Suggestions for solar powered generators to run a freezer?
Posted by Eeyor-90@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 38 comments
My mother (mid 60s) mentioned that she was thinking about “taking advantage of the Prime sales” to purchase a solar generator to power her upright freezer. I don’t know the exact requirements, but it’s probably one of the largest capacity freezers that was available at Lowe’s in the last 10 years or so. She has a large propane powered generator, but wants something quiet and discreet that she can easily move without help. I don’t have a need for one and haven’t spent much time to research them, but thought you kind folks might have suggestions.
HairEmergencyImBald@reddit
I prefer Anker but to each his own. C1000 is good for a freezer or fridge for about 8-10 hours in an emergency and saved be already about 300 in groceries from power outages.
An-Elegant-Elephant@reddit
Anker for the win! All these new untested companies are marketing the hell out of their garbagé and winning
An-Elegant-Elephant@reddit
Anker still makes the best product. Forget the new shit.
Fubar14235@reddit
I wanted to go with Anker because I've got a few of their power banks and they've been great but I think Bluetti crushes them on the bigger units. I just got 1,024kwh 1,800w for £415
An-Elegant-Elephant@reddit
Bluetti doesn’t have customer service apparently.. idk the big Anker F2000 feels rock solid compared to my buddies Bluetti version. Like an Apple product vs. some Chinese knockoff
Fubar14235@reddit
I've never touched an Anker one to compare but the bluetti I already have feels rock solid, way better than a Jackery at least. My 2nd one is shipping soon and if it's the same quality as the one I have I'll be very happy. I just can't justify paying twice as much per kWh. My use case is mostly car camping so I'm hardly knocking it around anyway.
An-Elegant-Elephant@reddit
Right on, always good to stick w the same system. the F2000 (2048 wh) has been on sale at $1k USD for a while now, might be coming out with something new soon.
wwglen@reddit
I have EcoFlow, but I recommend anything with a 1000 watt-hour battery, 1200+ watt inverter, 400 watt solar input, and no longer than a 2 hour AC recharge.
200 watts of solar panels should keep your freezer running if it is sunny, so I recommend 300-400 to charge after a bad day. This will also give you extra power for other uses.
Also if you have a series of bad days, then running the generator 1 hour for two or three times a day will keep it full and let you run high usage items at the same time the generator is running.
stephenph@reddit
Also, a properly filled freezer can handle a bit less run time (1-3 days usually will keep things frozen as long as you keep it shut. You can also wrap it in blankets or other insulation to help keep it chilly
wwglen@reddit
I have a timer for on hour on, three hours off for my refrigerator. It doesn’t save as much power as you would expect, as it runs harder when it is on.
For a freezer (which I no longer have), I would probably go 1 hour on, 5 hours off and monitor the temperature. I know the 1 on, 3 off keeps my freezer section of the refrigerator frozen as I did a temperature test through the cycles.
Fubar14235@reddit
Seems like you should just leave the fridge to do it's thing? I get that it would save a little bit of power but like you said it has to work harder to cool back down so you might shorten it's lifespan and they don't run all the time anyway. The compressor only kicks in when the internal temps climb so if you're saving power you might be letting your food get warmer than it should be.
gravis86@reddit
Fridges shouldn't ever be allowed to get above 40⁰F and that can happen in less than an hour... Better to keep it plugged in all the time. I actually experimented with it, and found that it actually used less energy being plugged in the whole time than it did being run intermittently. I don't know why that is, but that's what happened.
wwglen@reddit
Mine stayed below the required temperature over a 24 hour period on one on, three off. It did save about 20-25% power, but not the 75% a lot of people imply.
Fubar14235@reddit
What's the required temp? Mines at 5c which is safe for raw meat, do you start off lower than that and let it creep up?
wwglen@reddit
Buy you are right, it only takes 300-400 watts of solar to run the refrigerator 24 hours a day including inverter loss.
gravis86@reddit
Assuming you mean Watt-Hours, not Watts...
I have a fridge/freezer combo with an ice maker and cold water dispenser and it'll chew through 1500-2000 Watt-Hours in a 24-hour period pretty easily.
wwglen@reddit
Ment solar. 300 watts of panels produces about 1500 watt-hours a day with my Victron. 400 watts produces about 2000 watt-hours.
This is with the panels pointing in a generally souther direction and somewhat propped in a close angle in the spring time when I tested it.
gravis86@reddit
Oh, gotcha. Yeah I figured to run my fridge and my chest freezer I'd need about 600W of solar panels and ideally at least 4000WH of battery to run indefinitely. I like having enough battery for two days in case there's an overcast day or whatever, I don't lose my food. Fortunately my chest freezer can stay below freezing for at least 48 hours with no electricity, but the fridge is a different beast.
wwglen@reddit
I like the sales on EcoWorthy panels on eBay. You can get 130 watts produces flexible for about $50 or 200 watt rigid for $75-$90 depending on bifacial or not.
I have some of each in my garage to pull out and set up in an emergency. I really like the flexible ones. They might not last as long in contentious use, but are lighter and easier to find a place to mount them. Just a little rope or bungee cords. I got 230 watts max (closer to 210 average), when I tested two of the 130 watt panels in series.
wwglen@reddit
We like out drinks cold, so we keep ours 34-35F (around 2C). So it does warm up some.
