How much Solar Needed?

[dhuse]

Just brought home a new Forza 34T. 4 series 31 house batteries, 2000 watt inverter. Will be using the coach about every 10 days to 2 weeks. I don't want to turn off the refer every time I park it and then have to wait until it cools down when we're ready to use it again. How much solar would I need to keep the refer turned on? TIA

[time2roll]

dhuse wrote:
Yes on the auto start, I think. 2019 Winnebago. Thank for all the info. A lot to absorb. Should my 4 house batteries be sufficient?

Auto-start could supplement if the solar or battery proved inadequate. Then you keep adding solar and/or battery until the generator stays off. Or some balance that you are comfortable with.

Best if you had utility power. Even a 15a outlet would keep the fridge running and the battery charged.

[Lwiddis]

"How much solar would I need to keep the refer turned on?"

Wrong question. The right question is "when camping how many AHs do I use daily?"

Then you can determine necessary battery capacity which helps determine necessary solar panel watts which determines charge controler requirements.

[MrWizard]

my 7.4 cuft residential in our previous RV avg about 1200 watt hours per day
aka 1.2KwHrs
at 12v to inverter thats 100ampHrs per day, this is is a 'round up' including some efficiency losses

yes it would use less, when nobody is opening the door
but i don't think the difference between avg use and no use is substantial

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I'm glad you enjoyed the series.

No one can answer this without knowing the draw of the fridge.

4 agm may allow about 2600 watt-hours of usable storage, depending on the "group" and assuming they can be fully recharged daily.

dhuse wrote:
Should my 4 house batteries be sufficient?

[dave17352]

I have a 12 volt compressor fridge. I never keep it running. That's one of the many benefits of a compressor fridge. I turn it on and a hour later I am ready to load.

[dhuse]

Don, Just read your solar series. Great stuff! Thanks

Doug

[dhuse]

Yes on the auto start, I think. 2019 Winnebago. Thank for all the info. A lot to absorb. Should my 4 house batteries be sufficient?

[pianotuna]

Assuming 2kwh of consumption and factoring in inverter losses and charge controller losses I'd want 500 watts of solar.

But what you really need is an energy audit.

This series about solar may help:

https://freecampsites.net/adding-solar/

[MrWizard]

i would say a minimum of 300w solar
no the mfg won't give you a wat hour per day
it might give you the kwHrs per year avg

but assuming you will have it 'stored/parked' no hookups aka NO A/C
power to cool it will be more than if you were on shore power power with the RV cooled

the thing is a residential fridge (120v compressor) cools very quickly
one or two hours not 6-12hrs
there is no real need to leave it running while gone, if you do not leave food in it

[2oldman]

A resi refer should cool down in about 20 minutes.

[time2roll]

From what I read you will need 600+ watts of solar to run a residential fridge.
Do you have an auto-start on the generator?

[dhuse]

Yes, sorry, it is a residential refrigerator. I received about 17 pounds of paperwork with the new coach. Would the watt-hours be included with the manufacturer's info?

[pianotuna]

Assuming it is a residential fridge, you need to know how many watt-hours it uses per day. The easiest way to do that is to plug the entire RV into a kill-a-watt meter and run only the fridge.

[pianotuna]

Hi dhuse,

Is it an absorption fridge (can run on propane) or a residential compressor fridge (can NOT run on propane)?