The great thing about 12v fridges though is that they do not have to be running all the time and tend to hold their temperature better than an esky.
Battery Power
Car batteries and portable power packs are one of the most reliable ways to power your 12v Fridge/Freezer. For many people, the best way to power a camp fridge is battery power.
A 12 volt fridge uses between 30 and 55 Ah (amp hours) per day on average.
So for most weekenders a 100-120AH battery is more than enough to power your fridge and LED lights for a night or two.
Your fridge should run from around 35% of the day to around 85% of the day. A refrigerator that gets opened more frequently has to operate more often to lower the temperature of warmer items, so this amount varies. However, no fridge should run all the time.
But there are more than a few reasons why you shouldn't be turning off your fridge at night. With the fridge switched off, the temperature inside rises, so will the chances of growth of harmful bacteria. This results in the store food items getting stale and making them dangerous for consumption.
Every 12 to 15 hours, the refrigeration defrost cycle should begin, which uses a defrost heater to melt any frost that has accumulated on the evaporator coils. Once the defrost cycle is complete, the refrigeration cycle will begin again.
The solar panels will power the fridge as long as it gets sunlight. But there is no sun at night. You will need a battery to store the solar power for use at night or on rainy days. A 12V battery should work for a refrigerator.
You can't power a 12V fridge directly with a solar panel. Instead, you need to store the solar energy in a 12V battery and power the fridge off of that. Connect the battery and solar panel to a solar charge controller. You'll damage your battery if you connect your solar panel directly to it.
If the refrigerator is the 12V RV one, then the 100ah battery is rated at 1500/100/80%=18.75 volt, and the backup time is battery power (Wh) / connected load (W) = 4800/250=19 hours theoretically. In case the battery is the lead-acid one, 50% DOD is applied.
Benefits of a 12 Volt RV Fridge. There are some significant benefits to a 12-volt RV fridge model for those currently using a propane or residential fridge. Portability, reliability, interior fridge space, defrosting, and efficiency are all benfits you'll see in 12-volt RV refrigerators vs. propane RV refrigerators.
There is absolutely no question – a fridge cooler will drain you car battery. On average, fridge coolers will draw 4.5A at 12V. As they are thermostatically regulated, you can expect the compressor to be running about 25% of the time.
How long will a 12 volt battery run a 12V refrigerator. If you're using a Lead Acid battery, you can only discharge to about 50% without causing damage and shortening battery life, so with Lead Acid batteries, you'll get about half that run time, or 12 to 25 hours.
To sustain your food's freshness for a longer time and to prevent bacteria from growing, it is essential that your portable fridge maintains its temperature between 0°C and 5°C.
With a 12V RV fridge, there's no need for an inverter because there's no need for that conversion. The fridge runs directly on the 12V DC power supplied by the rig's battery bank. This is a benefit of a 12V fridge over a residential fridge because an inverter isn't 100% efficient, so power is lost in the conversion.
Solar panels can effectively power portable fridges, but the number of panels required depends on the specific fridge and its power requirements. It is essential to consider factors such as available sunlight and battery capacity to determine the number of panels needed.
The best size solar panel to run a 12V fridge is 150 Watts into 200 Watts of batteries. That's why a 300-Watt panel system is a great choice since you can be sure to collect and store more than enough energy for a continuous power supply.
How many solar panels do I need to run a refrigerator? The average refrigerator takes about three or four average solar panels to run. The average refrigerator found in the United States uses approximately 57 kWh per month while the average freezer uses 58 kWh.
A typical refrigerator uses around 100 watts of electricity. If you have a solar panel that can produce around 500 watts, then you will need at least six solar panels to power your refrigerator.
An average 200-watt solar panel will charge a typical 12-volt car battery in 5-8 hours. The charge time depends on the battery capacity, and it takes around 2.5 hours for a 200-watt solar panel to charge 100Ah of battery capacity.
You need around 220 watts of solar panels to charge a 12V 100Ah lead acid battery from 50% depth of discharge in 5 peak sun hours with an MPPT charge controller.
If your refrigerator is running what seems like all day, one of the most common causes is also the easiest to fix. The answer is simple, the condenser coils in the back are dirty. Located either behind or underneath your refrigerator, these coils are part of the sealed system in your refrigerator-that cools it.
Don't use the fridge outdoors or anywhere it is likely to come into contact with the elements. You won't save energy by turning your fridge off for short periods of time because it will just use more energy to cool down again when you do turn it back on.
There is no standard interval for how long it should run in between cycles, though some sources say it runs for about four to eight hours per cycle on average.