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SOLAR POWERED REFRIGERATOR!

By Mjtrinihobby in Workshop > Solar 66,414 334 49 Featured

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About: Update 12 September 2017: A very special thanks to Sam Elder, a manager here at Instructables, who tracked down
the cause of my lost publications and fixed the issue. Take a bow Sam! More About Mjtrinihobby »

Intro: Solar Powered Refrigerator!

Here is an after the fact implementation of how I power my refrigerator from the sun. This
off grid system has been working great since may 2013. It is truly reassuring to know my
groceries are safely stored regardless of utility power.

I have ful lled the electrical code requirements (NFPA 70, TTS-171 Part 1) and power
utility mandates for my area. If you have to perform the same on your home, all relevant
certi cations and approvals are needed.

Remember for solar power systems, bigger is always better. Never go borderline else your
system will not be reliable for off grid applications.

Grid tie is NOT ALLOWED in my country. Also don't ever assume you will have utility
power during a nationwide disaster (bad weather, riots, energy rationing, terrorism etc).

Here is a detailed write up on how I solar powered my entire home:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Powering-My-...

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Step 1: The Refrigerator.

Ideally an inverter refrigerator is the best bet but my old refrigerator needs 300watts when
on. Basically any fridge will do but the more energy ef cient means a smaller solar setup is
needed.

There are the rare dc powered refrigerators that are actually more ef cient than the inverter
types. However should this unit fail on me, there are none sold in my country. I want to be
able to go to a store and buy a replacement or repair my unit if possible in the event of
failure.

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Step 2: The Solar Panels.

I use eight 225watt monocrystalline panels to power my home and by extension, the
refrigerator. They are wired 4 in series and 2 strings in parallel. I harvest up to 8kwh per
day with these panels.

Mounting the panels on the roof can be via manufacturer mounting solutions or you can
make your own with rigid pvc. I actually did a hybrid approach.

Here is how I perform cleaning of my panels"

https://www.instructables.com/id/Maintenance-cleani...

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Step 3: The Charge Controller.

I have an outback fm80 charge controller to route energy from the panels to the batteries.
Mppt chargers are more ef cient and economical for large solar systems.

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Step 4: The Batteries.

I use 16 lifepo4 batteries at 25.6v. They are all wired in parallel with an energy meter per
pair of batteries. Each battery has a switch for isolation. For the work I did on my battery
bank, please read: https://www.instructables.com/id/Lifepo4-solar-stor...

My refrigerator uses 1.2kwh per 24hour period. My battery bank has 4kwh capacity.

My country's climate is hot. Lead acid batteries, although cheaper, have failed in less than
10months of use. If your maximum temperature is below 25C then you should be able to
use lead acids. I have long abandoned lead acid technology in my home and car. Lifepo4 is
safe, powerful and environmentally friendly.

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Step 5: DC Distribution.

With the appropriate sized conductors, I have circuit breakers to protect all my components
and also provide easy isolation for maintenance.

The attached chart shows the conductors sizes for DC power.

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Step 6: The Inverter.

To get 120vac from 25.6vdc I have a 1000watt power bright pure sine wave inverter.
Always use pure sine wave especially for motor applications.

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Step 7: The AC Distribution.

I made a panelboard with din circuit breakers to get power to my house loads. I have a
breaker dedicated to the kitchen area. Since my refrigerator uses 2.5Amp the circuit
breaker for it is 6Amp single Pole. Here is how I built the panelboard:
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Circuit-breake...

Also in the panelboard I have an automatic transfer switch (ATS) shown at the bottom of
the pic. This switch is controlled by my home automation system which will switch to utility
power if the batteries get depleted.

My local power utility is actually my backup power source.

The control system for my home is detailed here:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-a-home-au...

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Step 8: Powering the Refrigerator.

The outlet for the fridge is protected with a motor protector. This is only needed should I
switch to utility supply. The inverter gives clean power.

So that is how I powered my refrigerator via the sun!

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49 Discussions

ChristianT75 Question 3 months ago

Answer / Upvote
Thank you very much for sharing all this information. Being in an off-grid region, I have already been using a
12 volt set-up , just for lights in the house. Works fine.
Now, i try to budget for the fridge. I'm a little confused with your description...
You talk about a 300w fridge. And after, you say : " My refrigerator uses 1.2kwh per 24hour period." , is it
possible ??? I understand do not work 24hs continuously. But 1200 wh / 24hs = 50w . Does this means that
it use only 50w / 300w = 16% of the time ???
Or is it that my knowledge is very bad, and so , please help me understand .
By the way , by any chance, do you know the fridge capacity ??? ( in gallons , liters ???)

