fridge0

fridge0

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Fridge0 is a design for an offgrid, solar powered fridge, with no battery bank.<br>Using an inexpensive chest freezer with a few modifications, the fridge<br>retains cold overnight and through rainy periods.

Fridge0 consists of a standard chest freezer,<br>an added thermal mass, an inverter, and computer control.<br>It ties into the typical offfgrid system of a<br>solar charge controller,<br>battery bank, and photovoltaic panels to maintain a safe<br>temperature range.

The battery bank is a large part of the cost of a typical offgrid fridge<br>installation. It needs to be sized to run the fridge overnight, as well as<br>for several days of poor weather. Cheaper batteries only last 3-5 years,<br>and longer lasting batteries are correspondingly expensive; either way a<br>battery bank for an offgrid fridge is extremely expensive over the lifetime<br>of the friddge.

By storing solar power in the form of cold, fridge0 avoids the battery bank<br>expense and environmental footprint. The only battery power fridge0 needs<br>is enough to turn it off cleanly when the solar panels stop producing -- a few<br>minutes of power instead of days -- and a small amount for its computer<br>control.

There are offgrid fridges produced by several manufacturers, which are<br>designed for 12v solar power, but these still may need a battery bank,<br>and are much more expensive than conventional equipment due to being very<br>well insulated using features like vacuum bottles. These offgrid fridges<br>were designed when solar panels were much more expensive than they are<br>today.

With modern cheap and efficient solar panels, commercial offgrid fridges<br>make less sense than they used to. A kilowatt of solar panels provides<br>enough power to run a conventional fridge on even most cloudy days, and<br>costs less than a commercial offgrid fridge.

guides

Guides for different parts of the process of building your own fridge0:

hardware enclosure

is it sunny

Joey Hess's fridge0

Joey Hess developed the fridge0 concept and the<br>first fridge0. It's been working well for almost a full year now.

This site is a wiki to document that fridge and similar builds.

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location of testing re Fridge0?

Hi Mr. Hess,

I read your post https://fridge0.branchable.com/ with interest. I was wondering what locale your Fridge0 is being tested in, and the weather there. I wanted to know some more background about the test conditions of your Fridge0.

Today, in Austin, Texas, we are looking at our 42nd day of 100 degree F (or higher) summer high temperatures. So cooling is very much on my mind.

I have friends who run their fridge off of natural gas (they live in one of the first strawbale houses in Arizona--that house has to be 25 years old at least), and friends in central Texas with well-run off-grid homes that have been going strong for 20-ish years. Always interested in stuff that actually works.

Data, data, data. IRL data.<br>And a posted schematic would nice too.

Thanks for whatever is next,<br>Jeanine<br>in very very southwest "Austin" Texas (USA)

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jeanine

— Thu Sep 5 17:32:16 2019

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Last edited Sat Dec 29 18:34:03 2018<br>Sat Apr 2 01:14:32 2011 -->