I'm looking at getting some more equipment this year and was wondering if it was possible to link a solar panel to a cold box that usually plugs into the car lighter socket.
It's been spoken about a few times but I can't find specifics.
Cool boxes use a LOT of power, so you would need a solar panel the size of a garage roof to run it. Then you would need every day to be bright and sunny.
Probably best to use a portable compressor fridge, linked to a leisure battery, using a couple or more 150watt solar panels, but you would still be using more power than you are generating, over 3 days or so.
Another alternative would be to get a Goal Zero Yeti 3000, solar generator which can be topped up from the solar panels, but more importantly will keep your portable compressor fridge going for a couple of weeks or so, but a Yeti is going to cost.
We use a Waeco CF25 compressor fridge, and run that of the car battery via the in car 12v outlet set to permanent supply, the Waeco has built in battery protection, so you will always be able to start the car, running a fridge this way, means solar panel not required, we have run our fridge in the car this way for over a month or so.
Thermoelectic cool boxes are very inefficient using ~100Ah per day so totally unsuitable.
A small portable 12V fridge uses around 12Ah per day at ambient temperature. A little more if it's opened regularly and filled with items to chill, e.g drinks etc. so say 20AH per day.
It's a lot less efficient to use an inverter as often the inverter is powered all the time even then the compressor doesn't run. So 240V fridges are out!
On a cloudy day you should get a little over 1A per hour from a 100W panel so you'd need ~200W of panel to hold your ground and generate 20+ AH
A large leisure battery with a 100W solar should last a week if you're not using it for other purposes and if you get one sunny day that would make a huge difference with a lot of charge in the battery.
However as I said, not cheap.
Fridge £400
Leisure battery £120+
Solar panel(s) and good controller £300
This is something I do plan to experiment with as I'd like to remove the reliance on hookup to run a fridge, lights and charge phones etc.
Yep Glamper Granny, the Yeti 3000 does not come cheap, partly as it uses 281 Lithium ion 18650 cells to store it’s energy, the same cells are used in the Tesla cars although they use over 4000 off them per car.
Good news is that Solar generators like the Yeti 3000 are set to come down in price as the technology evolves.
The cost of Lithium ion cells is dropping each year, Tesla/Panasonic 2170 cells as used in the Tesla Model 3 are not only cheaper to produce but also have increased energy density.
Tesla have recently acquired Maxwell Technologies for $240m which will result in cells costing around half what they do now and again with increased energy density, and longer service life of the cells say 25 years or more.
Give it a few years, and something like the Yeti 3000 will be well under a £1000.
I've got Lithium batteries on my everyday wheelchair now - SUCH a difference! I used to be charging daily on Nicad, now it's weekly or even longer. My old off-road PowerTrike was on lead acid cells up until last year when I finally took the plunge and got a Li-Ion. Oh my word what a difference!
Yep Lithium ion cells have opened up a whole new world out there, I can’t help noticing the massive increase in ebikes that you see around, all powered by these little cells.
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Topic: Solar panel to run 12v cold box
