectations are.

Do you expect your fridges to run continuoulsy without any outside charging and for how long.

how is your fridge situated as far as being in a cool place.

How deep do you expect to cycle your battery and how long do you expect it to live.

All this stuff comes down to ho long a piece of string is.


How about you start with finding out exactly how your existing fridge actually performs in the current set up.

I doubt very much that even with the existing set up that you will be reliably 100% solar self sufficient, I recon two cloudy days in a row and you'll be well bugered.

First thing to establish is how long the existing fridge (Fully loaded and pre chilled...bottles of water will do) will run from the existing fully charged battery till the low voltage cut out drops its bundle.

Then you can hook up the solar pannel and see how it travels.....

Once you have done that give it a run as a frezzer 3/4 full icecream containers of water is a suitable load.

all this you can do at home

I trust you have a good digital voltmeter so you have some idea how things are going.

You can fiddle about with different fridges, better insulation and all sorts of foolishness, but the fact remains " ya can'a change the laws of physics, Jim".

The bottom line is that if ya want to run big fridges, you need to run big batteries and a pretty solid source of charge.

Now how about a punt.
As a very rough guess on your existing set up, I recon you will get 2 to 3 days run time out of the battery tops, with use of the solar pannel under conditions that are in your favour ya might extend that run time to 5, 6 or more days, but if you have a couple of cloudy days or even worse rain all bets are off.

As I said......If you get 24 hours out of it as a freezer on the battery unaided I will be most surprised.


Give it a try..see how close I am.....no cheating mind..remember the maximum safe temp for a fridge is 5 deg C for a fridge and -15 degC for a freezer.....

cheers