Helping Dad power 4 freezers during outages

Dad lives alone and in a rural part of Ohio and has frequent power outages that last 5-7 days.

I got him 20 used 250W panels from Santan solar.

I gave him my MPPSolar 1012LV all in one and he connected it to 3 panels in parallel.

Built him a 4s2p stack of 280Ah eve cells so 12V 560Ah with a JBD 100Amp BMS.

Problem is the surge is too much and trips the inverter giving the fault of inverter overload.

He has 4 chests freezers he stores his food in (don't ask why so many he's old and crazy!)

He says the inrush start of each freezer is ~1900W and 2600W at full rotor lock. but they run at about 95-100W each after that.

I'm not rich but would like him to be able to leave home and not worry about losing everything.

I was hoping to find a cost effective system or solution that offers the plug and play ease of the all in one.

Thanks for the help

Soft start modules are not cheap, but probably cheaper than a new inverter.
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DENWA said:

He has 4 chests freezers he stores his food in (don't ask why so many he's old and crazy!)

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It's amazing how often I bump into 80+ year old widowers wanting solar to back up thier 3 or more deep freezes. When I call them out on it they readily acknowledge that it's not practical but refuse to give them up.

If it is just for energy out situations, I would think a generator would be the way to go.

For what it's worth, my 20+ year old low frequency Trace SW4024 on a system with less than half the battery and solar capacity that you listed, easily starts 2 chest freezers, sometimes both at nearly the same time. One is used as my fridge, the other is used as a freezer.

My inverter is on 24/7 and rarely does my 100 AH battery go below 60% overnight. I am 100% off grid.

So you could look for something similar and being older, you could find it at a good price? Basically, look for a low frequency inverter capable of double your loads surge current, maybe individually?

It kind of burns my butt that new inverter mfgs never really talk about or provide evidence of exactly what their inverters can and cannot run and so many people are buying inadequate inverters based only on misinformation and or hype and the false thinking that an inverter is an inverter is an inverter.

Danke said:

If it is just for energy out situations, I would think a generator would be the way to go.

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Yes but he has to home to start it. The automatic start propane models are >$9k installed. plus they don't deliver propane out his way.

DENWA said:

Yes but he has to home to start it. The automatic start propane models are >$9k installed. plus they don't deliver propane out his way.

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Everyone in that area heats with electricity?

E. Cho said:

For what it's worth, my 20+ year old low frequency Trace SW4024 on a system with less than half the battery and solar capacity that you listed, easily starts 2 chest freezers, sometimes both at nearly the same time. One is used as my fridge, the other is used as a freezer.

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I have a 25 yr old dual SW4048 set up and they are simply tanks.

Don B. Cilly said:

Soft start modules are not cheap, but probably cheaper than a new inverter.
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Neither is a better solution to just buying modern freezers that are WAY more energy efficent with much less startup. I think mine are under 500w startup. I run 2.

Well, a quite decent soft starter will cost you ~$250. How much would a modern freezer do? Or a LF inverter?
Because, if they run at ~100W after start.... 7-8 kWh of batteries...
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I forgot about your all in one plug and play comment. My Trace SW4024 inverter plus Victron charge controller are separate but incredibly simple to install and while I haven't used an all in one, I'm not sure how my set up could not be simpler. But my reason for this comment is because of a failure of a part. If some part of the all in one fails, does the entire unit need to be replaced?

Am I wrong with my impression that the inverters in many lower cost all in ones are also not low frequency inverters, maybe not in more expensive ones too? Few YouTubers like Will review them and their capacity to power certain loads and are not rigorously tested if it is mentioned. It's often just assumed that any inverter will start / run any appliances or tools or machines?

My original Outback FM80 solar charge controller failed 6.5 months ago but the inverter just kept working and I could use my diesel generator for battery charging until a new Victron solar charge controller was plugged in / connected within minutes of its arrival. Could not have been simpler. Same if the inverter died or the generator.

I wondered what the process would have been like with a "simple" all in one?

But dealing with Outback was horrendous for support and so has been dealing with GSL for the Chinese LiFePO4 battery support when the BMS shut down a friends same battery and GSL never did help and stopped communicating. Horrific support. They keep sending me emails to buy fancy expensive powerwalls or all in one's, and I'd like to tell them no way in hell as their support is based on lies and across the Pacific ocean and I no longer trust them after multiple horrible dealings with them and their BS and idiotic lack of support. They are an example of BS hype and an incredible lack of information and evidence to their claims. Never again and now I'm glad to not have an all in one which I once thought was cool. Here in Canada, our retail solar suppliers are few, extremely expensive and largely pathetic.

Buy two new efficient top load freezers with the capacity you need is probably the best answer.

Trying to build solar/battery/inverter to power inefficient old appliances is usually never the best path.

Instead of connecting all of the freezers to the all-in-one, consider getting separate inverters. Some no-name inverters that can handle 2000W surge can be had for around $200. The downside of going this route is that each inverter will have an idle power draw of around 50 watts. If you have enough battery storage to handle the additional power draw, this might be the cheaper way to go. This also gives the entire system some redundancy. If one inverter fails, the other ones will keep working.

Danke said:

Everyone in that area heats with electricity?

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heating oil for some my dad burns wood.

jwelter99 said:

Buy two new efficient top load freezers with the capacity you need is probably the best answer.

Trying to build solar/battery/inverter to power inefficient old appliances is usually never the best path.

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these freezers aren't very old maybe 5 yrs. I'm sure new ones maybe inverter type but these are energy star appliances.

JWLV said:

Instead of connecting all of the freezers to the all-in-one, consider getting separate inverters. Some no-name inverters that can handle 2000W surge can be had for around $200. The downside of going this route is that each inverter will have an idle power draw of around 50 watts. If you have enough battery storage to handle the additional power draw, this might be the cheaper way to go. This also gives the entire system some redundancy. If one inverter fails, the other ones will keep working.

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No name inverters usually don't have the ATS to switch load to/from grid. So they would be running on battery all the time and or require external SCC/ATS circuitry.

Pretty easy to power 4 freezers. I am currently powering 2 fridges and a freezer + ductless minisplit, 2 tv's microwave, washer, light and celling fans. Start out with storage then inverter and finally how many panels you will need to recharge your batteries.