I'm completely off grid with limited solar, and I learned to purchase a refrigerator that uses lower amps. For example my 10.1 Magic Chef only uses 1.5 amps. Best efficient unit because of the lower Amp then other compared units.😊
I have a similar dorm frig in a hot garage. It runs for about 10 minutes, then is off for 15. AC watts is 70-80. Draw on the battery is about 9 ampsDC. A 100 watt panel in good sun can power frig all sunny day.
I have an Eco Flow River 2 Max and run a fridge like that overnight. Takes about 70% of capacity running for 8 hours. I've only charged the unit once with AC since i got it about 4 weeks ago.
I measure every electric appliance power requirements on everything in my house and mark the running watts with green painter's tape and magic marker. I mean EVERYTHING that is plugged in. The newer appliances are very much efficient and use much less running watts. I was shocked to see that my vertical tower fans use only 42 watts on high. The old box fan was noisier and used 97 watts and put out less breeze. The 2 house fridges are quite efficient....until the defrost cycle happens. I can tell when the defrost watts are high on my battery state of charge meter shows it. 229 Watt hours is pretty small but you did a good test. I have a total of 96,000 watt hours available to run my clock radio....
I put a Magic Chef 2 door 3.1 cubic foot fridge freezer in my old GMC van conversion. I also have a 300 amp hour Chins lithium battery, 2000 watt Renogy inverter 40 amp MPPT solar controller, and 400 watts in panels on the roof. When running, the fridge draws 58 amps. That is a huge improvement compared to old dorm 1 door freezer/fridge 1998 unit power usage of 105 watts. The van sits in the driveway in the sun with windows down 2 inches but it gets hot in there. The fridge runs a long time every hour when its hot inside. I store some small packages of ice cream in there as the Missus is severely diabetic and will chow down on any ice cream in the house. I have to hide my Haagen Daz. In the Winter, the fridge runs the battery down to 95% overnight and with low sun angle and short days, it takes all day to get to 100% charge. In the Summer, with the solar disconnected, the fridge runs the battery down to 82% with 93F peak day temp. I did this as a test. With the solar charging, the battery will get to 100% by 2 in the afternoon. The ambient temperature the fridge has a drastic effect on the run time on the compressor, thus watt hours required to run are much greater. We have had some 110F days and I did not bother to look at the state of charge meter. But the ice cream was still pretty solid when I had the midnight craving. The pot stickers in there were frozen solid, too. Ice cream needs to be at minus 5 F to be solid.
Once you don't open fridge or often you can get good run times as the need for motor to run would be minimum. A solar panel or two to charge up or aid the loads during sunshine would be even better
Kind of impressive for that little guy. Think of how far it might go with a 50, or 100Ah LiFePo4 connected to extend it's endurance... Curious to know if it would even start, or run a regular, newer 18-20 cu.ft. fridge, thanks.
It would be interesting to use a timer switch that comes on only for 15 minutes per hour. This might result in greater temperature swings in the fridge but can it prolong battery life? I’m old fashioned, when the power goes out, fridge and freezer get blankets for added insulation
Nice video. Would be interesting if you knew the real life aspect of it as far as perhaps opening the door for 1-2mins each hour as if someone was taking food/drinks out. Would the surge keep bumping up thus actually giving you the 3 hrs you first thought?
Time would definitely go down, but that is a good question. If the power was out I would try to keep my refrigerator used to a minimum. Thanks for the comment.
I t's good to know what the abilities of your emergency backup gear is, but you probably would have gotten a much different result if you had also shut off your AC for the test. In a power outage your home will heat up in the summer and it will heat up A LOT in that length of time, if you live in about half the states in America. Covering the fridge with a few quilts will increase your time, no matter the outside temp. I get really good results with a cheap 600 watt modified sine wave inverter and a LiFePO4 battery. The Mini 12 volt LFP batteries are so light and are getting so cheap that they compare better with solar generators and they deliver more bang for the buck, IMO. It isn't as "refined" looking, but if you keep the inverter/ battery connected to a cheap low amp charger and when the power goes out the charger won't charge any longer, but the battery/inverter will still power the fridge, just as if it was a UPS and it will do it for days not hours. I live in Tornado Alley, so I have to plan for days of outages. BTW, that unit looks a lot like a Bluetti EB3A. Are they as similar as it seems? My EB3As makes my lights flicker when I plug them into the units acting as UPSs. Is that unit better? If it is I may want to get a couple.
