Power Requirements

[Ansio]

Hello,

I run a food truck and I would appreciate any help with this problem.
Some of the places I sell will not allow a generator and I don

[SunEagle]

Hello Ansio and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

To help you understand how big of a solar / battery system you will need you first have to provide an estimate of your expected daily watt hour usage.

Next. If any of your loads are used for cooking or cooling your solar/battery system tends to get huge and very expensive. Using natural gas to heat or run an RV style fridge is a better solution.

[Sunking]

Then do not park your truck in those locations. A food truck is way beyond any solar application. You would have to have a 18-Wheel Tractor Trailer follow you around to hold all the solar panels and thousands of pounds of batteries required.

[jflorey2]

I run a food truck and I would appreciate any help with this problem.
Some of the places I sell will not allow a generator and I don

1) You can't run heating devices with solar or battery. Use propane.
2) If you want to run refrigeration/lights/cash register, then use batteries - a 12V system for up to about 1000 watts, 24 or 48 volts beyond that. You will likely need a new (or additional) alternator, but they're relatively cheap. Running your truck for a few hours will recharge the batteries. If that's not enough, either plug in to recharge or run a generator in some place where they allow it. (i.e. at night in a parking lot.)

[Ansio]

To help you understand how big of a solar / battery system you will need you first have to provide an estimate of your expected daily watt hour usage.

I guess this the part I am asking for help with. I know the energy star guide on the fridge says 303 KwH. my led lights are 40 watts. Not sure about the computer. I am not sure how to figure out how many KwH they all use over 6 hour period.

95% of the time I am parked at power. Its actually a trailer so no alternator.

[SunEagle]

I guess this the part I am asking for help with. I know the energy star guide on the fridge says 303 KwH. my led lights are 40 watts. Not sure about the computer. I am not sure how to figure out how many KwH they all use over 6 hour period.

95% of the time I am parked at power. Its actually a trailer so no alternator.

Well that 303kWh is a yearly usage for the fridge which can equal almost 1kWh a day for some days. And 40 watts of lights for 6 hours would be another 240watt hours (40w x 6 hours = 240wh).

Adding in the computer will probably come to ~ 1500watt hours a day.

So if we estimate worse case solar insulation at 3 hours per day you will need at least 500 watts of solar panels, with a 45amp MPPT Charge controller for a 12volt 300Ah battery along with an 800 watt pure sine wave inverter depending on what that fridge draws when the compressor kicks in.

[Sunking]

I guess this the part I am asking for help with. I know the energy star guide on the fridge says 303 KwH. my led lights are 40 watts. Not sure about the computer. I am not sure how to figure out how many KwH they all use over 6 hour period.

95% of the time I am parked at power. Its actually a trailer so no alternator.

Ok so that helps a lot. You have absolutely no need for Solar, unless you just want to spend an extra $1500 needlessly. As Jeff already explained you need a decent size alternator under the hood. Any decent Food Truck should already have this, if not get one. Then all you need is a decent set of Deep Cycle batteries which is required even if you had solar and a Electronic Battery Isolator to isolate your Starter battery from House battery. A good True Sine Wave Inverter and you are set.

Your batteries are charged whenever you drive the truck. When you get home and if you do not drive far just use a good Battery Charger when you get home and ready to go the next day. Much more reliable and a lot less expensive than anything solar can do for you. With a good battery charger at home with and decent Deep Cycle house batteries, you do not even need the alternator or Isolator. Your wallet and accountant can explain the benefits to you if you are having trouble understanding.

If it were me based on 1.5 Kwh per day, you need a good AGM 12 volt 375 AH battery which will be a pair of 6-volt 350 to 400 AH AGM batteries, a good 12 volt 40 to 60 amp AC powered battery charger, and a no more than a 1000 watt True Sine Wave Inverter. Whether you have Solar or not, the Battery, AC charger and Inverter are still required. If you are still thinking solar get over it. If you makes you fell better, just take 20 $100 bills and throw them in the fire place and burn for some heat. It might toast a piece of bread if you are lucky. Just do not tell your wallet or accountant about t as they will think you are nuts. To add solar will cost you an additional $2000 that buys you NOTHING.

