Comments on: Our Experience with Solar Powering a Refrigerator

By: dsky

dsky — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:25:03 +0000

considering the current price of solar panels, I would get the DCR165 and just get another panel or two if your little panel won’t do the job.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:06:15 +0000

“Tech Wizard” I have an 80 Watt Panel, 2 8D batteries and only need about 10 Watts for my lights. Great sun year round. Can I use bigger than a DCR50 and be self sufficient?

By: dsky

dsky — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:59:09 +0000

Greg’s tech wizard here… All Sundanzer units use the same Danfoss compressor which draws 6 amps @ 12 volts = 72 watts when running. The small fridge only requires 2 hours of run time to keep cool in warm weather = 144 watt hours per day @ 25 degrees C ambient temperature. The larger unit uses about 220 watt hours per day. Still about 6 times less than the BEST unit from Future Shop.

By: Green Web Hosting

Green Web Hosting — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:15:54 +0000

I would like to say “wow” what a inspiring post. This is really great. Keep doing what you’re doing!!

By: Alm

Alm — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:15:40 +0000

I think SDR165 draws much less power than 60-75 Watts. From the specs on their website it follows that it consumes 60-75 Whrs (Watt Hours) of ENERGY a day. In other words, in one day it consumes same amount of energy as an appliance with 75 Watts POWER would’ve consumed in 1 hour. I think the proper number for POWER would be obtained by dividing 75 Whrs by 3600 (because power is measured per unit of time, and 1 hour = 3600 seconds).

Yes, there is some mystic 40-80W in their specs for 165 model, but this must be a typo. 80W is the power drawn by a mid-size 110 AC Volt refrigerator like those in dorms – you wouldn’t like it on solar battery.

I’m at the very preliminary stage becoming an off-grid “snowbird” in some old shack down South (if will live that long), that’s why am interested.
Thanks for the article!