I also keep the refrigerator fairly well loaded. Lots of water bottles. A lot of the empty space in the freezer had frozen water bottles. I move them to the refrigerator when I need the room. I also use them in the small cooler when traveling.
gravis86@reddit
Yeah more stuff will hold a cold temperature longer. That might have been my problem as it was only maybe half full.
Fubar14235@reddit
Yeah that's what I would have guessed without testing. The only way I can see it being more efficient is if you're letting it go above the desired temperature. Mine is set to 5c if I just switched it off for a few hours every day my food would be above that and there's raw chicken in there... Unless you started at say 3c and let it creep up to 5, I don't know if it would take more energy to get it back down to 3 than it would to just let the fridge work it out itself.
wwglen@reddit
The reason to use the timer is I have two refrigerators. I alternate them as:
Time zero: Refrigerator 1 on refrigerator 2 off
Time 1 hour: Refrigerator 1 off refrigerator 2 off
Time 2 hour: Refrigerator 1 off refrigerator 2 on
Time 3 hour: Refrigerator 1 off refrigerator 2 off
Time 4: Repeat from time zero
This reduces the peak load as there can never be two compressors starting at the same time.
Now that I actually have a bigger system, I will probably just run them both at the same time. It does save about 25% power usage, so it might still be good for the cloudy days if we have a long power outage.
stephenph@reddit
The point though is that the freezer can still keep temps low if you have a prolonged period of low solar output.
DanoPinyon@reddit
We have an EcoFlow Delta 3 and 400W of panels. We can either run the garage freezer all day (~1.3 kWh/day summer peak heat) or both fridge and freezer and keep things cold in an emergency - and quiet. We have abundant sunshine.
The cost/day of electricity savings for the freezer using this setup won't be paid off in any worthwhile time frame, but that's not why we have it.
c3corvette@reddit
Bluetti. I have several models and they all work well.
smeeg123@reddit
https://youtu.be/z1T-liUaPQ4?si=cQK9qBbjKQBqaYlJ
smeeg123@reddit
https://youtu.be/1hC_twV7Ces?si=pQp2Z549wftXRPyf
ExaminationDry8341@reddit
A freezer is one of the hardest items to reliably run on solar. It HAS to work, or the food inside goes bad. Often power gets knocked out by storms, which brings cloudy weather, which cause solar panels to produce very little power.
To have a system that will for sure work requires either a large battery, a lot of panels or a back up, engine powered generator.
The first step is to get a kill-a-watt meter and measure how much powere the freezer uses in a hot summer day. Once you have a solid number on power usage people can start to offer good advice.
I also don't think your mother will be able to easly move the panels around. My guess is she will need 2 or 3 panels that are about 6x3 feet to powere the freezer in ideal conditions.
jazzbiscuit@reddit
We have 2 upright freezers. One of them is perfectly content on a Jackery 1000v2, the second one (older/larger) pulls too much power for its startup surge to get going. # 2 will run on a Jackery 2000 Plus unit. Although I will say a Jackery 2000 Plus weighs in over 60lbs, so I don't exactly consider it to be easy to move solo (for me) if there are stairs involved.
WhereDidAllTheSnowGo@reddit
Peak vs nominal watts
Most fridges have an electric motor that requires 2-4x the nominal, data plate, running amps. Yer inverter has to supply the momentary peak required watts… then also continuous watts.
You’ll want a buffer on those numbers too because all things age
Be sure to dig into this aspect AND then test it before depending on it.
Beebjank@reddit
Lots of Jackery and Ecoflow recommendations. I would recommend checking out Pecron. They are better valued IMO. The Pecron E2000LFP should keep it going for a looong time, and add some solar panels to the system and you have basically infinite freezer.
Few-Lawyer3707@reddit
Check preppersales they got a bunch on sale for prime day. Make sure to get a lifepo4 unit. The Jackery is a great deal right now at 379
Heck_Spawn@reddit
Running a couple 5cu. ft. freezers for about 6 hours a day with our 500w array. It's a tracking array, so we get like a 30% boost in efficiency with it.
SoCalSurvivalist@reddit
Check the amperage of the freezer and make sure you get one that can provide a sufficient power output or else you could burn up the electronics.
Arlo1878@reddit
Look up the the model (or actual label) and determine wattage. Keep in mind freezers don’t need to run that often.
Estimate hours needed and multiply by wattage , keeping a padding of 20% or so , to ensure battery (“solar generator”) isn’t run down all the way.
Forgot the solar part; by the time you buy a panel or two, it wouldn’t be cost effective for a freezer unless power was out for days. And you had really good sunlight for days (hit or miss, depending on location and time of year).
I’ve had great results with my Jackery 1500, have run a upright refrigerator off it for a few hours until power was restored. Plus i’ve run it for other applications. Just be sure to get the newer LiFOPo4 battery.
Good luck
Remarkable_Ad5011@reddit
I bought EcoFlow Delta 2 units for each of my freezers.
Advanced961@reddit
Have you checked Jackery?