Solar panels to power a Vitrifrigo 230l compressor fridge
Flags2 said
04:05 PM Feb 16, 2015
Hello oh wise ones.
Buying a new van and I am assured that 1x155w solar panel and 2 100Ah batteries will be more than adequate to power the vitrifrigo fridge we are having installed. I think we should get 2 panels or perhaps 2 x 130 if you believe 2x155 is overkill. We don't plan on too much free camping. Given the fridge is not ALL that requires 12v source, I am sceptical and seek the wisdom of your experiences.
Cheers
Robyn
Totalrv said
05:09 PM Feb 16, 2015
If you have the room go for 2 x 250watt.
1 x 155watt isn't enough for the load that will be on the system.
Each to there own but :)
SnowT said
07:34 PM Feb 16, 2015
I don't know the draw of the fridge..
and I have to say T.RVs sort of correct...
You need to go at least go for a ration of 200w per 100Ah battery... me I would go 400w total of Solar for the simple reason of LA batteries take a lot to get them to full charge...
-- My Fridge which is a Modern inverter Fridge.. uses 10-15% of the Battery storage so about 30-40Ah of my system... and I have 300Ah @ 24v of Lithium Batteries..
Juergen
madaboutled said
10:57 PM Feb 16, 2015
A quick search shows a 230 Lt Vitrifrigo fridge uses 55 watts/hour in worst case senario so in a 24 hour period that's 1320 Watts or 110 Amps (Watts x 24 / 12)
Solar Panel is 155 Watts Charge rate should be 13.8 volts so that = 11.23 Amp/Hr (Watts / Volts = Amps). Let's rounds it down to 10 Amp/Hr, At best your going to get 8 hours charging, so thats 80 Amps, But in reality would be more like 6 hours, so 60 Amp/Hr
Can you see where we're going here? One solar panel isn't going to be enough. Also we're not taking into account anything else running off the batteries, like Lights, TV, Charging Laptops & Phones and anything else you might be using.
With a big fridge like that I'd personally go for 2 of the biggest panels I could fit, as TotalRV suggests 2 x 250w would be good, 6 hours of charge a day will give around 220 Amph (all going well)
Then there's Batteries, there's not a lot of weight difference between 100-130 amp to say 150-160amp so I'go for 2 160's. That's going to give you 320 Amph but only 80% of that is really usable, so 256Amph.
So using the above figures your fridge is the biggest user @ 110 Amph a day using the suggested panels/batteries you'd have 130 Amph to play with for other devices. But really you can't run figures till you know the total power draw per day using a worst case senario.
Hope this helps
Regards Steve.
-- Edited by madaboutled on Monday 16th of February 2015 10:59:36 PM
-- Edited by madaboutled on Monday 16th of February 2015 11:03:57 PM
Flags2 said
08:25 AM Feb 17, 2015
Thank you all for your advice. Even though we won't be doing a lot of free camping, the current configuration is clearly inadequate. We are going back to change our spec!!!!!
Many thanks again and happy travels
Cheers
Robyn
scratch158 said
09:47 AM Feb 17, 2015
Hi guys we have 2 solar panels on the roof of the van heres the question, is it safe to have the panels charging the battery whilst plugged into the electric mains or do i need to turn off the panels
Totalrv said
01:17 PM Feb 17, 2015
Yes it's safe,once the solar controller has a input current from another charger it's stops the panels from charging
SnowT said
03:54 PM Feb 17, 2015
Where's that comment coming from...??
It sounds like a bit of a crock of S...
juergen
Both sources will charge the batteries until they hit 100% soc..
oldtrack123 said
03:30 PM Feb 22, 2015
scratch158 wrote:
Hi guys we have 2 solar panels on the roof of the van heres the question, is it safe to have the panels charging the battery whilst plugged into the electric mains or do i need to turn off the panels
HI
It is SAFE
NO you do not need to turn OFF anything
What will happen is that as the batteries get near fully charged either the Mains charger OR the solar reg will start regulating .That may mean one or the other will then at that point ceases to charge
Or may cycle erratically , but THAT is not a problem
The SAME applies if you are direct charging the same batterries from the car alternator, you may see some erratic operation of the Alternator light
scratch158 said
09:49 AM Feb 27, 2015
many thanks for your replys
dorian said
09:58 AM Feb 27, 2015
There is no such unit as "watts/hour" or "amps/hour".
madaboutled said
01:57 PM Feb 27, 2015
dorian wrote:
There is no such unit as "watts/hour" or "amps/hour".
Correct, BUT, sometime I/we get slack in writing when it comes to anything technical, so for clarification....
The watt-hour (symbolized Wh, or sometimes watt hour) is a unit of energy equivalent to one watt (1 W) of power expended for one hour (1 h) of time.
An ampere hour (abbreviated Ah, or sometimes amp hour) is the amount of energy charge in a battery that will allow one ampere of current to flow for one hour.
And as for the forward slash here's some good examples for usage, note see per https://www.englishclub.com/writing/punctuation-slash.htm
...... Google can be helpful sometimes
Mark Bolton said
05:20 PM Feb 27, 2015
Steve your math seems sound to me.
