I’m interested in running only a new energy star single door fridge and need to know the info on solar to run only the fridge.
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Since you failed to give any specifics, this is a general idea of what is needed, assuming a "standard" home type refrigerator!
1. take wattage of refrigerator, and add 50% to cover starting surge.
2. buy inverter large enough to start and run fridge, and determine amperage required.
3. buy enough batteries for inverter to handle a full 24 hours of running fridge, (measured in amp/hours)
4. buy appropriate charge controller for batteries
5. buy sufficient panels to generate at least twice, preferably 3 times, what is drawn from batteries to run inverter, since they only supply power during the daylight hours.
NOTE: it will require MORE than a single panel to run ANY large appliance.
To measure the power consumption of an appliance I recomend using a Kill-a-Watt unit:
http://www.aurorapower.net/products/categoryid/5/list/1/level/a/productid/22.aspx
Once you know the usage of the fridge you can select an inverter and panels to meet that usage. If you have stable grid power I recommend grid tieing the inverter so you wont need batteries.
Just guessing the value for the fridge I would estimate:
**If on grid:
200w inverter with a 200W panel to run in the spring and early summer
- or -
400w inverter with two 200W panels to run year round.
**If off grid:
500W inverter with a 200W panel to run in the spring and early summer
- or -
500W inverter with two 200W panels to run in the spring and early summer
(Note that if your fridge is in a heated house you may need to have 3 or 4 panels during the winter)
If you do the off grid setup I would recommend getting a charge controller to protect your batteries: http://www.aurorapower.net/products/list/1/categoryid/13/level/a.aspx
If you need assistance sizing a system or selecting components Aurora Power & Design can help: http://www.aurorapower.net/contact-us.aspx
Hope that helps!
1or 2 160W solar panels should be sufficient, depends on how sunny it is in your area.
Hey real good question.
it depend on follwing thing
1. how much electricity fridge consumes ( got to monitor that!)
2. Geographical location of where you live as solar energy is diffrent in diffrent part of world.
3. number of sunny days/hours you get
4. location of solar panel installation.
how ever i guess it’s possible, as people runnig their all household appliances using solar energy.
for more information
try this review
http://www.review-ant.com/GreenEnergyProductsReviews/
one of the products reviewed here has a solar calculator to find out how much energy you need and how to produce it using solar panel
good luck
One large enough to run when the sun doesn’t shine.