How much solar do you need to run a house fridge: RAIN or SHINE

In today's video, we're going to see how many solar panels do you need to run a house refrigerator. We're going to be looking into long-term sustainable refrigeration with a focus on solar panel solutions that work in any weather condition.🌞☁️🌧️

Join us as we tackle the question "How many solar panels do you need to run a typical house fridge?" We'll break it down step by step. First, we'll explore how many solar panels are required during optimal, sunny conditions. We'll show you just how efficient solar power can be when the sun is shining brightly.

But we don't stop there! Weather can be unpredictable, and we're here to ensure you're always prepared. We'll also investigate how many solar panels are needed to keep your fridge running smoothly on cloudy or stormy days. Yes, you heard that right! Solar panels can still produce energy even when the weather isn't perfect. It just takes a bit of extra solar power.

The goal here is to empower you with the knowledge and tools to embrace sustainable living and harness solar energy for your everyday needs. By the end of this video, you'll have a clear understanding of how to optimize solar panel capacity for your refrigerator, ensuring you’ll have a cool place to always store your food. 

Sustainable refrigeration doesn’t have to be complicated! 

Stay connected with "diySolarPowerFunWithRay" Don't forget to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE. Also, hit the SUBSCRIBE button and press the 🔔 BELL notification. So that you never miss any updates. Thanks for watching! :)

*Chapters*
0:00 Intro
1:03 Equipment
2:14 How much solar do you need to run a fridge in SUNNY CONDITIONS
10:46 How much solar do you need to run a fridge in CLOUDY OR STORMY CONDITIONS
20:46 Conclusion & Costs
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#diysolarpowerfunwithray #solarpower #renewableenergy #sustainableliving #offgridfridge #solarpanelsolutions #refrigeratorefficiency #stormyweathersolar #energyefficiency #solarpanelhacks #solarbatterybackup #maximizesolarcapacity #greenliving #emergencyprep #solarenergy #diysolar #solarpanelsetup #renewablepower

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*Contact info*
I am not available for personal consulting. Please reach out to me in the video comments where I and others can provide feedback to you

*Disclaimer*
I am not a licensed electrician. Working with electricity is dangerous and can lead to injury or death, even when following documentation and instructions. I can not be held liable for such damage or injury. I am not giving or seeking to give advice on how to work with electricity. You should consult with a licensed professional whenever possible and get all work reviewed by an inspector and follow any local regulations in your area. I'm documenting my projects for informational purposes only. Electricity can kill you! BE CAREFUL!

[diySolarPowerFunWithRay]

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[DONKEYdaDON]

This was by far the best "real-world" (including forgetting to plug in the PV's) test that has be made.

[keng]

Great video...one point I can add...
The refrigerator does not run continuously...
Monitor your model for a week...it is a great way to insure your foods...
I run a chest freezer and a small 7.5 cu ft refrigerator/ freezer...one
Lifepo4 100ah battery and two 165watt mono panels...30amp controller... I do live in fl🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 solar is best small scale... multiple sets so you always have a good source instead of standing in the dark with a flashlight trying to figure out what's wrong with one inverter and one battery set up... Just like circuit breakers in the house, have separate lines for each line that you want...
refrigeration, lighting computers security cameras, you name it everybody gets an individual circuit...

[haywire]

Glad I found this video. A year ago, I set up a 48V system with a Victron 150/45 charge controller and 2800-ish watts solar fed thru an eco-worthy combiner. I am using 8 6V 215AH lead-acid golf car batteries ($800 for 8 at Sams Club - now $119 ea.) with a balancer to minimize the need for equalization. An impressive little "eBay special" 2000W (4000W surge) pure sine wave inverter draws just 6 watts no-load. It's running a freezer (100W) and a side-by-side (200w) house fridge. During the summer, I can run much more, but this is what I've found I can run all winter long, cloudy days and all, without once going to the grid. Doing all the work myself, I have a little less than $4K invested. So far so good. I have not had any cells out-of-balance, no terminal corrosion, and only needed to add 1/2" distilled water ONCE in over a year. I recently added the JBD SmartShunt, and set to a min charge level of 40%. Of the 60% "usable " capacity of these batteries, I have seen them get down to a little below 50% after a few cloudy days. After any day with a little sun, where batt's start at 100%, I usually see the charge process get started with 73% battery still available. When the sun pops out, the system slams a full charge in them before 9:30AM. During the day, the solar delivers what is needed, and batt's just float. In summer, I charge all my 80V brushless lawn care tools off this setup (like catching sunlight in little buckets, lol) I only had to broom snow off 1 time last year... This year could be different... It's a lot of fun, and I like my little "Partial-off-grid-setup".

[craigg.]