A pair of Concorde PVX 3050 batteries, Samlex 12 volt 1000 Watt TSW Inverter, and an Iota DLS 55-12 Battery Charger are a match made in heaven for you.

If you do not like out answers I suggest you go over to the Northern AZ Wind and Sun Forum. They will fix you right up and sell you everything you need to go solar in your Food Truck. What they will not ell you is they will laugh all the way to the bank with you rmoney. Your Wallet and Accountant wil be pissied off if you do. But you will be tickled pink with the Pink Feather they include for FREE.

[Mike90250]

How do you get away with using an energy star fridge in commercial food service ? They don't have enough recovery capacity to be open and closed every 2 minutes?

Since you have a trailer, and only need the battery 5% of the time, forget solar. A bank of 4 golf cart batteries (6V 200ah, all in series yields 24V @ 200ah)
That's a cheap (about $450) 4800watt-hour battery. roughly assuming all your loads run 500W cont, that would give you about 8 hours before the batteries are deeply drained. Throw a $20 block of dry ice into the fridge, and it may not even kick on for 5 hours. Couple hundred bucks for a good 24V 1,200W pure sine inverter, and a 30A 24V battery charger and you would be all set.
You could fake out the masses, and for another $500, mount a PV panel on the roof and a PWM controller, and it looks like it's solar power, only you know it's getting 95% of it's charge off the grid, but the panel will maintain it while you are away, The single panel has NO HOPE of recharging the battery bank.

[Ansio]

How do you get away with using an energy star fridge in commercial food service ? They don't have enough recovery capacity to be open and closed every 2 minutes?

Since you have a trailer, and only need the battery 5% of the time, forget solar. A bank of 4 golf cart batteries (6V 200ah, all in series yields 24V @ 200ah)
That's a cheap (about $450) 4800watt-hour battery. roughly assuming all your loads run 500W cont, that would give you about 8 hours before the batteries are deeply drained. Throw a $20 block of dry ice into the fridge, and it may not even kick on for 5 hours. Couple hundred bucks for a good 24V 1,200W pure sine inverter, and a 30A 24V battery charger and you would be all set.
You could fake out the masses, and for another $500, mount a PV panel on the roof and a PWM controller, and it looks like it's solar power, only you know it's getting 95% of it's charge off the grid, but the panel will maintain it while you are away, The single panel has NO HOPE of recharging the battery bank.

Thanks for the info man.

I get away with the fridge because I do wood fired pizza. I have tried very hard to make the truck run without a generator. so the make lines are all ice and not electric. But the health inspector requires that I have a fridge so he let me use a non-commercial. I use it for extra product and pop cold. In a 5 hour day I open it maybe 3 times. Other wise it just sits there plugged in at home overnight.

In the restaurant I do use commercial fridge, Double door trues.

[Sunking]

How do you get away with using an energy star fridge in commercial food service ? They don't have enough recovery capacity to be open and closed every 2 minutes?.

Don't ask good questions Mike, it just confuses people and coupled with facts makes it even more confusing. As long as he has no Health Department regulations, license, or inspections to worry about. Who gives a crap if anyone gets sick or if it works or not? It is solar for Pete Sake?

That is why my first answer was honest and took that into account. Park somewhere else where he can run the generator. No Health Department would issue him a Permit or License using consumer appliances. Ice chest are fine. As you say Cold Tables and commercial Refrigeration do not have Energy Star ratings and no daily or yearly power ratings can be given. The dang things are open all day and would never keep anything cold unless they are built for it.

[dennis461]

Hello,

I run a food truck and I would appreciate any help with this problem.
Some of the places I sell will not allow a generator and I don

What country?

[jflorey2]

I guess this the part I am asking for help with. I know the energy star guide on the fridge says 303 KwH. my led lights are 40 watts. Not sure about the computer. I am not sure how to figure out how many KwH they all use over 6 hour period.

Easiest way is to plug the thing into a power meter for six hours. The Kill A Watt meter is about $20.

95% of the time I am parked at power. Its actually a trailer so no alternator.

You still have an alternator, it's just farther away. Run heavy gauge wire from your tow vehicle's alternator to your battery bank; you can use an Anderson connector if you want to make it easy to couple/decouple.