Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
- Messages
- 515
- Location
- Castelo Branco, Portugal
We have a three-way fridge in the caravan and whenever it is sunny (often, here in Portugal) we have the fridge on. The problem is that it pulls 10-14Amps and when a cloud comes over that gets sucked out of our very old batteries. Not only that but, despite our best intentions, there have been occasions when we have forgotten to switch the fridge off in the evening and it has hammered the batteries all night.
I had a bright idea that if I were to fit a split charge controller (normally used in a vehicle to charge a leisure battery when the alternator is charging and to automatically disconnect it when the engine stops) into the 12v supply for the fridge then the idea is that it would fire up the fridge when there was solar coming in and disconnect it when solar power drops in the evening or a cloud comes over. Fit and forget, is the hope, switch the fridge on and not have to worry about it.
Does this seem like a good plan or am I going to run into problems with it cycling as the solar is trying to charge the batteries in the morning? Ideal would be something that would turn the fridge on when the system is on float but not while it is on bulk or absorb.
Does anyone have any better ideas? There are a few others who would be interested in such a system if I could come up with something like that.
TIA
I had a bright idea that if I were to fit a split charge controller (normally used in a vehicle to charge a leisure battery when the alternator is charging and to automatically disconnect it when the engine stops) into the 12v supply for the fridge then the idea is that it would fire up the fridge when there was solar coming in and disconnect it when solar power drops in the evening or a cloud comes over. Fit and forget, is the hope, switch the fridge on and not have to worry about it.
Does this seem like a good plan or am I going to run into problems with it cycling as the solar is trying to charge the batteries in the morning? Ideal would be something that would turn the fridge on when the system is on float but not while it is on bulk or absorb.
Does anyone have any better ideas? There are a few others who would be interested in such a system if I could come up with something like that.
TIA