Solar panel wattage
Submitted by dakka on Sat, 2015-04-04 10:34
Howdy All
i am just wondering what would the minimum watts you would need to just keep a car battery running a portable fridge when camping would be. Thanx dakka
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"If we all fish for the future now there will be fish in the future"
southcity104
Posts: 1659
Date Joined: 27/01/09
last time i checked
... with my multi meter an engel on freeze pulls 2.5 amps and 80 watt pannel in full sun produces around 2.5 amps best. So im guessing 2 x 80 watt panels will give you enough to run and charge during the day and capacity to get you through the night. in theory.
Ive Never done it and not into camping but im sure plenty peple here have.
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dakka
Posts: 275
Date Joined: 05/03/06
Sola power wattage
ok my book says power input to my 60l companion fridge @ 12 vdc is 60watts(12v/4.5Amp) would this suggest that I need a 60 watt solar panel to replenish sun power back into battery ??? Cheers
"If we all fish for the future now there will be fish in the future"
Dale
Posts: 7930
Date Joined: 13/09/05
Be careful there Dakka, your falling for an old solar panel furphy, a 60 watt panel is only going to to be as good as a 50 watt panel, a solar panel output is 17-18 watts under full sun with the panel surface around 25 degrees, but you can't use that 17 watts, that's why you have a regulator to drop it to an acceptable level to charge batteries, so if you need 60 watts, I'd go an 80 watt panel as a minimum, and even then, the 80 watt panel is only going to be good for 70ish watts under ideal conditions. You will probably need to take into consideration the daily sunshine hours which change for more or less, depending where in the country you are, sunshine hours can be gotten from the BOM, or Google sunshine hours. There's also so many factors that you need to consider, but too much is way better than not enough.
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Mr Wolf
White Lightning
Posts: 27
Date Joined: 08/10/13
go a 100-120w folding panel,
go a 100-120w folding panel, or can always mount a semi flexible on bimini, cheap as these days, will give you more than enough power,,,,,Provided the sun is shining
gav077
Posts: 207
Date Joined: 05/04/09
I'll let you know in a
I'll let you know in a couple of weeks dakka. I'm going to steep next week and am going to try running my Engel solely on a 120 watt folding panel going through the battery on my camper trailer.
People who haven't caught a big fish just don't get it
Vinesh87
Posts: 2751
Date Joined: 02/04/11
There is a very big
There is a very big difference between running it as a fridge on 5c and running it on -18c.
If your fridge draws 60w you will need more like 150w to charge the battery from the night time draw! Might get away with a 120w panel depending on your use.
I use 80w Panel for my Engel and runs constantly on 5c.
z00m
Posts: 1086
Date Joined: 10/05/14
Don't the panels need to be
Don't the panels need to be able to charge the battery from the night time draw AND power the fridge during the day?