Rick Unplugged
New Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2022
- Messages
- 42
Hi all, new member here, fairly solid in the basics around solar due to an electricity knowledgeable background, but new to actually building solar systems, so don't know all that much about the ins and outs of specific available hardware etc.
Hi Will, thanks so much for all you do! So much appreciated.
Question: Are there inverters that automatically start up, meaning, produce 240V, as soon as they get connected to 12V? I mean without manually pressing any buttons etc.
Reason I am after this:
I am running a chest freezer as a fridge; I simply use a relay to cut the power to the freezer when a temp sensor inside the freezer goes below the temperature I want. Boom, DIY "chest fridge". This has been working very well for a year and a half, and is consuming about 15% OF the power that a standup fridge of the same dimensions would use - thanks to the fact that due to the chest format, all the expensive cold air doesn't just fall out as soon as you open the door (as is the case with standup fridges), and thanks to the freezer having better insulation than fridges normally do. The compressor only runs for maybe 5 minutes every hour or so; up to 10 minutes on very warm days, which is rarely where I live.
Now I want to run this same setup off a 12V battery bank (powered by 3 x 160W panels) via a 240V inverter.
Most of the time, the chest-freezer-turned-fridge is the only device that will consume electricity from this solar setup, so the standby power consumption of the inverter would be much higher than I can accept. I can't have the standby consumption of the inverter 24/7 while most of that time no device actually needs 240V power.
So I want the inverter to start up automatically only when the fridge needs power, without me manually pushing a "restart" button or similar; and to shut down when the fridge doesn't need power.
So my questions are:
1. Are there any 240V inverters that are half affordable, that provide around at least 1kw or better 2kw constant power output, AND that power on automatically every time they get connected to 12V? Or do most of them do this? If a self restarting inverter like that exists, I can simply move the relay that currently cuts 240V to my chest freezer to between the battery bank and the inverter, and obviously replace it with a hefty high current relay.
2. If there aren't auto starting inverters - how can this best be achieved?
I can't have the inverter eating huge percentages of my solar power every day, while the freezer compressor only runs ten minutes per hour at most.
I would prefer not to convert the freezer to 12V - it is expensive, and also I like to keep things as much "off the shelf" as possible so they are easily replaced if / when they break.
Will, I couldn't find an answer to this question on your channel or web page so far - if I have overlooked that, please accept my apologies, I would appreciate a quick pointer to the right video.
Keep doing your great work! Keep being awesome everyone! Be well!
Rick
Hi Will, thanks so much for all you do! So much appreciated.
Question: Are there inverters that automatically start up, meaning, produce 240V, as soon as they get connected to 12V? I mean without manually pressing any buttons etc.
Reason I am after this:
I am running a chest freezer as a fridge; I simply use a relay to cut the power to the freezer when a temp sensor inside the freezer goes below the temperature I want. Boom, DIY "chest fridge". This has been working very well for a year and a half, and is consuming about 15% OF the power that a standup fridge of the same dimensions would use - thanks to the fact that due to the chest format, all the expensive cold air doesn't just fall out as soon as you open the door (as is the case with standup fridges), and thanks to the freezer having better insulation than fridges normally do. The compressor only runs for maybe 5 minutes every hour or so; up to 10 minutes on very warm days, which is rarely where I live.
Now I want to run this same setup off a 12V battery bank (powered by 3 x 160W panels) via a 240V inverter.
Most of the time, the chest-freezer-turned-fridge is the only device that will consume electricity from this solar setup, so the standby power consumption of the inverter would be much higher than I can accept. I can't have the standby consumption of the inverter 24/7 while most of that time no device actually needs 240V power.
So I want the inverter to start up automatically only when the fridge needs power, without me manually pushing a "restart" button or similar; and to shut down when the fridge doesn't need power.
So my questions are:
1. Are there any 240V inverters that are half affordable, that provide around at least 1kw or better 2kw constant power output, AND that power on automatically every time they get connected to 12V? Or do most of them do this? If a self restarting inverter like that exists, I can simply move the relay that currently cuts 240V to my chest freezer to between the battery bank and the inverter, and obviously replace it with a hefty high current relay.
2. If there aren't auto starting inverters - how can this best be achieved?
I can't have the inverter eating huge percentages of my solar power every day, while the freezer compressor only runs ten minutes per hour at most.
I would prefer not to convert the freezer to 12V - it is expensive, and also I like to keep things as much "off the shelf" as possible so they are easily replaced if / when they break.
Will, I couldn't find an answer to this question on your channel or web page so far - if I have overlooked that, please accept my apologies, I would appreciate a quick pointer to the right video.
Keep doing your great work! Keep being awesome everyone! Be well!
Rick