Thanks for the information. I've never noticed any lights flickering when I use the EB3A. This unit is very similar but gets a little bit more power out of the AC side. Thanks for the comment.
@@OffGridBasement It's actually a common complaint with the EB3A. It's been determined that it's because the wall power isn't being passed through the unit directly to the AC device, but rather, the EB3A is using its inverter to run the AC device and, when it detects a small drop in the voltage on the built-in LFP battery, from running the inverter, it switches on the charger and that causes the very quick interruption in power that makes SOME lights flicker at regular intervals and, unfortunately, also slowly degrades your battery, even when the wall power is working. Folks complain that, even though the lights don't flicker, they are annoyed by the frequent clicking inside the unit, probably due to a relay turning on the charger. Do you get any rhythmic clicks from the unit you used in this video or the EB3A when they are acting as a UPS?
I'm completely off grid with limited solar, and I learned to purchase a refrigerator that uses lower amps. For example my 10.1 Magic Chef only uses 1.5 amps. Best efficient unit because of the lower Amp then other compared units.😊
Thanks for sharing and for the comment.
good little power station
It's been great so far. Thanks for the comment.
I have a similar dorm frig in a hot garage. It runs for about 10 minutes, then is off for 15. AC watts is 70-80. Draw on the battery is about 9 ampsDC. A 100 watt panel in good sun can power frig all sunny day.
Thanks for the comment and info!
Nice! I have similar fridge and have Delta mini for it's backup.
Right on! Thanks for the comment.
I have an Eco Flow River 2 Max and run a fridge like that overnight. Takes about 70% of capacity running for 8 hours. I've only charged the unit once with AC since i got it about 4 weeks ago.
Thanks for the info and the comment.
I measure every electric appliance power requirements on everything in my house and mark the running watts with green painter's tape and magic marker. I mean EVERYTHING that is plugged in. The newer appliances are very much efficient and use much less running watts. I was shocked to see that my vertical tower fans use only 42 watts on high. The old box fan was noisier and used 97 watts and put out less breeze. The 2 house fridges are quite efficient....until the defrost cycle happens. I can tell when the defrost watts are high on my battery state of charge meter shows it. 229 Watt hours is pretty small but you did a good test. I have a total of 96,000 watt hours available to run my clock radio....
Cool👍 What is your average per day in kWh?
@@JonasSyver 8-10kwh per day. Down from 22-26kwh a day a few years ago. This takes a huge amount of discipline.
@@kimmer6 Good job👍
Thanks for the comment.
Very Good Video .
Thank You 👍
Nice experiment, could you try to run the same test but with fridge in the garage with summer heat. See how ambient temps affect run time.
I put a Magic Chef 2 door 3.1 cubic foot fridge freezer in my old GMC van conversion. I also have a 300 amp hour Chins lithium battery, 2000 watt Renogy inverter 40 amp MPPT solar controller, and 400 watts in panels on the roof. When running, the fridge draws 58 amps. That is a huge improvement compared to old dorm 1 door freezer/fridge 1998 unit power usage of 105 watts. The van sits in the driveway in the sun with windows down 2 inches but it gets hot in there. The fridge runs a long time every hour when its hot inside. I store some small packages of ice cream in there as the Missus is severely diabetic and will chow down on any ice cream in the house. I have to hide my Haagen Daz.
