This video shows how we installed a stand alone solar powered fridge on our boat by making a cabinet from 18mm marine ply to house the fridge and battery. The fridge is a Waeco Coolmaster which uses approx. 2.7amps per hour. It is powered by a 110 amp hour AGM battery which negates the need to ventilate the battery. This is recharged by a 100w solar panel purchased by a company called Sunstore. The onboard EP Solar 10amp PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) solar charge regulator includes a display which allows us to monitor the battery use and real time charge being provided by the sun.
The charge controller has allowed us to use the fridge in summer from 9am to 9pm and from 3am to 4am so that we are not powering it 24 hours a day. We have used the boat for a weeks trip and there was just enough power to provide the fridge needs without a shore power top up (although it was a very sunny week).
If doing this project again we would opt for a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) charge regulator which can lead to an extra 30% power efficiency based on the UK sunshine, especially un duller days. We will probably upgrade to one of these in due course
Please feel free to leave comments or questions if you are planning or have completed such a project
This project was completed between April and Jun 2013
The title music is thanks to Kevin MacLeod
“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Post time: Jan-26-2017