1 more answer F

solargroovy2 years ago

Reply / Upvote
Very nice. Answers a lot of the questions that I have about a day-to-day system. I'm not comfortable though
with building my own transfer switch. I love that it is automatic and is something that has dis-satisfied me
with local solar vendors. Is there a commercial ATS that you could recommend? Are the requirements
different if you want to default to solar and use mains as the backup?
I couldn't tell from scanning your instructable what the profile is for failover.

3 replies F

GretchenT6 Question 6 months ago on Introduction

Answer / Upvote
I am looking for someone who has successfully developed a solar powered cooler that can be used for
keeping medicine or even infant formula fresh in areas of the world that have no access to refrigeration. Can
you adapt your instructions to help me accomplish this?

1 more answer F

adytiapco1 year ago

Reply / Upvote
hi, how much did it cost you to do this system? I want to do it for a small shed, that has a chest freezer, Tv
and lights.

baecker032 years ago

Reply / Upvote
is 1000 watts enough?

2 replies F

Xanderone21 year ago

Reply / Upvote
Pheew! Sadly, LifePO4 cells are a luxury in my area. I have thought of Li-ion as an alternative because I
should be able to salvage for cells in used laptop batteries, but then I'll also be wary. I've mistakenly shorted
a Li-ion cell during a tweak and I wouldn't imagine having hundreds of it hanging on a wall in my home. AGM
has less lifespan but that's what's affordable, easily accessible and readily available. I'll have to check your
other 'ible on the entire solar set up. Good job.

ArpitK131 year ago

Reply / Upvote
Thanks for such a nice technology to save electricity which was used to another required task and this solar
powered refrigerator can cool things for us by solar energy.
http://newmeditech.com/featured/solar-powered-refrigerator/

hobotraveler2 years ago

Reply / Upvote
Super Insulation can make this simpler in my opinion. I am in Africa a lot, about 3-4 months per year. By the
way ,about 1/5 the planet lives off the grid. And, they have freezers, seldom have fridges. But I am going to
do an experiment soon for what I see, or call "super insulation." I am going to measure electrical use for 30
days as they use normal. The add about 2 foot thick insulation around the sides. They are the same as
Americans, they do not want things to look silly. Then make a night blanket about a food thick. This will cost
about 15 USD because they use some form of grass to make beds, not normal, but normal for the off grid
1.5 billion. The off-grid are just in time eating.... Here is a too expensive, but great idea, using thermal mass,
or the cooling of the earth method, very old tech, just forgotten, nothing new. There has been in the ground
cellars for cooling since the beginning of time. Thanks, Andy Lee Graham of HoboTraveler.com - I am in
Tours France, and will go to Togo on August 15, 2016 again. http://mikeshouts.com/groundfridge-
underground-ref...

1 reply F

art15an2 years ago

Reply / Upvote
one perspective I would like to share is that the cost/payback rate of solar should not necessarily be looked
at as a benefit, because it largely seems to be a detractor. Solar is expensive, can be very expensive, but
the cost of not going solar is eventual and increasingly fast-paced destruction of the environment caused by
an increasing reliance on dirty fuels and energy sources. You can finance a $17,000 (us$) car for about
$250 a month, which is not cheap, but people do it all the time, and in fact people finance much more pricey
vehicles all the time. You can buy you solar set up in chunks. Save for a few months and buy the distribution
components, then later the panels, etc. I know this is not the most convenient, but it makes it feasible. You
can also down size the system and make it modular, so the it can be expanded upon later; buy the
components that have to be for a larger system, then only buy a couple batteries, maybe one solar panel,
then later add other panels, batteries, and so on. To give you an example of the effectiveness of this
method, I make less than $20,000 annually, I pay about $1,500 in monthly expenses, which includes car
cost mentioned earlier, and over the course of the last six months I have saved approximate $700 to build a
homemade CNC mill. I opened a savings account at a new bank, that has no transaction capabilities. $35
from every paycheck, from each of my 2 jobs, gets automatically deposited into the account, and unless I go
to the bank to withdraw it, I don't have access to it. Any payment from any side jobs I do to make extra cash
gets deposited here as well. So, every few months, I make a larger purchase towards my CNC mill. The
same principle can be applied to the purchase of a solar power solution. When looked at like this it becomes
a simple matter of timing and patience. I hope this helps.

1 reply F

onesimpleidea2 years ago

Reply / Upvote
Agree with all the positive comments about the Instructable. The best feature was the periodic links to
stages of the system in other Instructables.
One nagging question: Considering your self-stated payback period is over 20 years, and that isn't even
really accurate because your batteries will die and need to be replaced long before that, why did you build
this system?

1 reply F

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