What would be the easiest way to connect a refrigerator to a battery system to keep the fridge going in a power outage ?? Ideally ,, for a week or longer . I'm thinking I could install batteries,, connect to an electrical trickle charger to keep batteries charged till needed . I'm working away from home ,, so I'd like to be able to keep my freezer from thawing out before I could get home . Any help is appreciated .
Have an old style chest type freezer without auto defrost. Uses less than 1/2 the power that my new "efficient" upright does and while it doesn't defrost, the stored stuff seems to last a lot longer and keep better. In "auto defrost" operation, I notice that sometimes the ice cream is hard and sometimes soft. Use chest type for long term storage, dried fruits, nuts, oils, etc, so excursion to 20 degrees or so would not be disastrous. Think as always in long term or off grid, power usage is perhaps more important than amount of power needed. Have used solar cells with battery as a "generator" and only use battery as a large sized capacitor, only run inverter when sun is shining. Not optimal, but can pick up used good solar cells cheap, good controller is reasonable, but so far haven't found good cheap long term usable batteries.
What ever it is you need at least 2kwh per day to that freezer. Sounds like you're looking an uninterpretable power supply with external batteries.
How about a propane refrigerator or freezer. Not bought from these folks .. just putting it out there as an alternative Propane Refrigerators & Freezers | Off Grid Appliances
The problem with propane refrigerators is they burn like 1 to 2lb of propane per day. I never looked at propane deep freezers.
When we bought our first serious computer it was expensive for us, and we lived in the mountains where the power was unreliable. I didn't know a UPS existed, but I built up a system for us using a battery charger and gel cell battery and inverter, That computer never saw the grid and only got retired because of age. In later years, moving to an area that solar actually would work for us I bought any solar panels I could find, usually used. At the time I was working for a marina, and they let me have used batteries till they were no longer functional. We ran every thing on that bank. During the winter months I built up a small engine alternator for charging the bank. It used far less fuel than running the big generator. We lived totally off grid at the time. I now live in wine country and have all my solar and wind mill making power into the battery bank , but i have the grid to work with for heavy equipment I run only briefly. If power drops out the battery bank and inverter run with out a hitch. The great thing about a battery bank is that you can charge it with about anything if other resources of energy are limited or down for some reason. The battery bank is the most practical means of powering one's home. IMO
My RV has a dual electric / propane refrigerator / freezer. I can set it to electric and when power shuts down it defaults back to propane automatically. Power returns, back to electric. Don't know if they make freezers like that but it would be an interesting solution Update: Chest Freezers are propane with a 110vac option - The bad news - They've been discontinued Frostek Brand Propane Freezers for Sale at Warehouse Appliance Same company has upright propane freezers. Their claim is that the 22 cu ft model uses 3 gal every 7 days. Didn't look at all the models.
Here's another possibility... Solar Refrigerators | DC Refrigerators | Sundanzer / Sunfrost Refrigerators
I went and looked at the specs on the fridge ,, wrote them down,, but left out of town before I got back on here,, and forgot to grab the fridge specs when I left . I won't be back home for a week or so ,, but I'll post that when I get back home ,,, it's just your average fridge ,, it was a real question ,, guess I just didn't realize you needed detailed specifications,,, but I do appreciate your willingness to help,, and thank you for that . I'll post them when I get home.
I looked into adding a gas refrigerator/freezer to my preps years ago but decided against it. While the gas units are great in a power outage or emergency of short duration (6 months or less), for anything long-term you will eventually run out of fuel and be left with a very expensive storage cabinet. I'm currently looking at the solar electric options because they can be powered by solar, wind, and back-up generators. There is a place for propane in my preps, but like any resource that may not be replaceable a lot of thought will go into its use, and I don't plan on using it on a daily basis...because when it's gone, it's gone!
I've also got access to a creek that borders my property,, was thinking of building a Ram Pump system to turn a generator or alternator to charge my batteries . I'm pretty much an electrical dumass ,, so the watts, amps , volts stuff just doesn't compute in by brain cavity that well . I've tried to retain it ,, but that portion of my brain cavity is on leave I reckon .
Ram pumps only lift water 25 feet up and can not be blocked on output . water wheels been around forever , high speed pelton wheels need lots of head pressure or a good drop of altitude with good flow , normal fridge uses 1,3-1.5 KWH per day Battery bank of 48Vdc that charges at 59Vdc runs the coolers Inside coolers 8 deep and one beer fridge total deep and fridges on farm 15-17 some are cool others will work when needed or if a failure of one , always have dry feed inside . My solar is huge and 5 systems that only 2 hand shake My dometic cooler 120 v and 12-24 vdc cooler In testing was a Midnight KID on 2 150 watt high voltage panels , 150 watt in Parallel with specs Voc= 48.4 Vdc times two into a 24Vdc bank ran my freezer cooler with a frozen turkey over winter in Canada . Turkey is dog food, so no loss . Sloth
I think that Hydraulic Ram pumps can lift water a lot higher than 25 feet. They are wasteful as hell but can lift water a substantial height above the pump. HYDRAULIC RAM PUMPS (HYDRAM) - Renewable World Or are we talking about a different type of pump.
they can but now your into sch40 pipe for the pressure and above a 50 foot lift it could be a SCH80 pipe If there is a blockage , then damage can happen . I know of one that has run since 1850's up here , and still works They canNOT spin a gen anything unless there HUGE , a waste IMO , water wheel is my choice here Sloth
I wouldn't be pumping water up ,, maybe 15 ft ,, but the distance may be the factor. Was thinking of the waterwheel idea ,, geared to a generator,,, alternator. Just thinking on it ,, don't have time to play with the idea right now anyway.
