Solar panel size, help needed please.

[Buggane]

Hi, are there any of you tech bods out there can help me? I am looking to fit a Solar Panel kit to my Iveco Iris Bus, self built, What size solar panel should I be looking at for, wild camping 90% of the time, to run a RM5310 Fridge. I have 2x110ah Leisure batteries and a AGM Yuasa 95ah 850A starter battery. All my lights are LED so apart from short spells of water pump running its mainly the Fridge discharging the leisure battery and the Electric front door drawing off the Starter battery, over a period of days in the same spot. Using fridge on gas at moment but looking at Solar power as its free Would a 120a panel keep the batteries topped up sufficiently ? and is a MPPT dual controller the way to go? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated . Many thanks, Bob.

 

[harrow]

Hi, are there any of you tech bods out there can help me? I am looking to fit a Solar Panel kit to my Iveco Iris Bus, self built, What size solar panel should I be looking at for, wild camping 90% of the time, to run a RM5310 Fridge. I have 2x110ah Leisure batteries and a AGM Yuasa 95ah 850A starter battery. All my lights are LED so apart from short spells of water pump running its mainly the Fridge discharging the leisure battery and the Electric front door drawing off the Starter battery, over a period of days in the same spot. Using fridge on gas at moment but looking at Solar power as its free Would a 120a panel keep the batteries topped up sufficiently ? and is a MPPT dual controller the way to go? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated . Many thanks, Bob.

You won't be able to run that fridge on 12 volts while parked, it uses to much power. (Rated input current (DC) 10 A)

In the winter you will need to cover the roof in solar panels.

 

[trevskoda]

Well i have two 100w panels on roof with splitter to each battery,but if using a fridge i think i would double the panels to around 400w as not a good charge past mid year or a few hrs after or before mid day .
We may have the same type of bus.:wave:

 

[edina]

Get the largest/most panels you have roof space for.

 

[Deleted user 48797]

Size matters......fit the biggest possible - simple.

 

[Fazerloz]

If you are thinking of running the fridge full time on 12v forget it, your batteries will be pretty much flat overnight.

 

[Fisherman]

Please excuse my ignorance here, but are no multi powered fridges available for campers.
The problem here seems to be the fridge and it’s power consumption.

 

[RichardHelen262]

Fridges work much better off gas than 12 volt, and the amount of gas they use is minimal

 

[Fazerloz]

Please excuse my ignorance here, but are no multi powered fridges available for campers.
The problem here seems to be the fridge and it’s power consumption.

The fridge is multi powered 12v, 240v, gas, but the OP says he wants to run it off 12v. If he just wants to just use 12v he needs to find a compressor fridge not a absorption fridge.

 

[Deleted member 47451]

Hi, are there any of you tech bods out there can help me? I am looking to fit a Solar Panel kit to my Iveco Iris Bus, self built, What size solar panel should I be looking at for, wild camping 90% of the time, to run a RM5310 Fridge. I have 2x110ah Leisure batteries and a AGM Yuasa 95ah 850A starter battery. All my lights are LED so apart from short spells of water pump running its mainly the Fridge discharging the leisure battery and the Electric front door drawing off the Starter battery, over a period of days in the same spot. Using fridge on gas at moment but looking at Solar power as its free Would a 120a panel keep the batteries topped up sufficiently ? and is a MPPT dual controller the way to go? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated . Many thanks, Bob.

With your fridge, which is an absorption fridge it is only possible to run on 12v while engine running, and even then it will not work well. It will work best on gas only, and will use negligible power from your leisure batteries. It can never work from your batteries alone, it is not designed too.
With the set up you have, by adding a small 200w solar panel will make zero difference to running your fridge. It would however mean you could run lights, water pump phone charging for many many days without needing to charge batteries by other means.

The type of fridge it is possible to run off batteries is a compressor fridge, same as you would run at home. These can be run through an invertor or you can at extra cost buy 12v compressor fridges. I have a Vitrifringo one, its on permanently, I have 2 x 110ah batteries and a 285w solar panel. It has been on for over a month with only solar charging, batteries drop to 92% overnight and fully charged by 10am.

