Hi,
I have a really tiny cabin. I have 2 X 260w panels on the roof which for the last 5 years have charged 2x 6v Trojan T105s. I have a 300w Victron inverter.
For the first couple of years, I just ran led lights, charged phones and laptops. Then I got an old fridge and added that to the system, a freebie from marketplace. Worked fine for three years, till a month ago.
Then the inverter started cutting out. Couldn't find enough power I guess to start the fridge compressor. It worked at night, but in the day, despite the input from the panels, it failed. I guessed the batteries were on their way out, not working so well when they get warm.
So I bought a Lanpwr 100ah lithium battery. Charged it up. Worked great for a few hours. Now I get the same shenanigans from the inverter, cutting out when the fridge tries to start the compressor.
I can see from the battery app that when the fridge runs it uses 30w. And now when it fails to start up, it's draws 500w for a few seconds till then inverter quits trying.
I thought the lithium battery would be capable of putting out more power than the lead acid batteries. And I'm surprised at the 500w draw from the fridge. (The fridge is a standard domestic Miele fridge).
Is the fridge too old? Do I need to buy a bigger inverter (I also have a cheap Lvyuan 600w inverter that didn't get the fridge going away all). How about some kind of soft start gadget?
I thought I was simply upgrading my battery and it would be so easy!
Thanks for reading.
I have a really tiny cabin. I have 2 X 260w panels on the roof which for the last 5 years have charged 2x 6v Trojan T105s. I have a 300w Victron inverter.
For the first couple of years, I just ran led lights, charged phones and laptops. Then I got an old fridge and added that to the system, a freebie from marketplace. Worked fine for three years, till a month ago.
Then the inverter started cutting out. Couldn't find enough power I guess to start the fridge compressor. It worked at night, but in the day, despite the input from the panels, it failed. I guessed the batteries were on their way out, not working so well when they get warm.
So I bought a Lanpwr 100ah lithium battery. Charged it up. Worked great for a few hours. Now I get the same shenanigans from the inverter, cutting out when the fridge tries to start the compressor.
I can see from the battery app that when the fridge runs it uses 30w. And now when it fails to start up, it's draws 500w for a few seconds till then inverter quits trying.
I thought the lithium battery would be capable of putting out more power than the lead acid batteries. And I'm surprised at the 500w draw from the fridge. (The fridge is a standard domestic Miele fridge).
Is the fridge too old? Do I need to buy a bigger inverter (I also have a cheap Lvyuan 600w inverter that didn't get the fridge going away all). How about some kind of soft start gadget?
I thought I was simply upgrading my battery and it would be so easy!
Thanks for reading.