Potable power source

Maccabee · Member

Potable power source

Cruising Cruze · Guru

Hi Graham

Welcome to the site mate

All depending what size battery is, your fridge will use around 2.5- 3 amp a hr

I use a evakool 70ltr 2 lids fridge freezer system on a 100 amp battery

but that was not big enough

Now I've got 2x 120 amps and what is running of a 200 watt solar panel with 120 folding one as backup

Cheers John

-- Edited by Cruising Cruze on Thursday 8th of October 2015 09:02:07 PM

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Welcome to the gang Maccabee, enjoy here and out in the playground.

Now, From my experience I would say one battery will not see the night through.

How are you charging the battery you mention ?

See, I didn't take your topic like KFC said elsewhere, I would, cos I don't do that disbelief . He is the king of going

Keep Safe out there.

Cruising Cruze · Guru

Hi Doug

Just going off topic

The Cat wanted to say hello to you

back to topic again

PeterD · Guru

Graham, I'm not sure which actual model you are looking at. Earlier on there were complete packs with the battery installed in them. Is it one of them. I see that the later offering is just the box complete with the accessories and you fit your own battery into it. If you advise what size battery (in amp hours {Ah}) you are looking at we can give more sensible answers.

For the other members who are not across the subject, this is what he is looking at. It will accept up to a 130 Ah battery but you have to supply your own. It has built in battery chargers and a few different outputs.

Maccabee · Member

I will be fitting the biggest amp/hr battery I can physically fit but I am
hoping I will get at least 4 days fridge powering from the unit
Thanks for your reply Peter D

PeterD · Guru

Graham, Even with a 120 or 130 Ah I would not bank on more than 2 days with the battery. I would be adding a 120 to 150 W solar panel tho the rig to get you over the other two days.

Jaahn · Guru

Maccabee wrote:
I will be fitting the biggest amp/hr battery I can physically fit but I am
hoping I will get at least 4 days fridge powering from the unit
Thanks for your reply Peter D

Hi Maccabee,

To back up what has already been said, several times, there is not enough storage power in that unit for your purpose. Also if you run the battery down till it's flat then it will die very soon, perhaps after only several uses. Expensive way to go. confuse

If you fit a 130Ahr battery which is said to be the biggest that will fit, and use say 3 Amps per hr as has been said for your fridge, then you will only get say;130/3 = 43 hrs to dead flat disbelief BUT only 50% power usage is recommended, so really only 23 hrs use is practical and then needs recharging. That's one day to preserve the life of your battery or two days for a stuffed battery. Your choice I guess.

Other people use a solar panel or ? every day to charge the battery up. Hmmm not rocket science hmm

Jaahn

The problem as I see it is this !! If only the extravagent claims made by the sellers of some camping gear were correct furious If so we would all be traveling a lot lighter and spending less money that we have done to get it all to work as well as it was claimed to do in the glossy brochures and salesman's BS.

-- Edited by Jaahn on Saturday 10th of October 2015 10:13:25 AM

meggsy · Veteran Member

Hi Macabee

Welcome to the site

What Jaahn has said is perfectly true most fridge units have a voltage cut out setting to protect the batteries the lowest setting from memory is 10.7 volts or thereabouts - not a recommended state of charge anything ( repeatedly occurring) below about 11.5 volts decreases the battery life by something like 50% . Its recommended to only discharge the battery ( except in an emergency ) to about 60% but remember that your battery depending upon age and charge/discharge cycling can be as low as 75% without degrading the terminal voltage on a reasonable load. So as everyone says its best to have a backup power source to charge your battery and if using a newer vehicle as the tow vehicle then a DC to DC charger to ensure the battery is proiperly charged by the tow vehicle -- their smart alternators do tend to restrict that function.

-- Edited by meggsy on Sunday 11th of October 2015 07:33:47 PM

Maccabee · Member

Hello Everyone that has answered my query on portable power pack to power fridge/freezer when free camping

I thank you for all your help and I am going with 2 No. 135 amp/hr batteries and I have a twin 120 w portable solar panel set up and a 2 Kva. Generator to assist if required

happy travelling

Maccabee

smile

dogbox · Guru

meggsy wrote:

Hi Macabee

Welcome to the site

What Jaahn has said is perfectly true most fridge units have a voltage cut out setting to protect the batteries the lowest setting from memory is 10.7 volts or thereabouts - not a recommended state of charge anything ( repeatedly occurring) below about 11.5 volts decreases the battery life by something like 50% . Its recommended to only discharge the battery ( except in an emergency ) to about 60% but remember that your battery depending upon age and charge/discharge cycling can be as low as 75% without degrading the terminal voltage on a reasonable load. So as everyone says its best to have a backup power source to charge your battery and if using a newer vehicle as the tow vehicle then a DC to DC charger to ensure the battery is proiperly charged by the tow vehicle -- their smart alternators do tend to restrict that function.

-- Edited by meggsy on Sunday 11th of October 2015 07:33:47 PM

the low voltage cut out is to protect the fridge more than to protect the batteries