In my small trailer sailer I have a small 36Ah battery with 2x7Ah batteries as a backup for emergency radio and navigation purposes. Mainly because I usually only go away for a few days at a time. I have a 100w solar panel which normally keeps the battery topped up, but I also have a 800w genny for the odd time that the solar doesn't keep up. This setup will keep me off grid for weeks. I always pre-cool my fridge prior to my trip, and have the fridge charging from the car on the way. Works for me and saves lots of weight when I want to take the battery box out.
What a lot of people forget is that the sun being 'up' does not allow full power from solar panels. Full power only get generated in the times when the sun is high and the panel(s) are at the right angle. We have measured input from panels (laid flat on a caravan roof) and the resulting generating looked like a bell curve. Lower in the morning and afternoon and higher during the middle of the day. The generated power even changed as the sun changed angle in the sky (over a couple of months) so what the panels promise to deliver is,, in reality, nothing like what you get for a full day. Our rule of thumb, on a clear day you might get about half of what panels are rated for. The bigger your battery bank is, the more panels you need to get it up to near 100% charge. Good video, these are great explanations for campers.
Absolutely - panels need to be perpendicular to the sun to get anywhere close to full power! Throw in losses from heat, wiring and regulator inherent losses as well as battery charging inefficiencies and you start to see the real picture! I’ve done a video talking solar in detail similar to this video, so if anyone reading is interested I recommend checking it out! Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching! Cheers, Cahn
You forgot a way to make a fridge more efficient; Keep a fridge full! You can even add bottles of water if you don't have enough stock to keep it filled.
25 Amp Garden Battery works for my ICECO JP50 long enough to keep food cold till we get to our Campground destination when we then hook it up to a Solar Generator with Solar Panels the Garden Battery could last 4hrs or more perfect for this application.
Ill say it again, very informative and goes into the finer details, been watching all the videos as i am getting together kit for my troopy. Some things i will do myself but the rest not so much.
@4wd Supacentre - what would the power consumption on the Kings 70L Dual Zone fridge with one zone set as freezer? What would power consumption be if both zones set as fridge? Specs on the website don't really say.
Love the information but still finding this a bit confusing. I have ordered a 200w solar panel. It will be topping up a 45ah battery (or two?). I'm in the UK, so solar is probably going to be 4 to 5 hours if I'm lucky. My question is would that suffice to run 24l fridge (40w), lights and charge up to 6 phones/tablets daily.
Very good video, easy to understand and interesting topic. An idea for the next one ? Tips for a good fire and great cooking. You have the products ;) Once again, congrats. Like these videos in which you are selling your product but keep it low.
Hi, I have a 110amp battery and a 110watt semi flex solar panel (from 4wd supacentre) is this going to work day after day in the sun load waco 50 fridge and awning led lights at night, cheers, Neil.
Does no one ever turn off there fridge especially when they sleep at night? I say you can run your fridge with the small battery and panel, get 2 for good measure.
