60w powerfilm foldable solar panel

[lugga9]

Will my 60w powerfilm solar panel run 60L engel fridge/freeze ?????


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[threedogs]

Hello and welcome to the forum , when you get a chance pop over to the intro and tell us a bit about yourself
before asking questions,, polite and all, no harm done, I think 60 watts may be a tad small for such a big fridge
100watts would suit it better IMO

[PeeBee]

Hello and welcome to the forum , when you get a chance pop over to the intro and tell us a bit about yourself
before asking questions,, polite and all, no harm done, I think 60 watts may be a tad small for such a big fridge
100watts would suit it better IMO

Agree TD, I have 120W on my roof and it caters well for the 60L engel, in fact been doing it for just on 20yrs now. Its a Canon Shade tolerant panel - 2 x 60W, solar cells laminated onto SS sheet, so no glass to break if something falls on it, ot the roofrack twists.

[lugga9]

I'm sorry about the way I started I'm only new to this app. Sorry if I offended anyone.


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[GQtdauto]

No harm done .

[threedogs]

Will my 60w powerfilm solar panel run 60L engel fridge/freeze ?????


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Here you go mate,,,
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/forumdisplay.php?2-Introductions

[Cuppa]

FRom Engel's web site - the 60L fridge freezer - "DC Power Consumption Variable from 0.5 to 4.2 AMPS Maximum

1. The amps it draws will be dependent on a number of factors - how cold you run it. Colder uses more power. Ambient temperature. It will use more the hotter the day is. What you put in it - if you put warm stuff in to cool down it will use more. How often you access it - if you are frequently opening the lid to get another beer it will use more power.

2. The amps Engel claim will be what it uses when it's running. It will cycle on & off - how often will be dertermined by the above.

If you consider a not unusual running time of 50% - that's 12 hours a day. At that rate the fridge can use up to 12 x 4.2amps - that equates to a tad over 50 Ah over 24 hours which you need to get back into your battery. (which sounds about right to me). Your 60w panel, on a good solar day, & if connected with suitably heavy cable & the regulator near the battery (not on the rear of the panel) will be able to put around 25ah to 30Ah into your battery. Of course not every day is a good solar day, & the number of 'solar hours' is less in winter & in the south. Better to work on the panel giving 15 to 20Ah. To reliably run that fridge (& nothing else) at any time of the year, in any part of Australia you need 3 of those panels. This will be sufficient to bring the battery back to full charge every 24 hours. You could get away with 2 of those panels if only needing to run the fridge for weekends away, arriving home with a battery in need of charging.

[PeeBee]

Thinking back to our trip to the Kimberley in 1997, we did struggle on capacity as the temps were high at night and the fridge needed to run with no solar top-up, then it was running a high proportion of the day due to base camping and little sun. A third panel would have helped for sure, but not enough room on top to mount. Since then, just doing trips in the southern parts, the 2 panels have sufficed.

[threedogs]

If you are driving every 2nd day that will help out the Aux battery heaps.
If you're camping in one spot for a long time say a week then you may struggle
topping up the battery.
When I went to Birdsville with a few mates we took an esky for the cold drinks
as we knew we would pass a servo every day so ice was available. I froze 2 roasts
before I left and placed them in the Engel ate one the other was still frozen when I
got home.
I think Engels figure of 4.2 amps is a little low,,
real world usage would be more around 6 ah IMO
If you're driving more than 2hrs every 2nd day you might get away with it ,,,,,,,,just

[Cuppa]

http://caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/how-much-solar-input/

[lugga9]

Ok thanks fellas, the guy in the shop said it would run the engel easy, even if I hooked the solar blanket straight up to the engel.


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[lugga9]

We will be driving from Darwin to cairns, so roughly try an do 600-800kms a day which will charge the auxiliary battery fully.


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[threedogs]

2hrs driving each day should see you batteries fully charged

[Cuppa]

We will be driving from Darwin to cairns, so roughly try an do 600-800kms a day which will charge the auxiliary battery fully.


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If you are driving 600 to 800 kms per day solar panel(s) won’t be much use unless mounted on the vehicle & used to ’top up’ once the alternator has done it’s job!

Just for accuracy, an alternator will not*fully* charge a battery in two hours, not even over the course of an 800km day. It will get it up to 80% to 90% in that time, but not 100%. This may be sufficient in many instances. If the aux battery has a 100Ah capacity, when full gives you around 50 useable AH (if you want the battey to have a long life). if it is only charged to 80% you only have 30Ah of useable capacity, which is getting close to 50% less useable capacity compared to a ‘full’ battery. To get it to full there are insufficient hours in the day to drive. The alternative is a smart charger - either Dc to Dc or a solar charger. The alternative is to use more of the battery’s capacity, & accept significantly shorter battery life.

Note that crank batteries are never ‘fully’ charged, they dont need to be..... very different to a battery used to run something like a fridge.

[GQtdauto]

Have an aftermarket alternator from auto8 , think it's 130 amp or bigger .

[Cuppa]

Have an aftermarket alternator from auto8 , think it's 130 amp or bigger .

It's not the alternator max output which determines how quickly a battery can charge once the battery gets to around 80%. Once that full it makes no difference whether the alternator is 30 amp or 130amp. Basically the battery says 'no' & needs to be 'tricked' to take more. That's what a smart charger does. The 130 amp will get it up to 80% quicker though (& will will be better for current hungry accessories like a winch to be used whilst the motor is running).

This (http://www.fridge-and-solar.net/smart.htm) explains why smart chargers do a better job than non-smart chargers (including most alternators - 'most', because there are such things as 'smart alternators' which essentially do the same job as a dc to dc charger).

[PeeBee]

If you are driving 600 to 800 kms per day solar panel(s) won’t be much use unless mounted on the vehicle & used to ’top up’ once the alternator has done it’s job!

Just for accuracy, an alternator will not*fully* charge a battery in two hours, not even over the course of an 800km day. It will get it up to 80% to 90% in that time, but not 100%. This may be sufficient in many instances. If the aux battery has a 100Ah capacity, when full gives you around 50 useable AH (if you want the battey to have a long life). if it is only charged to 80% you only have 30Ah of useable capacity, which is getting close to 50% less useable capacity compared to a ‘full’ battery. To get it to full there are insufficient hours in the day to drive. The alternative is a smart charger - either Dc to Dc or a solar charger. The alternative is to use more of the battery’s capacity, & accept significantly shorter battery life.

Note that crank batteries are never ‘fully’ charged, they dont need to be..... very different to a battery used to run something like a fridge.

I agree with this 100%. I have hard mounted panels and they charge thru a CTEK controller, so the surface charge aspects are resolved, then the smart charge cycle takes over. I run a second alternator also, however this is entirely for bulk current replacement during winching and is hooked to a crank battery allocated just for that task, but that battery also gets the benefit of the smart charge during normal running. Depth of discharge (DOD) is your focus with deep cycle batteries if you want good life and performance.