Solar panel and fridge

[thriftydutch]

Okay here goes. I have a 12v-120v fridge. It is a Norcold DE 704D model. What I want to know is how much solar do I need to run this fridge. Ask any question you want about the fridge and I will try to give that information. I have 2 12volt house batteries.
I am not concerned about winter time. Just spring, summer and fall when the sun is higher in the sky.
Please leave this in the class B section.

[pianotuna]

Hi thriftydutch,

We would need to know the consumption in watts and the duty cycle of the fridge.

In my case that works out to 5.7 KWH per day. That means I'd need about 1000 watts of solar panels.

Your fridge is likely to be a LOT more efficient than mine.

thriftydutch wrote:
Okay here goes. I have a 12v-120v fridge. It is a Norcold DE 704D model. What I want to know is how much solar do I need to run this fridge. Ask any question you want about the fridge and I will try to give that information. I have 2 12volt house batteries.
I am not concerned about winter time. Just spring, summer and fall when the sun is higher in the sky.
Please leave this in the class B section.

[Lwiddis]

Since the fridge isn’t the only item drawing 12 volt juice, do an energy survey. Multiply by 1.5. Then we can recommend battery AHs, then solar panels, then controller and lastly wiring.

[donn0128]

The name plate on the refer should give you all you need to know. Amp/hour rating for each power source is? Multiple that by 24. You have the amps necessary to run it for 24 hours. Amp/hour rating for each battery is? Since you do not want to draw a battery below 50%, half of the battery capacity is? Is that more or less than your refers draw? 125 amp solar panel should be OK for 2-12V batteries. But again, the rating of solar panels is kind of ambigious. That rating is based on full sun and tracking the sun. Since neither of those is really practical you really need to assume less output. Whether a panel can fully charge a battery or not is questionable at best. And based on how discharged the battery is.