Off grid refrigeration

[Hedges]

Water freezes/thaws at 0C 32F. At that temperature, meat and vegetables are mush and ice cream is melted.
Brine is tunable to your desired temperature. It is also how ice cream is traditionally made.
Food and ice would warm up more linearly over time, but with brine should pause at its temperature until all melted.

I have a deep freeze which converted itself to refrigerator (always runs, temperature varies with ambient.) Plan to try recharging refrigerant.

I have a side-by-side I converted to all freezer. Replaced electromechanical thermostat on fridge side to one of freezer range, and removed baffle for more air circulation. Works fine.

 

[namesgolden]

Why in the bottom? on the top wouldn't have been more efficient? Cold goes down...

It's just thermal mass. If you want to move the water everytime you need something out of the freezer or have it crush everything under it, by all means put it on top.

 

[Arctic Taco]

Lots of different options for refrigeration these days. Currently during the summer I have AC power at work -week on week off, so I just freeze 1qt juice bottles and use them for ice cubes in a Coleman extreme and keep it in the shade on the porch, also cook up a lot of bulk foods, soups and stuff and freeze them while at work and put them in the ice chest as well.
My cabin is all DC power with about 250 watts worth of used panels and 8-104 ah used AGM batteries. minimal inverter use-cheap truck stop Cobra 800w that is hardwired to the fuse panel and has a shutoff switch.
Lighting is 12v auto LED fixtures.

Future upgrades are to include a dorm sized fridge, I will install a Multi voltage Danfoss smart compressor, for weekly use adding additional foam insulation to the exterior.
On the power side- adding an additional 300 w worth of panels and an Prius Air40 wind generator and upgrade to a Morning star MPPT charge controller and reconfigure the battery bank to 24V , for an inverter Samlex I thin. Plan to direct wire a couple Blue Sea fuse panels for 12 v loads and see how that works.

Long story short, depending on your uses there are lots of options. DC appliances aren’t cheap but there is a power conversion savings as opposed to using the AC created by your inverter. If you are going to cut the cord with the utility, there are quite a few practical lifestyle changes in your future, sadly the days of being disengaged how things work are over. You can go big and size a system to support the standard wasteful ‘American Dream’ of a house, it will have a pretty high front end cost. On the plus side you will get much more involved chasing down wasteful use and educated on what it takes to make stuff work as your own power company and that is the best part.

 

[NickSpadaro]

Recently we upgraded our cooler set-up to a 5cufoot chest freezer with an Inkbird ITC-308 thermostat. I should have got to this years ago. Even without power, frozen jugs stay frozen twice as long as in our Rtic cooler. This freezer was less money than the rtic cooler! In the summer i'm sure we will plug it in and I will be able to get a better idea of how much power we are pulling on a daily basis to keep it at 40 degrees, but right now in the winter (in NH) I can put 2 gallon water jugs outside to freeze and just switch them out every week (used to be every 2 to 3 days).

 

[AlaskanNoob]

We have a 13 cubic foot DC powered Sundanzer plugged into our Yeti 3000. It sips energy. Super efficient. Of course we're in Alaska where it doesn't get hot so that probably helps. Looking forward to filling it up with a moose this next season...

DCF400 - SunDanzer

400L Freezer 12V/24V or 48V

sundanzer.com

 

[rin67630]

Of course we're in Alaska where it doesn't get hot so that probably helps.

You could sell a fridge to an Eskimo, couldn't you?

 

[AlaskanNoob]

You could sell a fridge to an Eskimo, couldn't you?

For sure. One problem with many freezers including the Sundanzer is they can't operate below freezing because it freezes the coolant. I had hoped our cold weather in the winter would save us energy. Instead, I'm digging a root cellar to keep the freezers above freezing so they can freeze the food down to ambient temps in the winter. Kind of ironic.

I did see an AC powered chest freezer from Midea that can operate in below freezing temps. I need to study up on how they do that and see if there is a DC powered version...

 

[Realmaplesyrup]

Thermal mass is key. I bought a chest freezer & put 6x 1gal jugs of water in the bottom & I could not get them frozen with the power I have. So I bought $60 worth of ice & "kick started" it. Now I rotate 2 of those jugs into a cooler daily & thats my fridge. As I get more frozen food I try to give the ice to my neighbors.

I really like the top of the freezer for food prep. I plan on getting a 2nd one & converting it to a fridge. Then both will be counter tops in my kitchen. I'll probably put drawers under them to raze them some. Other than that I really like the way they work.

This is an excellent idea. Using chest freezers as countertop space.

