Off grid refrigerator

[Sunny Solar]

by the way I found all the electrical bills since January all say I consumed between 500 and 700 kWhin a 30 day period, I assumed kWh means kilowatts per hour..................thanks AZ
This I believe is his bigest problem..?? HOW?? Like I said I run a fridge 24/7 naturally a bedroom aircon .split type 10 hrs a day and use and instant hot water heater for shower and consume 220 kwh a month..

[Sunking]

Trust me if my electric bill was 1000.00 a month, I don't see how any one here can say that's cheaper than solar. Batteries need to be replaced but you cross that bridge when it arrives. I change batteries 3 times in 2 years

The price of his electric bill is irrelevant as all it is the amount of energy you used measured in Kwh. It just tells you how much you use and what it will take to replace it. Here in the USA battery cost alone is going to cost you 65-cents per kwh when you can buy all you want for 12-cents. But that assumes your batteries can last 5 years before replacement. With two replacements in three years you are paying well over $1 per Kwh when you can buy it for 12 cents.

That is information the OP needs to know in order for him/her to make a good informed decision. Otherwise 99% of the time, when you take something off grid you just volunteered for a 300 to 1000% rate increased payable every 5 years up front in cash.

So that is why Dave and I are being firm the OP needs to get his head wrapped around what is delivered price per Kwh he is paying to be able to determine if it is worth it or not. I bet he falls in line with the 99%

[jony101]

If you need a fridge to run on solar, get a 12 volt fridge. I had an edgestar fp430 (paid 400 dollars for it) that used 26 amps per 24 hours when set to 40 degrees. I ran it 24/7 on a 120 watt panel and 75 ah agm battery. If I had 2 or 3 cloudy days in a row the fridge would stop running at night from low battery but the food stayed cold till morning. I learned to keep only essentials in the fridge, like milk or cold cuts. But I had the small 43 liter fridge, they have a larger 80 liter one. They freeze also but that consumes more power.
Trust me if my electric bill was 1000.00 a month, I don't see how any one here can say that's cheaper than solar. Batteries need to be replaced but you cross that bridge when it arrives. I change batteries 3 times in 2 years and I still come up ahead in savings. I only change to upgrade to better quality batteries, the old batteries were still good.
I would stay away from the all-in-one solar kits, just get a large 240 watt or bigger panel (I bought mine used for 200 dollars), get an mppt controller I got the ecoworthy 20 amp model for 102 dollars, its chinese made but I been using it 24/7 for almost 2 years with no problem and its real mppt. Some cheap charge controllers say mppt but are fake. The good brand mppt cost over 200 dollars, the best are 400+ dollars. I get about 12 amps of charge power mounted flat on my roof. If you want to see what mppt to get go to youtube, they got good reviews on what are real and fake. Get a large battery so you can have reserve build up for cloudy days. I waste alot of available charging power because my battery is always floating by noon time.
Lot of people here in this "solar" forum rely too much on generator and on-grid power. I never connected a generator or shorepower to my battery, its 100 percent solar. I know from my own "real world" experience with solar, you can run a fridge on solar 24/7 but you might have to downsize your fridge to keep your solar power needs small. Getting a 12 volt fridge will be a good way to start your solar project and then build everything around it.
I definitely encourage you to go solar, its cheaper in the long run. But get a large panel so you can produce real power, you might get discourage with the small panels.

[Sunking]

A good assumption in the continental US. But it is possible that the OP is in fact paying more than that.

That is what I am fishing for. I cannot seem to dig it out. OP really needs to get a handle on that before making any decisions.

[inetdog]

...Let's say when all is said and done you pay the power company 50-cent per Kwh....

A good assumption in the continental US. But it is possible that the OP is in fact paying more than that.
Member paulcheung stated that his direct energy cost, before fuel and foreign exchange adjustments are added in is only 20% of his bill.
Let us say that his direct cost is 20 cents per kWh. That would make the total bill equivalent to $1.00 per kWh.
The OP, AZlink, states that his bill was for $19.80 in direct kWh charges and an additional $180 in fuel cost surcharges. That is almost 10 times the kWh rate. Without knowing directly what the official kWh rate is, I can say that the January $200 total bill for say 500kWh amounts to $.40 per kWh and the $1000 per month bill is more like $2.00 per kWh.

One thing that solar gives you in a situation like that is at least a predictable power cost amortized over a five year period.

[Sunking]

OK here is what you do not not quite grasp yet. Let's say when all is said and done you pay the power company 50-cent per Kwh. That means your fridge if it is top of the line efficiency use around 50 to 75 cents per day, or roughly or $15 to $22.50 per month, $270 per year? I doubt you have top of the line efficiency? Understand so far?

Now what you want to do is take that away from the power company and take it off-grid solar battery right? Are you doing that to save money? Not going to happen. To take anything off grid in your country is gong to cost 2 to 4 times more than you pay the power company for the rest of your life. That means instead of paying 50 to 75-cent per day for the fridge you will now pay $1 to $3 per day?

So why go off grid if you are trying to save money? Don't fool yourself, it is impossible for you to save money going off grid.

[paulcheung]

AZ,

The problem with off grid setup does not scale well, other wise we could help you to setup a small system to run your fridge and the TV.

When you ready for larger system, most of the components in the small setup won't be able to use back except the panels, you have to sell them or give them a way.

The fridge you mention is consuming too much energy, you need to get the compressor changed, I have mine changed because my usually draw about the same amount like yours. 5 to 6 amps at 110volts. I spend $250 US dollar to change the compressor, since then the fridge draw only 2 to 3 amps except when it defrost.

