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Thread: Went solar

  1. 1st September 2010, 05:36 PM #1
    garciaj Guest

    Smile Went solar

    Finally put some solar panels on the disco to run the fridge. Seems to work pretty good and overall pretty dam happy.

    Set up - 2 80watt bp panels
    - 180ah fullriver AGM battery
    - PL20 controller

    Sunny day seems to put in around 38ah's and the fridge draws 11ah (through work hours) and overcast day seems to equal out.
    Run the fridge at zero for 24 hours/day and the battery seems to hold around 12.9 volts.
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  2. 3rd September 2010, 07:37 AM #2
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    numpty
    numpty is offline TopicToaster Silver Subscriber
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    Sounds a little low, as that equates to around 3 hours input. What was the cost of the setup?
    Numpty

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  3. 3rd September 2010, 11:23 AM #3
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    simonmelb
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    Quote Originally Posted by garciaj View Post
    - 180ah fullriver AGM battery
    Love to see a pic or 2 of where/how you installed such a big battery !
    Cheers

    Simon
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  4. 3rd September 2010, 11:29 AM #4
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    101RRS
    101RRS is offline LordRover Supporter
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    Quote Originally Posted by garciaj View Post
    the fridge draws 11ah (through work hours)
    Even the worst ebay compressor fridges only pull about 5-6 amps if running constantly - what fridge do you have that is pulling nearly double that?

    Garry
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  5. 3rd September 2010, 11:46 AM #5
    waynep
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    Yes...I think we have the common confusion between amps and ampere hours here.

    Amps is how much current a device draws, ( like the flow rate of water through a pipe ) whereas ampere hours is a measure of how much capacity a battery has. ( like how much water is in the tank )

    Say the fridge draws about 2.5 amps when the compressor is running.
    To calculate how much of the battery capacity it uses you need to work out the ampere hours.
    So say the compressor runs 80 times over a day for 3 minutes each time. That is 240 minutes running time or 4 hours.
    Multiply that by the amps drawn (2.5) and you have 10 ah ( or ampereXhours ) per day.

    To measure this properly you need an amp hour meter. This has a memory that logs amps drawn and for how long.
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  6. 3rd September 2010, 05:29 PM #6
    garciaj Guest
    Sorry for the confusion but very new to solar and dont do very little with 12volt. But the total useage for the 40 litre engel fridge was a total of 11 ahs (running @2.9amps) for the 24 hours dont know if this helps? I'm just reading what the controller says. As for the fitment I basically fitted the battery behind the rear seat but had the modifly the draw system to suit which is this weekends job. The total cost was $1900 less fridge.
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