Stand-alone chest freezer

[Bluedog225]

I’d like to try a little project this summer while it’s too hot to do anything else.

I want to get a chest freezer and run it as a battery cooler with off-grid solar. Or as a fridge. Once I get it going and stable, I’ll move it out to the cabin.

Materials:
-chest freezer-approx 7 cubic feet (buy)
-solar panels-approx 300 watt/45V (have)
-Mppt 150/35 victron (have)
-2x-12V Battle Born 100 ah. (have)
-4x-48V-100ah (current connected-pending delivery)
-Some kind of controller for the freezer. Johnson Control? (Need to research)
-Some small, very reliable, UL rated inverter. Big enough to also handle a mini-split later. I’m guessing 2000 watts minimum. I think I prefer a low frequency. (Need to buy)
-balance of system (have all the welding cable, fuses, lugs, crumpets, etc.)

Has anyone been down this road? I’m especially interested in how to wire up the Johnson controller.

 

[schmism]

Has anyone been down this road? I’m especially interested in how to wire up the Johnson controller.

you just buy the off the shelf temp controller and plug it in. Its $40
Your going to pay a ton of money for your inverter with those specs.
Looks like a mini split runs 2300 and up watts. My vote is a 3kw 24v growatt/mpp. You could buy 2 for the price of something that is going to meet your listed wants.

 

[Bluedog225]

Thanks. I was thinking the mini was in the 800 watt range.

 

[Leeds]

I'm curious to hear how your project works out.

I have a 7 cubic foot chest freezer I run as a vegetable refrigerator but I designed the system for efficiency and not for future expansion as you have. Also I am in Pennsylvania where the weather is a lot cooler than Texas so I am sure that you would need more energy to run your fridge than I do mine- But I wonder just how much that difference is.
Back when I was designing this system I found that if I ran my fridge at 42° in the midpoint of the chest I had about a 10% duty cycle in normal (for me) 80° weather and I sized the battery for that and built up from there.

I'd love to hear what the duty cycle is for a fridge run in the Texas heat. (And at what temperature you're targeting of course). Your design will have to be a lot more power than mine, of that I'm sure!

 

[anadiner]

I’d like to try a little project this summer while it’s too hot to do anything else.

I want to get a chest freezer and run it as a battery cooler with off-grid solar. Or as a fridge. Once I get it going and stable, I’ll move it out to the cabin.

Materials:
-chest freezer-approx 7 cubic feet (buy)
-solar panels-approx 300 watt/45V (have)
-Mppt 150/35 victron (have)
-2x-12V Battle Born 100 ah. (have)
-4x-48V-100ah (current connected-pending delivery)
-Some kind of controller for the freezer. Johnson Control? (Need to research)
-Some small, very reliable, UL rated inverter. Big enough to also handle a mini-split later. I’m guessing 2000 watts minimum. I think I prefer a low frequency. (Need to buy)
-balance of system (have all the welding cable, fuses, lugs, crumpets, etc.)

Has anyone been down this road? I’m especially interested in how to wire up the Johnson controller.

I’d like to try a little project this summer while it’s too hot to do anything else.

I want to get a chest freezer and run it as a battery cooler with off-grid solar. Or as a fridge. Once I get it going and stable, I’ll move it out to the cabin.

Materials:
-chest freezer-approx 7 cubic feet (buy)
-solar panels-approx 300 watt/45V (have)
-Mppt 150/35 victron (have)
-2x-12V Battle Born 100 ah. (have)
-4x-48V-100ah (current connected-pending delivery)
-Some kind of controller for the freezer. Johnson Control? (Need to research)
-Some small, very reliable, UL rated inverter. Big enough to also handle a mini-split later. I’m guessing 2000 watts minimum. I think I prefer a low frequency. (Need to buy)
-balance of system (have all the welding cable, fuses, lugs, crumpets, etc.)

Has anyone been down this road? I’m especially interested in how to wire up the Johnson controller.

Well Ive been down this road... picked up a 7cuft freezer at walmart.com cheap. Ran into problem keeping it in the shed with extreme temps and high humidity. So, I moved that sucker outside in the shade and put my batteries in a mini shopping cart beside it.

Time crunch atm so limited comments.
1. My county has UL requirements so I bought a 24v cheapo inverter and hid behind shed. Im bit crazy bout fire hazards so picked up few welding blankets off Amazon.
2. General rule on running a low wattage compressor (like 5k a/c) is leave room for peak then give yourself bout 400wh.

Btw, I loaded mine with ice containers to alleviate strain then just left it on max.

Long story short:
Ppl do this for freezers a lot so its no biggy. Im one of those that likes multiple 24v inverters. Simply to not put all my ducks in 1 row. Im saying you have 2 battle borns. Could series those to a 24v and no worries.

Oh yea, general rule is 300watt panel per 100ah battery and 50hz inverter. Oh and I dont care much bout namebrand. Like ppl say Victron etc. For me, I just check what battery type my controller is compatible with and try use mppt.

Good luck. Keep us updated.

 

[OMG]

I’d like to try a little project this summer while it’s too hot to do anything else.

I want to get a chest freezer and run it as a battery cooler with off-grid solar. Or as a fridge. Once I get it going and stable, I’ll move it out to the cabin.

Materials:
-chest freezer-approx 7 cubic feet (buy)
-solar panels-approx 300 watt/45V (have)
-Mppt 150/35 victron (have)
-2x-12V Battle Born 100 ah. (have)
-4x-48V-100ah (current connected-pending delivery)
-Some kind of controller for the freezer. Johnson Control? (Need to research)
-Some small, very reliable, UL rated inverter. Big enough to also handle a mini-split later. I’m guessing 2000 watts minimum. I think I prefer a low frequency. (Need to buy)
-balance of system (have all the welding cable, fuses, lugs, crumpets, etc.)

Has anyone been down this road? I’m especially interested in how to wire up the Johnson controller.

I am running two 7 cubic foot freezers on a 400 watt array with 3 12 volt 115 ah deep cycle batteries and a 1500 watt true sine wave inverter.

 

[spuds]

. My vote is a 3kw 24v growatt/mpp.

Is this telling me that runs at 100 watts on standby!!?? Thats 1/2 of my 1200watts of panels summer power right there,i couldnt even run it in winter at standby?? Am I understanding that right? 2400 w/hrs a day??


Question:
What is the power consumption of the inverter with no draw on it?

Answer:

The power consumption is about 100w, mainly used for fans and electronic circuits.