In the Winter, the fridge runs the battery down to 95% overnight and with low sun angle and short days, it takes all day to get to 100% charge. In the Summer, with the solar disconnected, the fridge runs the battery down to 82% with 93F peak day temp. I did this as a test. With the solar charging, the battery will get to 100% by 2 in the afternoon. The ambient temperature the fridge has a drastic effect on the run time on the compressor, thus watt hours required to run are much greater. We have had some 110F days and I did not bother to look at the state of charge meter. But the ice cream was still pretty solid when I had the midnight craving. The pot stickers in there were frozen solid, too. Ice cream needs to be at minus 5 F to be solid.
Great suggestion! Thanks for the comment.
I enjoy your tests! Was the fridge full, or warm when you started?
Not warm and had a few small items inside.
Once you don't open fridge or often you can get good run times as the need for motor to run would be minimum. A solar panel or two to charge up or aid the loads during sunshine would be even better
Thanks for the info and the comment.
Kind of impressive for that little guy. Think of how far it might go with a 50, or 100Ah LiFePo4 connected to extend it's endurance... Curious to know if it would even start, or run a regular, newer 18-20 cu.ft. fridge, thanks.
Not sure if it could handle the initial surge. Thanks for the comment.
It would be interesting to use a timer switch that comes on only for 15 minutes per hour. This might result in greater temperature swings in the fridge but can it prolong battery life?
I’m old fashioned, when the power goes out, fridge and freezer get blankets for added insulation
I like the idea of a timer switch. Good thinking with the blankets! Thanks for the comment.
Nice video. Would be interesting if you knew the real life aspect of it as far as perhaps opening the door for 1-2mins each hour as if someone was taking food/drinks out. Would the surge keep bumping up thus actually giving you the 3 hrs you first thought?
Time would definitely go down, but that is a good question. If the power was out I would try to keep my refrigerator used to a minimum. Thanks for the comment.
Have you made a video on How long you can run a Full Size Fridge / Freezer on battery power? & How long does it take to recharge from solar power?
This video shows without solar.
th-cam.com/video/rxlCpZuyhOc/w-d-xo.html
I t's good to know what the abilities of your emergency backup gear is, but you probably would have gotten a much different result if you had also shut off your AC for the test. In a power outage your home will heat up in the summer and it will heat up A LOT in that length of time, if you live in about half the states in America. Covering the fridge with a few quilts will increase your time, no matter the outside temp.
I get really good results with a cheap 600 watt modified sine wave inverter and a LiFePO4 battery. The Mini 12 volt LFP batteries are so light and are getting so cheap that they compare better with solar generators and they deliver more bang for the buck, IMO. It isn't as "refined" looking, but if you keep the inverter/ battery connected to a cheap low amp charger and when the power goes out the charger won't charge any longer, but the battery/inverter will still power the fridge, just as if it was a UPS and it will do it for days not hours. I live in Tornado Alley, so I have to plan for days of outages. BTW, that unit looks a lot like a Bluetti EB3A. Are they as similar as it seems? My EB3As makes my lights flicker when I plug them into the units acting as UPSs. Is that unit better? If it is I may want to get a couple.
Thanks for the information. I've never noticed any lights flickering when I use the EB3A. This unit is very similar but gets a little bit more power out of the AC side. Thanks for the comment.
@@OffGridBasement It's actually a common complaint with the EB3A. It's been determined that it's because the wall power isn't being passed through the unit directly to the AC device, but rather, the EB3A is using its inverter to run the AC device and, when it detects a small drop in the voltage on the built-in LFP battery, from running the inverter, it switches on the charger and that causes the very quick interruption in power that makes SOME lights flicker at regular intervals and, unfortunately, also slowly degrades your battery, even when the wall power is working. Folks complain that, even though the lights don't flicker, they are annoyed by the frequent clicking inside the unit, probably due to a relay turning on the charger. Do you get any rhythmic clicks from the unit you used in this video or the EB3A when they are acting as a UPS?
defiantly that power station will Handel
Yes it does. Thanks for the comment.