 

[MrBox]

I used to be totally worried about conversion losses do not get me wrong but living with the stuff in the real world for 3 years (all be it part time) I have come to realize they really are not that bad and can easily be overcome with more panels and more battery. Consider $300.00 for a standard freezer or $1200 or more for a DC freezer. I can get panels for $.33 per watt so that $900.00 can get me 2500 watts of panels or more. But of course there is added cost in larger SCC and what have you that's why I said about 1000 watts above.

Where do you get panels at that price?

 

[Bud Martin]

Where do you get panels at that price?

ddi you check out SanTanSolar? Many members here buy from them used and new.

New Solar Panels | SanTan Solar

store.santansolar.com

 

[MrBox]

No, I hadn't. I'm new to solar and all. Thanks for the tip

 

[Solorguy]

After 4/5 Gas frigs, we went AC when our Crystal Cold Amish unit failed a second time after we had replaced the back.. Happy now, 3 years on with LG 20-220, I tested 144 hours, result was 42 watt draw. It is a tier one Energy Star and has come down in price to about $800. The saved $$ will more than buy panels to run it. It is very quite, soft start motor, took out ice maker

 

[Hedges]

For sure. One problem with many freezers including the Sundanzer is they can't operate below freezing because it freezes the coolant. I had hoped our cold weather in the winter would save us energy. Instead, I'm digging a root cellar to keep the freezers above freezing so they can freeze the food down to ambient temps in the winter. Kind of ironic.

I did see an AC powered chest freezer from Midea that can operate in below freezing temps. I need to study up on how they do that and see if there is a DC powered version...

So Sundanzer could sell a freezer to an Eskimo?

I realized recently that a refrigerator/freezer isn't going to be able to keep frozen food frozen in cold weather, because it only turns on when the refrigerator thermostat gets above its set-point.

Hard to believe the "freezing coolant" thing. A freezer compresses refrigerant on the hot side, lets it expand to make cold. So it seems to be able to handle temperatures as cold as the freezer setpoint. Maybe one of the HVAC guys here can weigh in.

 

[z80]

Just buy a ne w 240v fridge with one of the new electronically driven compressors.
My samsung 280 litre fridge uses 40 watts on full sing and makes ice cubes in an hour.
My Toshiba laptop uses more...

 

[Primal1]

Could you suggest some of the ones you would recommend? Im just getting a system set up in my van. 400w solar and 276ah lithium. A fridge is the one thing Im really on the fence. Don’t want to have to spend $1k on a DC fridge if A $100-200 dorm fridge or freezer converted will do the trick. Thanks

I just swapped in a new fridge with a separate door and freezer to replace my old smaller dorm fridge that was 20 hears old. The new 3.2 ft unit is pulling 47 watts. Its Artic King brand made by Midea. Walmart shipped it free, total price 166.00 bucks.

 

[boondox]

I'm on the hunt for a good 12V fridge for a small teardrop style camper.

I use a Dometic CFF45 in my van. Works great and easy on power.

At home (off grid) I just use regular fridges and freezers. We have one regular fridge, one small fridge and a chest freezer. I don't think it is worth it at all for fancy "off grid" fridges/freezers. I'd rather sink that money into the power system itself.

 

[Roc off-grid in Quebec]

While I was building my solar power plant I purchased this mini-fridge because it was ULTRA efficient. Now that I have loads of power my only desire for a big hog is to make this silly ass hole in my kitchen look right.
I really like this refrigerator. Just something to consider. It consumes less than 1kwh/day. It is 10cuft.

Danby 10 cu.ft. Apartment Size Refrigerator - DFF100C1WDB | Danby USA

This apartment-sized refrigerator by Danby is second to none when it

www.danby.com

Thanks for the info! I only have space for a condo size fridge so this could work for me.

 

[Roc off-grid in Quebec]

Hey there. I have been living off grid now for almost 3 years. Full description of my current system plus planned updates in Newcomers section. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/introducing-myself.8173/

I found converting a cheap secondhand chest freezer to a fridge super easy by using an Inkbird ITC308 as a simple temperature controller in the power line. Set it to maintain between 35F & 39F and no further mods needed.
https://www.ink-bird.com/products-temperature-controller-itc308.html This is used to store bulk foods and important stuff like beer and wine

In the kitchen I use a Dometic lpg fridge for day to day stuff https://www.dometic.com/en/se/produ...rs/rv-refrigerators/dometic-rge-2100-_-207224

Hope this helps

Awesome!

 

[Roc off-grid in Quebec]

ddi you check out SanTanSolar? Many members here buy from them used and new.

New Solar Panels | SanTan Solar

store.santansolar.com

Thanks for sharing!