New member

[Erniedu]

Hello everyone
My first experience with solar was 30+ years ago when I installed a small solar array on my island cabin in N. Wisconsin. The battery array consisted of 2 golf cart batteries and served my purposes well, suppying enough power for lighting and a radio.
Now I have recently completed a somewhat larger system for a recently built off grid cabin in S Wisconsin. It is performing quite well.
The cabin is used intermittently, usually on weekends. It has a 500 watt array and a 2200wt inverter fed by 4 golf cart batteries. When I get to the cabin the batteries are usually fully charged. I use a countdown timer to shut off the inverter in case I forget to turn off something. (I also use timers on some of the individual circuits.) I also use a three way selector switch to power larger appliances so that only one can be energized at a time.
I am considering installing a small 12V refrigerator or cooler connected in a new circuit off the battery bank. I would connect it through a low voltage cutout switch set at 12.5 or so volts. This theoretically would utilize my excess energy and keep a few beers cold for my arrival!
Question: Is this a good idea and what would be a good cutout voltage for the relay.?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

useful links for leisure time:





Please do no include links like that on this forum. Additional links will get you banned for life.

[solar pete]

Hi Erniedu, welcome to Solar Panel Talk, I'm no off grid expert but there are others about the place who are who may chime in, cheers

[littleharbor2]

Depending on the type of 12 volt refer they are quite efficient or very inefficient. The RV style 12 volt models can tax your system quite heavily. There are super efficient types out there. They are quite expensive as well. When you put it into service keep an eye on your system voltage to see how it is handling the refer. Could be you need to add another panel and a couple more batteries.

BTW, you want to try to have about10% of your battery amp hour rating in charging power. Now it sounds like you have around 420 amp hours so you should have about 40 amps of charging power. Add 2 more batteries and you need 60 - 65 amps. This ensures your batteries get a vigerous enough charge to keep the electrolyte from stratifying.and crystalizing on the plates.