Best truly efficient off grid fridge/freezer?

softdown · April 2020

Best efficiency for fridge and freezer? This combo works quite well:

Chest freezer for freezer. Cold air doesn't fall out when the door is opened.

Upright freezer converted to fridge with external controller. Take advantage of twice as much insulation. I use this one: 40F is the min. temperature. https://www.amazon.com/Century-BNQ-T7B-Digital-Cooling-Controller/dp/B01LZV591B/ref=sr_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=external+temperature+controller&qid=1586874587&sr=8-19

I may soon disconnect my energy hogging Energy Star fridge/freezer - with 1" of insulation on the freezer area. Just need more room in the chest freezer - which was recently filled with frozen cauliflower bits.

On a diet and/or concerned with health? Cauliflower offers many benefits. I bought a freezers worth when on sale. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-of-cauliflower

tampasolar · November 2020

Been doing some research. Seen others with batteries that are being sucked down at night when the defrost cycles on. Defrost can us 5 times the energy. We need to find a freezer or combo that allows us to turn off the auto-defrost completely. Or the ability to set our time to defrost to when the sun is out, not the overnight. It would be nice if we knew of a model that when powered off, reset the defrost timer unconditionally. And would never run it until like 8 or 10 hours later and start its cycling that way. This would allow us to use a timer to kill unit for just a few minutes and insure no defrost at this time of the day or night. Thoughts ?

mcgivor · November 2020

This potato has been peeled multiple times, the defrost cycle serves a purpose, eliminating or reducing the frequency of cycles may actually use more energy in the long term by ice build up causing longer compressor run time. The better solution would be to have adequate battery capacity in the first place, just an opinion.

mcgivor · November 2020

softdown said:

mcgivor said:

This potato has been peeled multiple times, the defrost cycle serves a purpose, eliminating or reducing the frequency of cycles may actually use more energy in the long term by ice build up causing longer compressor run time. The better solution would be to have adequate battery capacity in the first place, just an opinion.

Dumbest post. Ever.

Coming from an I'll informed conspiracy theorist paranoid about everything from big brother to contrails, living in a cocoon of self ignorance, unable to articulate the language native to himself by using words out of context, I would retort by saying you are the least informed, ignorant, paranoid, uneducated, untaught, unschooled, unenlightened individual I've ever come across albeit on a forum.

There is no surprise why you complain about being shunned from other forums, you bring upon yourself by not respecting an opinion, you my friend are the most ignorant specimen ever to troll an otherwise useful forum where information is shared. Should you not be able to contribute anything useful, perhaps you should find another platform to spin your wild and wonderful INSOC fictional ejectamenta.

The meaning of dumb is the inability to speak, but I have spoken, take your garbage where it may be appreciated, anywhere but here, where friendly dialog is helpful to others.

tampasolar · November 2020

So today what is the most affordable storage option for someone in Florida ? I don't want to ship cross country if I can pickup within a few hours of me. 10kw or 20kw of storage. Something good for ten years that won't drain the bank account faster than the batteries !!

BB. · November 2020

Tampasolar,

I suggest you start your own thread and tell us more about exactly what you have today, and what you need (power, local temperatures, expectations, full time or backup power, etc.).

That way, we can focus on your system and needs.

-Bill

Dave Angelini · November 2020

Good idea boss! There is no reason to do anything nowadays but buy the size reefer you need, properly size the storage and charge source. Anything more than just doing that is mindless to me. I must have 325 offgrid homes doing this without any issues.

New_Mexico_Will · November 2020

That's what I did after researching "off grid" refrigerators. Instead of dropping 2 grand on a fridge, I spent $300 on a 10 cubic foot Magic Chef on sale and spent the difference on 3 more 200ah batteries. I thought about the freezer with external thermostat, but they really aren't user friendly and don't have the nicer features of a fridge.

Dave Angelini · November 2020

My point is there really is not an offgrid refrigerator these days. It is just a design issue that one deals with.

If you go too far up in size, and are using more than the system can store/replace, you redesign/resize. Good Luck!

touring4 · November 2020

I use an ARB Zero, something like 79qt. It uses 250 watts/ day or less when set @ 32 degrees. Even in the Arizona desert 😀. I have 300ah un batteries but 100 would be way plenty for this fridge. The current draw when it is running is like .8amps.

I really recommend it!

JRHill · February 2021

BrianMoser said:

My feeling is to use a standard Energy Star rated fridge. They consume "about" 1Kwh of power a day, and my 2, 20CF fridges have plenty of room. The "solar" fridges are often just 7-10CF.

The drawback is, they expect Hover Dam on the end of the cord, and have a hefty starting surge, which means most 300 or 400 w inverters do not have enough capacity to start the fridge. Most of the 1,000w inverters are able to start the fridge.

I just came across this thread and find it fascinating. I use a similar model of a temperature switch talked about earlier for the chest freezer use as a refrigerator. I use mine for the circulating fan behind the woodburner with the temp sensor placed to trigger it and shut it down without it frying. I has worked great for years and years.

But I have to give a thumbs up on Mr. Brian's post. We first bought an EnergyStar Maytag fridge from the big box store. I was amazed at the low power draw even with the internal ice cube maker. On "certain" occasions I will see the LEDs flick on startup but it so quick its not measurable. I added a EnergyStar chest freezer. Then a 2nd. I don't ever see a major draw for any defrost cycles on any of these units - all 3 running continuously and firing on and off as the internal thermostats triggere. One would think they are the major power draw but not. The winner is the HughesNet internet and the DirecTV+TV in the evening. Heck, our well pump draws less kWh/Day than the satellite services.

Also in this thread is the mention system design. Yup, ya have to have some battery and the inverter that can handle the momentary load. But my gosh, the premium price on low voltage DC appliances and the qualified service if needed can really be shifted to the solar side of planning. And maybe with better performance per watt over the lifetime of the appliance. And you might need that capacity in others ways too - like in the shop.

It seems that some folks spend a bunch of money on specialty equipment and appliances that could be directed to their infrastructure and then use standard appliances reliably. I understand budget restraints well. But doing it on the front end is beneficial.

mike95490 · February 2021

That's how I felt, building my system, finally settled on conventional gear, keeping energy savings in mind. I chose a beefy inverter and beefy battery bank to meet the surge requirements, and everything else is plain energy star gear.
When I have to replace my well pump, it will be on the shelf at the dealer and $400 and any redneck can wire it up to the cables

Best truly efficient off grid fridge/freezer?

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