Fridge on Solar?

[Techno]

The S+ terminal is just above the D+ with the white wire RMD8505. Having thought about it I think getting a wire there will take me half an hour, Got to give it a go for France :Cool:

 

[funflair]

The S+ terminal is just above the D+ with the white wire RMD8505. Having thought about it I think getting a wire there will take me half an hour, Got to give it a go for France :Cool:

Hi Andy

Ours is 7 series so not S+ (not as posh as yours)

You might as well get on and do it, cos you know you just can't resist the challenge.

Martin

 

[Wildman]

There seems to be some confusion as to the the function of the power out terminal on a solar controller, The terminals are power from the battery and as such are live after dark, what the controller does is to ensure you do not draw excess power from the batteries so that when the battery level drops to say 11.5V on load the supply will cut off thus protecting the batteries. The total current that can be drawn depends on the rating of the controller 10/20 amps whatever. My 150W Inverter has been wired to these terminals for the past 6 years, I run my TV/Sat box/ DVD player, and all of my phone/laptop/mifi chargers through it with no problem, charge during the day then full batteries for TV at night. So in answer to your original question it is not live only during the day.
A compressor fridge can be powered providing you have a sufficient battery bank/solar array. Whilst it may draw 10amps initially it very quickly settles down to milliamps.

 

[jonandshell]

Can we start a new thread about reinventing the wheel?!

 

[Techno]

Hi Andy

Ours is 7 series so not S+ (not as posh as yours)

You might as well get on and do it, cos you know you just can't resist the challenge.

Martin

Yes I'll probably do it Tuesday as I already have CBE relays in stock :thumb:
I do need to remember to combine battery banks though! as when the cbe sends 12 volts to S+ the fridge will be fed from the habitation batteries not the solar batteries so they'll go down quickly due to not getting solar charge unless they're paralleled up

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[UK Pete]

my fridge freezer is permanently on running off my solar charged battery bank
at this time of year there is plenty enough sun to keep it running without draining the batteries, it is a waco compressor fridge , absolutely amazing bit of kit ,
pete

 

[Snowbird]

If I remember correctly, JJ has or had one of those Waco compressor fridges. He lives in Portugal and am sure he said it did not work well from his solar system.

 

[Jim]

How does the 12v cope with cooling when the fridge is in normal use, ie the door being opened now and again? I always thought the 12v option was only good for travel, and even then not that good. When its been very hot I've kept it on gas rather than 12v to keep cooling to the max. Is this not the case?

 

[Snowbird]

How does the 12v cope with cooling when the fridge is in normal use, ie the door being opened now and again? I always thought the 12v option was only good for travel, and even then not that good. When its been very hot I've kept it on gas rather than 12v to keep cooling to the max. Is this not the case?

In theory the 12 volt side should work as well as the mains side. Mine does. Am told that many dont work so well on 12volt because of voltage drop due to the coach builder not putting heavy enough gauge wire in.

 

[Scottyboy]

mine works best on 12v hence why i wanted to do this in the first place, we always lay a 2 litre bottle of water across the middle shelf,whenever travelling we always end up with slushy ice frozen water.

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[pappajohn]

The S+ terminal is just above the D+ with the white wire RMD8505. Having thought about it I think getting a wire there will take me half an hour, Got to give it a go for France :Cool:

i can see you didnt install that wiring........what a mess !

 

[Techno]

That's rapidoes finest work

 

[Pat4Neil]

We have a Waeco 140 litres compressor fridge. We managed to run ours at Peterborough via of 24v set up, we can also run it on 12 v (but our system is set up for 24v) or we can run via 220v via the inverter but this is the last resort.

However our set up is a lot different to most, we have 220amp at 24 volt, with semi traction batteries, but we also have 720 watts of solar power.

We also managed to run our hotwater calorfier every morning for shower and by mid day was back at 100 percent of battery power.

 

[Techno]

Ready to fit tomorrow. I've used double insulated 4mm solar cable for the link to the fridge as it's tough as old boots and is getting fired through between the floors.
The other pair will just connect across pos/neg of solar batteries at the regulator where it will monitor the voltage and once 13.6 is sensed it will send a 12 volt signal to the S+ of the fridge and the fridge will then changeover to hab battery supply. Once the voltage drops to 12.5 it will switch off and revert to gas

 

[Techno]

As Techno Andy says I am guilty of this act of trivial fiddling.

When I fitted my three new solar panels making a total of 320 watts I used a Votronic MPPT reg for the new and matched panels, this regulator just happened to have a AES terminal specifically for switching a fridge to 12volts when there is spare solar power.

It was a simple run of lightweight wire to the D+ terminal of our fridge and wait for the sun to shine! eventually the sun came out and the AES light lit up on the regulator but alas nothing happened with the fridge.

A quick google lesson in alternator wiring told me that the ignition light wire that supplies the fridge D+ signal is what you call a floating supply as it floats between 12v and ground depending if the alternator is charging or not (a more modern fridge would have S+ terminal so none of this messing about with diodes and D+ terminals)

The quick fix was to fit a diode onto the end of the alternator signal wire to the D+ on the fridge and this would stop the Solar AES signal running to ground and hence it should and does switch the fridge over to 12v as if the engine is running, if the sun goes in or the battery voltage drops too much (we only have 160ah) the fridge just goes back to gas.

So in conclusion, yes you can do it and as the fridge only takes about 14 amps this can be supplied by 3 or 4 solar panels.

Is it worth it? Well the diode was only 69 pence from Maplins and the wire was in the garage so the answer must be YES, how much gas do we save? I don't know as I have not monitored the on off periods.

Sorry for the long answer.

