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Originally Posted by Ret.LEO
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OK, thanks. This is what the specs say:
Input voltage: DC 12V (min. DC 10.5V to max. DC 17V)
Input power rating: ≤ 15A (11A @ 12V DC)
Energy Consumption: 1.08kWh per day
So 11A at 12V DC is a lot. The 1,080 watts per day value implies a 33% duty cycle and 90 amp hours a day. Also a lot, but it is a big fridge, more than I would need.
The Lichtsinn experiment (thanks for the link) was interesting but not very well done. The morning after three days of running the fridge with 200 watts of solar and I suspect about 120 amp hours of batteries, the fridge was warm and the batteries I suspect were dead. They gamely said that you could go three days but with the fridge up into the 60s I think it died overnight, so maybe less.
It is hard to judge how much contribution the solar panels made. Usually 200 watts in full sun will produce about 70 Ahs, but the first day was cloudy and the second and third were mostly sunny. I can infer they got 140 Ahs out of the solar panels and maybe 100 Ahs out of the batteries before they died. That means that the fridge was using 240/3 = 80 Ahs a day. Quite a bit for a 7 cu ft fridge.
FWIW when I was living aboard a boat on the hook away from solar, I kept my 6 cu ft, well insulated ice box with a 12V cooler added down to about 20 in the freezer and 40 in the fridge. I would pretty well use up the contents every two weeks so I could live with the warmer temps. A ten degree internal temp increase probably cut the cooling load by 25%.
David