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solar for the fridge in your van · 21-08 00:25

The fridgeCompressor

How it is builtUpright fridge

How often you open itNormally
Size65 litre
Insulation45 mm
Keep it at5 °C
Where you areNetherlands
The monthJuly
Warmer in the van than out+5 °C

A van in the sun is warmer inside than the weather station says, and the fridge stands in the warm bit. This is the one number the tool cannot know for you.

Everything else on the battery0 Wh
Panel on the roof150 Wp
ControllerMPPT
ShadeClear roof
BatteryLiFePO4
Its size100 Ah
Days without sun2
Cable run, battery to panel4 m
watt·hours a day, the fridge alone

What the roof brings in, month by month

the panel brings in a month you run out what you use

Where the sum comes from

Nothing here is off a sticker. The cold box is taken as a cube of the volume you gave it, the walls as polyurethane at 0.024 W/m·K, and the heat that leaks in is turned back into watt·hours through the COP of the machine you picked. Then the two factors that clean foam knows nothing about: what the box really is — a tub with a lid is close to the sum, an upright fridge with a door seal, a steel frame and a compressor bay cut into its side is two and a half times it — and how often you stand in front of it. Those two are fitted to the 24-hour figures the makers publish at 25 °C, and they are buttons rather than constants for exactly that reason. It lands within a fifth of a measured fridge, which is closer than the sticker.

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