I have noticed on the road that people seem to have woefully inadequate amount of panels. I believe there is a rule of thumb that you must have at least 10 percent of the battery capacity to get them to charge. i.e. 10 amps for a 100 Ah battery ?
I am in the middle of setting up a solar system. It is not as straight forwards as it seems. I have 450 watts of panels and 600 Ah storage spread over a van and an RV. Damn thing nearly caught fire last night. Using cheap Chinese electronics is a bit of a nightmare. I also went for 24 volt set-up initially and think that may have been a mistake. It is a work in progress.
-- Edited by Mark Bolton on Friday 27th of February 2015 05:24:10 PM
03_Troopy said
12:48 AM Feb 28, 2015
Mark, using your "rule of thumb", you only have under half the panels you need.
Hello oh wise ones.
Buying a new van and I am assured that 1x155w solar panel and 2 100Ah batteries will be more than adequate to power the vitrifrigo fridge we are having installed. I think we should get 2 panels or perhaps 2 x 130 if you believe 2x155 is overkill. We don't plan on too much free camping. Given the fridge is not ALL that requires 12v source, I am sceptical and seek the wisdom of your experiences.
Cheers
Robyn
and I have to say T.RVs sort of correct...
You need to go at least go for a ration of 200w per 100Ah battery... me I would go 400w total of Solar for the simple reason of LA batteries take a lot to get them to full charge...
-- My Fridge which is a Modern inverter Fridge.. uses 10-15% of the Battery storage so about 30-40Ah of my system... and I have 300Ah @ 24v of Lithium Batteries..
Juergen
A quick search shows a 230 Lt Vitrifrigo fridge uses 55 watts/hour in worst case senario so in a 24 hour period that's 1320 Watts or 110 Amps (Watts x 24 / 12)
Solar Panel is 155 Watts Charge rate should be 13.8 volts so that = 11.23 Amp/Hr (Watts / Volts = Amps). Let's rounds it down to 10 Amp/Hr, At best your going to get 8 hours charging, so thats 80 Amps, But in reality would be more like 6 hours, so 60 Amp/Hr
Can you see where we're going here? One solar panel isn't going to be enough. Also we're not taking into account anything else running off the batteries, like Lights, TV, Charging Laptops & Phones and anything else you might be using.
With a big fridge like that I'd personally go for 2 of the biggest panels I could fit, as TotalRV suggests 2 x 250w would be good, 6 hours of charge a day will give around 220 Amph (all going well)
Then there's Batteries, there's not a lot of weight difference between 100-130 amp to say 150-160amp so I'go for 2 160's. That's going to give you 320 Amph but only 80% of that is really usable, so 256Amph.
So using the above figures your fridge is the biggest user @ 110 Amph a day using the suggested panels/batteries you'd have 130 Amph to play with for other devices. But really you can't run figures till you know the total power draw per day using a worst case senario.
Hope this helps
Regards Steve.
-- Edited by madaboutled on Monday 16th of February 2015 10:59:36 PM
-- Edited by madaboutled on Monday 16th of February 2015 11:03:57 PM
Thank you all for your advice. Even though we won't be doing a lot of free camping, the current configuration is clearly inadequate. We are going back to change our spec!!!!!
Many thanks again and happy travels
Cheers
Robyn
It sounds like a bit of a crock of S...
juergen
Both sources will charge the batteries until they hit 100% soc..
HI
It is SAFE
NO you do not need to turn OFF anything
What will happen is that as the batteries get near fully charged either the Mains charger OR the solar reg will start regulating .That may mean one or the other will then at that point ceases to charge
Or may cycle erratically , but THAT is not a problem
The SAME applies if you are direct charging the same batterries from the car alternator, you may see some erratic operation of the Alternator light
Correct, BUT, sometime I/we get slack in writing when it comes to anything technical, so for clarification....
The watt-hour (symbolized Wh, or sometimes watt hour) is a unit of energy equivalent to one watt (1 W) of power expended for one hour (1 h) of time.
An ampere hour (abbreviated Ah, or sometimes amp hour) is the amount of energy charge in a battery that will allow one ampere of current to flow for one hour.
And as for the forward slash here's some good examples for usage, note see per https://www.englishclub.com/writing/punctuation-slash.htm
...... Google can be helpful sometimes
Steve your math seems sound to me.
I have noticed on the road that people seem to have woefully inadequate amount of panels. I believe there is a rule of thumb that you must have at least 10 percent of the battery capacity to get them to charge. i.e. 10 amps for a 100 Ah battery ?
I am in the middle of setting up a solar system. It is not as straight forwards as it seems. I have 450 watts of panels and 600 Ah storage spread over a van and an RV. Damn thing nearly caught fire last night. Using cheap Chinese electronics is a bit of a nightmare. I also went for 24 volt set-up initially and think that may have been a mistake. It is a work in progress.
-- Edited by Mark Bolton on Friday 27th of February 2015 05:24:10 PM