Upright freezer and chest freezer

just starting · March 2018

So I purchased a 6.9 upright freezer to be a fridge the usage with a 7 cf chest freezer is about 600wh per 24 hour so works good

softdown · March 2018

Freezers tend to have much thicker insulation... Refrigerators tend to disappoint me with their 1" sides.

jonr · March 2018

Another advantage of an upright freezer as a refrigerator is more compressor reserve capacity. More reserve capacity combined with thermal mass (water bottles) and good insulation allow more use of load shifting (for example, turning it off for early morning, before sun hours). Turn a regular refrigerator off for too long and it may not be able to catch up in any reasonable time frame.

just starting · March 2018

Not sure why someone would unplug the freezers. I just have a 1500watt inverter and can still wash clothes or (dry clothes in the drier with the dishwasher on) , with a tv on and a blue ray with surround sound never had a overload the freezers just surge at about 1200 watts for like 1/30 of a second then drop under 160 watts then down to about 80 over about two to three min I just have it set so if the fridge aka upright freezer turns on the chest freezer shuts off and cannot turn back on until the fridge is done + 5 min so fridge has priority over freezer. And with average draw under .8 kw for 24hours say a day I add meat to freezer. With just a 750 watt array( real power at full sun no clouds) it's easily achievable not to unplug the freezers ever.

mike95490 · March 2018

just starting said:

Not sure why someone would unplug the freezers. .....

I've got a timer set on my freezer, to get batteries through the night in severe winter cloudy conditions. Shuts it off from 4pm to 8am. In the garage where it's cold anyway, and shifts the freezer run time to daylight hours or times I run the genset.
In the summer, loads of sun and power - no problem

just starting · March 2018

I understand in your situation being way up north and having limited sun. Guess I'm just spoiled being next to the only 14er by it just off the plains makes for about 350 days with at least 4 hours of sun.

jonr · March 2018

Any time you run directly (vs from batteries), you save wear and tear on the batteries. Ideal would be a refrigerator that ran only during sun hours and never hit the batteries - without excessive temperature drop, even in summer.

I suppose the ideal timer device would measure temp drop, ambient temperature and time of sunrise and optimize the whole thing.

softdown · March 2018

Temperature fluctuations in a fridge should be acceptable as long as the temp stays below ~46F or so.....depending on the commodities. In a freezer, I think the food would get a lot of ice particles quite quickly. That happens now with the temp. within plus/minus a couple degrees of 0F.

jonr · March 2018

I calculate that the pumping due to a daily 10F temperature variation in a freezer causes a 2% air change. So perhaps equivalent in frost to opening the freezer one extra time every month.

In terms of food damage, no doubt that you need to run a refrigerator/freezer that varies in temp somewhat cooler. For example, if you normally run at 0F steady, you might have to go to -7/+3F with a timer.

Estragon · March 2018

Temp variance would obviously depend on insulation and use (door opening, adding warmer food, etc). My home-built top load freezer would take days to go from -7 to +3f if left closed and reasonably full.

jonr · March 2018

@Estragon : could you get away with running it only during sun hours? Perhaps with an over-ride button if you added a lot of warm food.

Refrigerators/freezers are often a big load on a solar power system. It's worth talking about optimizations.

Estragon · March 2018

@jonr - yes, I could just run it during daytime hours. It sorta works out that way anyway, because we usually put stuff in and take stuff out to thaw during the day. I don't bother turning it off as it uses so little overnight.

NANOcontrol · March 2018

I run a chest fridge only during the day and only have a car battery for start surge. Temp is set close to freezing and cold is stored in liquid. Fridge only starts when battery is near full charge and times off after about 12 minutes. Hot starts are prevented. Works even in rain and clouds.

Surfpath · March 2018

Like Mike, when it's super rainy and cloudy I turn off my (medium sized upright) fridge late at night. I kinda have to do this because I blew up my generator about 5 years ago and decided to not get a new one.

When my fridge was new it used 1.3 KWH/day, now it's up to 1.5kwh/d with a similar amount of stuff in it. I was thinking of putting a timer on it now, since my batteries are also getting on (6 years this November).

I am trying to stretch another year of life from them. We shall see.

mike95490 said:

I've got a timer set on my freezer, to get batteries through the night in severe winter cloudy conditions. Shuts it off from 4pm to 8am. In the garage where it's cold anyway, and shifts the freezer run time to daylight hours or times I run the genset.
In the summer, loads of sun and power - no problem

BB. · March 2018

If you are somebody who stores frozen food for 6 months or longer--Watch for freezer burn (freeze drying the food). "Large" temperature swings in the freezer can draw water vapor from the food and freeze on the plastic wrap/freezer coils and dry out the food.

Ideally, you want to keep the food near 0F (or lower) for long term storage... Even going to 5-10F is enough to cut the storage life of your food in the deep freezer.

-Bill

softdown · March 2018

It is impossible to be a prepper and not keep food for for lengthy periods. Keeping it cool, dry, and dark helps a tremendous amount. Especially with foods that have oils in them....as so many do. I seen a batch of old food go bad quickly simply because I moved it to my bedroom thinking I would consume it quicker. Exposing the oils to temps over 70F? Bam.....went rancid in snack foods that were well beyond their expiration date but had been stored below 60F....I guess.

Ice crystals in the plastic bags will happen over time. To me, they look worse than they are. They seem to get drawn back in during the microwave process. Very little harm done unless one is a postmodern "snowflake".

Part of the reason that I am a prepper malcontent..... There are a few dozens reasons to become a prepper. Yet it may be impossible to ever quit prepping unless the unlikely happens.....we quit living high off of debt and quit rattling the international saber 24/7.

I consider build an underground network at this point in time. Talk about falling off the really deep end.

A "fly on the wall/horse" has also "informed the internet" that I am a "spammer". News to me. Now I am pretty well blocked from the internet for most intents and purposes. So I ordered a PS3 and XBox with "8000 games". Got to occupy your time somehow.... Being almost broke with loads of time? Not what its cracked up to be. Can't help but wonder what juicy spygear the "Five Eyes" will install on my newly ordered gaming boxes. Been " sitting" at the same Canadian post office for a couple days now.

TucsonAZ · March 2018

I ran a 5.5cf freezer conversion for two months on my setup and while initially concerned found those concerns laughable in the end. I was using about 250 watts per day on it with the temps set for like 28 degrees. It did a fine job of frozen at the bottom and very cold but not frozen on the top. The 12v fridges are costly and not EnergyStar rated so I saved power and money converting a chest freezer. I bought this one for my current build:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L7QVT8S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I didn't even have to add a temp controller as there was enough adjustment in the one on it to get it to function at my target temps.

Upright freezer and chest freezer

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