If you still want to start small know the problem for upgrade, then you can tell us so we can help you to setup a system for your need at the moment.

Cheers.

[AZlink]

AZLink I just dont see how you can be using 500 to 700 kwh a month???.. When im in Philippines We consume on average 220 kwh a month.. 270l fridge,1hp split aircon in bedroom on 10 hrs every night. instant hot water for showering.60" TV/video ..Lights are totally.from solar power.
solar setup 240w panels 2x100ah 12v"truck" batteries 1000w TSW inverter.
I can run the fridge from 8am to 4pm on electric company "repair " days.. There are many. Batteries will be still at 12.6v at 4pm.

Sunny that is exactly what the people are demanding the energy company, that there is over billing and abuse with the price of energy, since this fight goes for ever and no ending the only thing done last week was the new administration of the energy company announced another raised to the energy will be soon be applied, I can't afford those bills like I said before I have no meter in the house I use the generator for fridge and TV until I can figure how to start the solar thing on my own of course reading and learning from all of you advising and sharing your ideas...........AZ

[Sunny Solar]

AZLink I just dont see how you can be using 500 to 700 kwh a month???.. When im in Philippines We consume on average 220 kwh a month.. 270l fridge,1hp split aircon in bedroom on 10 hrs every night. instant hot water for showering.60" TV/video ..Lights are totally.from solar power.
solar setup 240w panels 2x100ah 12v"truck" batteries 1000w TSW inverter.
I can run the fridge from 8am to 4pm on electric company "repair " days.. There are many. Batteries will be still at 12.6v at 4pm.

[AZlink]

Have 2 generators, 1 is a noisy powermate Coleman 4,000 continuous watts and a 15,000 watts that only works with a electric starter but stater died and hard to find this Subaru V twin piston OHV, the Coleman I am doing some mods adding a small car muffler to lower the loud noise to mild noise...................thanks for the added info, very helpful indeed...
Paul great timing played to control battery consumption............AZ

[paulcheung]

The power company bill like that in Jamaica too, We don't have day time or night time rate, the power charge is controlled by the ministry of energy, power company can't change that rate unless it approved by the ministry, but they can charge you more any month when cruel oil price increases, also we have a foreign exchange adjustment too. The power charge is usually less than 20% of the total bill.

With off grid, you can work around the refrigerator consumption, I turn the freezer and the refrigerator to the coldest setting and run it in the day, and use the timer to turn them on and off during the day and night. I turn on the freezer and fridge at 8 am and turn the freezer off at 4 pm and put one hour on at midnight, the fridge on 8 am and off 8pm and also have one hour on after the midnight , so two of them not on the same time, it kind conserve the battery consumption in the night. my PV panels will power all the day load from 7:30 am to 5:30 in Summer and from 8 am to 4:30 pm in Winter. Cloudy days the generator or the grid do the work.

Cheers.

[Mike90250]

Figure a decent, efficient fridge will consume about 1.3 KWh per day. So that's what a PV system needs to provide, 365 days a year. The sunny days are not a problem, it the cloudy/rain season that gets you. In clouds, solar PV is basically useless.

Figure on about 5 hours of sun in good weather. Add up the load of the fridge 24/7, inverter losses, recharge efficiency and you need to harvest about 2.5KWh in the 5 hours. That's about 600W of array. Feed that into a 24V battery bank, inverter, fuses, circuit breakers, mounting rails, wire, hardware, charge controller, combiner boxes, lightning arrester, and the price tag gets pretty high, pretty quick. Add in battery maintenance, generator & it's maintenance, and you have a bill. And start saving again, because in 5-7 years, you are going to be buying new batteries again. No generator = dead batteries in 2 cloudy days, buy a new set soon.
That's the harsh reality of it.

[inetdog]

I live in Puerto Rico, the bill says 29 cent per killowatt then they use a formula no one knows how and there is where they say the fuel used to generate the kWh I consumed.........AZ

Sounds a lot like the airlines where they cannot raise ticket prices so they tack on an unpublished fuel surcharge that varies from month to month.
Only in this case the tail appears to be wagging the dog.

[AZlink]

How wmuch do you pay for a Kwh with fuel charges, and where do you live?

I live in Puerto Rico, the bill says 29 cent per killowatt then they use a formula no one knows how and there is where they say the fuel used to generate the kWh I consumed.
All those bills since January are 200$ 19.80$ kWh and 180.20$ of fuel, a few months a go energy company announced the price of energy was going to be raised and there was the 1,055.10 bill, I went to their office but they said that was the price they can't make any adjustment, what bothers me is that I have a daily pattern that doesn't change, I leave the house at 6am, everything is shut off, computer internet they only thing plugged is the fridge and don't come back before 6pm I don't have A/C I only use fan, weekends we stay home do the laundry watch satellite TV and Monday again not in the house,, in the radio news and media everyday theme is the price of energy without control, the business closed because can't afford the energy, so the problem is not just me, there is a political issue involved but I hate politics, my last resort will be going to state, maybe Texas where few of my family are and Indiana hate the cold but if I have to do a sacrifice I'll do it...thanks for the help and info, it is greatly appreciated.........AZ
Forgot to answer, the currency is U.S. dollar.

[Sunking]

Yes I am sure, I can't pay a thousand dollars monthly bill, I don't have a thousand dollar income, thanks for the replay with that formula, I will do this like my brother in-law did, buying everything one thing at a time until all was done, he lives at the very east of the island, by the way I found all the electrical bills since January all say I consumed between 500 and 700 kWhin a 30 day period, I assumed kWh means kilowatts per hour..................thanks AZ

How wmuch do you pay for a Kwh with fuel charges, and where do you live?