 

[Fazerloz]

I have just been away with friends and everyones fridges were struggling except mine a compressor fridge. The drawback been mine was the one raided for ice cream.

 

[n brown]

fridges need heat to operate their cooling elements. camper fridges use 4 different methods of producing heat-
a 12v element , basically the same kind of element as seen in the old red hot wire coil electric fire, very inefficient and power -hungry

a 240 v element , exactly the same as above but higher voltage

a gas flame - quite crude really, but more efficiet than the other 2

a compressor fridge uses heat generated by usinga 12v pump to compress a gas, creating heat in the same way as your bicycle pump does when inflating a tyre
this method uses less energy than the other 3 and can be sustained by solar power
compressor fridges are expensive, but it's possible to buy just the works and fit them to your own fridge , and some people are experimenting with using small domestic fridges run off the leisure batteries via inverters

 

[TravellingGuys]

May not be exactly what you are looking for but....

We use a 12v Halfords fridge/cool box, you'd be amazed how efficient they are.

We are self builders and built our van to mostly wild camp (not a money issue though of course that helps) we just prefer to be in the thick of things be that on the sea front, by a loch, in a forest or smack in the middle of a city centre and we have built our van around that idea.

Our solar setup - 4 x 100w panels, 2 feeding a 120ah battery for tv, lights, pumps, 12v sockets and usb sockets with the other 2 panels feeding another 120ah battery for high draining items, 12v kettle, 12v stove and inverter for the water heater, fridge/cool box.

I recently installed a fan so decided to get another battery which we fitted today.

The fridge is ran from the van engine while driving and the high drain battery when parked up, it gets turned off at night and the cycle continues like that while travelling. We pack it with ice and running the way I have said there is still a large amount of ice after 3 days (We usually travel at weekends).

When we were fitting the new battery today I remembered that we had left 4 cans of lager in the fridge, we had last parked up 4 days ago and I swear they were still cold.

 

[trevskoda]

May not be exactly what you are looking for but....

We use a 12v Halfords fridge/cool box, you'd be amazed how efficient they are.

We are self builders and built our van to mostly wild camp (not a money issue though of course that helps) we just prefer to be in the thick of things be that on the sea front, by a loch, in a forest or smack in the middle of a city centre and we have built our van around that idea.

Our solar setup - 4 x 100w panels, 2 feeding a 120ah battery for tv, lights, pumps, 12v sockets and usb sockets with the other 2 panels feeding another 120ah battery for high draining items, 12v kettle, 12v stove and inverter for the water heater, fridge/cool box.

I recently installed a fan so decided to get another battery which we fitted today.

The fridge is ran from the van engine while driving and the high drain battery when parked up, it gets turned off at night and the cycle continues like that while travelling. We pack it with ice and running the way I have said there is still a large amount of ice after 3 days (We usually travel at weekends).

When we were fitting the new battery today I remembered that we had left 4 cans of lager in the fridge, we had last parked up 4 days ago and I swear they were still cold.

Most folk on here would have downed them cans in the first few mins of stopping.

 

[TravellingGuys]

Most folk on here would have downed them cans in the first few mins of stopping.

Ha yeah, to be fair it's a rare event us getting back home with stock left

 

[Nabsim]

Most folk on here would have downed them cans in the first few mins of stopping.

And a few may not wait to stop...



... passengers of course

 

[trevskoda]

And a few may not wait to stop...



... passengers of course

Well you should never drive on the road and drink,best to drive on the f/path.:scared:

 

[Debs]

I run a Waeco compressor fridge, and with a 100w panel I struggled with power, but a couple of months ago I replaced panel with a 200w panel and have never switched the fridge off, works a treat.

 

[molly 2]

I run a Waeco compressor fridge, and with a 100w panel I struggled with power, but a couple of months ago I replaced panel with a 200w panel and have never switched the fridge off, works a treat.

I am sure you can but in winter it probably won't be enough

 

[Fazerloz]

I run a Waeco compressor fridge, and with a 100w panel I struggled with power, but a couple of months ago I replaced panel with a 200w panel and have never switched the fridge off, works a treat.

See what happens in winter if you are off grid any length of time. What battery bank do you have.