The way you calculated watt hrs. You have single handedly helped me learn this calculation.
2 years trying.
5000 watt ES growatt. (2) 5120 watt hr 48v eg4.
(24) 185 watt panels. 2 series strings in parallel.
Now I can KNOW
answers to questions I did not.
Cg

[BobBob-ilku]

For anyone reading this if your planning on replacing your fridge soon & you want/have a solar system or “solar generator” buy an inverter fridge there very efficient & don’t surge watts

[solarcabin]

OK, a few things from someone off grid over 20 years:

Your calculation premise was incorrect and what you need to calculate is how much battery capacity you need to run that fridge overnight and on days with low sunshine.

A 100 watt solar panel rarely produces 100 watts even under great conditions and you want enough solar to keep that battery charged up while running that fridge so the battery is full charged for night time use.

If you figure 5 hours of sunshine which is avg for winter you would need at least 200 watts to power that fridge and put some juice back in the battery if the weather turns cloudy.

Then you need a battery with enough capacity to run that fridge for the 19 hours when the sun is not shining.

For that fridge I would recommend at least 400 watts of solar and a 200Ah LIFEPO4 battery.

If you want to use a better fridge look at the 12/24 volt car fridge/freezer that avg 45-50 watts and are better insulated chest style so they run very little depending on ambient temp.

Then you can run one of those off that 100Ah battery and 200 watts of solar.

Hope that helps!

[BobBob-ilku]

Thanks this is the exact video I’ve been looking for what’s the minimum system that can run a full size fridge indefinitely. I haven’t found another similar video yet

[frankmaze]

I got 10 235w panels from Santan Solar for $26 a piece and $300 for shipping, and all of them are working great at about 170w each.

[pnowikow]

The Victron gear is fantastic and it's helping you immensely. I've got a 75/30 on the way now.

[wg]

Very cool. I'm doing basically the same thing you are but on a slightly larger scale. You are correct in saying to up the capacity. With my setup, I doubled the capacity and in doing so it lets you take full advantage of all or most of your panels power production window. 400AH @ 48 VDC with 16-250 W used santan solar panels. Good luck

[stevenspencer]

You have blessed me a great deal my brother! I am as I type this, figuring out my kWh needs for two small systems. The wheelhouse and the carpenter shop. Thank you and may God bless you and your family.

[zacrussell]

Thank you for breaking this down so well. Ive been trying to learn solar now for a while to help with our hurricane seasons but got so lost in all the information. Now im confident i can rig up a system to keep the fridge and radio running.

[cooltrkin]

I really liked this video. My systems (three) are for redundancy. my main system is 1020w 24v with two 300ah power queen batteries it runs a fridge a chest freezer, TV, Lights, fantastic fans.
My second system is 12v 1020w runs the bedroom, bathroom, fans, lights. It's 4 50ah lithium batteries, I'm planning on doubling those 4.
My third system runs the water system alone. It's 12v 510 watts it's got a 1500w inverter with two
50ah lifepo4 in parallel

[mrmagoo]

The most important part of a solar set up is the batteries. Battery capacity will determine what you can run and for how long.

[SlackersIndustry]

This was totally fun, learned a lot, just getting into solar, save some cash but mostly to learn and have fun great video

[CardiacCat]

Dude, you've earned a sub. I've just started to dabble into solar with a small Harbor Freight kit, but want to do something bigger and have lots of questions. You are answering some of them.

[jimhofoss]

just built a small 2 kw array, for $7000🇨🇦. includes a 90 amp mppt charge controller, 3kw heavy xantrex inverter, capable of 6 kw surge, and six 100 amp/hr agm batteries. Runs continuously. In northern BC, long winters with very little sun.

[kravenfoxbodies]

I just bought the $259 model of the Power Queen battery to run my trolling motor on my new Lowe 1440M jon boat, I have plans to buy another for a 200AH solar build on a small building as to move in when the power goes out. I bought a three item combo on Amazon with a battery box that has a 60amp breaker for trolling motor and 10 amp breaker for usb and 12v hookup and battery level tester all built in, also came with a smart charger that will charge the Power Queen up in 5 hours and if it will run stuff for 17hours as you tested with an invertor than that is still winning in my book!

Enjoyed your video.

[markb-axtonmx]

I HAVE 6, 100 WATT PANELS ON MY SYSTEM. 60 AMP CHARGE CONTROLLER, 8, 100 AMP 12 VOLT LITHIUM BATTERIES AND 1500 WATT INVERTER WIRED FOR 26.6 VOLT SYSTEM. IT RUNS MY FULL SIZE REFRIDGERATOR, 40 INCH TV, OVERHEAD LIGHT, INTERNET ROUTER, 2 SECURITY CAMERA'S, COMPUTER, CORDLESS PHONE, LAMP AND ALARM CLOCK IN BEDROOM, AND SEVERAL CORLESS DRILL CHARGERS. HAS BEEN UP AND RUNNING FOR A LITTLE OVER A YEAR NOW AND HAS PERFORMED PERFECTLY SO FAR. AND WILL RUN ALL THAT EVEN AFTER UP TO 5 CLOUDY DAYS. LOVE MY SOLAR SYSTEM.