Martin

I will have to employ the same method as you Martin as my AES fridge has its own relay that isolates the 12 volts which is controlled by S+ or D+ but it ignores the fact that the source of the 12 volts is via the CBE 12 volt distribution unit which again only closes it's relay when the alternator is running.
The fridge is clearly designed to have a permanent high current supply as well governed only by the fridges own relay.
So in hindsight the S+ wire I just pulled in was a waste of time
What diode did you use ? please :thumb:

I need to connect my solar signal to the D+ in the distribution panel which should be common to the D+ at the fridge too.

Note to self * I must remember that this will disable my electric awning too

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[Techno]

Right then job done!
I used this diode (resistant to high temp soldering) Broken Link Removed

I removed the S+ cable I previously installed as cannot operate via this unless the high current 12 volt supply goes direct to the fridge from the batteries. The Rapido CBE distribution board controls this so forget it.
Now using Martin's method I located the ignition signal from the alternator and.........

The white wire on the red connector is the ignition wire, now spliced and routed back out through the bottom of the DB

And now connected to the red from the CSB2 it immediately energises all the relays that would be triggered with the engine running.

I monitored the progress for over an our with broken cloud and rain and the batteries never fell below 12.8 under load and of course the CSB2 won't disconnect until it drops to 12.5 so I'm quite confident that this will work all day day in day out :thumb:

I actually witnessed it go over 20 amps for the first time

To prove it functions correctly I put the inverter on and kettle, this dropped the voltage sufficiently to check it disconnects at 12.5volts. Quickly back to 13.6 and fridge back on

P.S. Also I checked the fridge and even after only an hour the base of freezer was extremely cold.

 

[makems]

To prove it functions correctly I put the inverter on and kettle, this dropped the voltage sufficiently to check it disconnects at 12.5volts. Quickly back to 13.6 and fridge back on

P.S. Also I checked the fridge and even after only an hour the base of freezer was extremely cold.

I wish I knew somebody who do this job on my van. 400w of solar on the roof, would be the perfect solution.
Any recommended sparkies in the North East who could do this?

 

[Techno]

Dunno matey. I'd do it for you at a meet but don't know where and when yet. My Daughter lives by the Marina and we'll probably come up that way in the van before too long.

Which distribution panel do you have?

 

[Techno]

One thing to consider though is that when it is on anything that would normally occur when you start the engine will also happen
e.g. step retract / sat dish etc

I don't have a step or a dish :Cool:

 

[funflair]

I will have to employ the same method as you Martin as my AES fridge has its own relay that isolates the 12 volts which is controlled by S+ or D+ but it ignores the fact that the source of the 12 volts is via the CBE 12 volt distribution unit which again only closes it's relay when the alternator is running.
The fridge is clearly designed to have a permanent high current supply as well governed only by the fridges own relay.
So in hindsight the S+ wire I just pulled in was a waste of time
What diode did you use ? please :thumb:

I need to connect my solar signal to the D+ in the distribution panel which should be common to the D+ at the fridge too.

Note to self * I must remember that this will disable my electric awning too

Hi Andy

Sorry for the late reply, the same diode as you most likely, might have been £0.59 not 69 like I said before.

Looks like you have managed OK without me, good job done:thumb:.

Martin

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[funflair]

We have a Waeco 140 litres compressor fridge. We managed to run ours at Peterborough via of 24v set up, we can also run it on 12 v (but our system is set up for 24v) or we can run via 220v via the inverter but this is the last resort.

However our set up is a lot different to most, we have 220amp at 24 volt, with semi traction batteries, but we also have 720 watts of solar power.

We also managed to run our hotwater calorfier every morning for shower and by mid day was back at 100 percent of battery power.

Nice spec, the sun is free (cost a fortune to capture of course) might as well make the most of it.

Martin

 

[Techno]

Hi Andy

Sorry for the late reply, the same diode as you most likely, might have been £0.59 not 69 like I said before.

Looks like you have managed OK without me, good job done:thumb:.

Martin

uk59p is the code the price was £1.09

 

[Techno]

I've just spent the morning re arranging everything and now the CBE CSB2 has a switch (on the side of the 12 volt socket box) to turn off the fridge function when not required.

 

[Techno]

Broken Link Removed

And now connected to the red from the CSB2 it immediately energises all the relays that would be triggered with the engine running.

Should say the BLUE from the CSB2 oh:

Now labelled due to dodgy memory

 

[Techno]

I'm here at Le Portal France at 20:10 French time and my fridge is still on solar
The battery parallel indicator is showing on the overdoor panel
As there is no Sun I went out back to check and pleased to see it's not a mirage as the batteries read 12.8
I'm amazed to say the least , naturally when the fridge is at temperature it takes little to maintain

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[Techno]

Got to 21:10 and wifey boiled the kettle which ended the free fridge for today but I'm well pleased and the low sun has just come through so maybe yet it may go back on solar before dark

 

[funflair]

Hi Andy

Sounds like it's doing the biz. Pleased it's working well.

Martin

 

[Techno]

Looks like our last day tomorrow may be nice

 

[Techno]

Even getting fridge on solar power on the ferry

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Solar Fridge Wiring

Got to 21:10 and wifey boiled the kettle which ended the free fridge for today but I'm well pleased and the low sun has just come through so maybe yet it may go back on solar before dark

Hi Techno,
Looks like our discussion at Peterborough when you had the idea about using the CSB2 to safeguard the battery from discharging was worthwhile.
Unfortunately have only just returned to home in the South of France after our 5.5k KM trip so have not been able to do the wiring yet although have now bought all the bits while in the UK.
I am not exactly sure why you changed your wiring but my fridge supply is wired straight back to the battery with 6mm cable so should not have too much voltage drop.
This is the wiring diagram I intend to use using these Diodes Broken Link Removed.
I only have the D+ connection on my AES fridge.
Any comments?

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Regards,
Steve

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