How many electric solar panels do you need to run your refrigerator?

Answer 1

There are many factors that will come into play here.

1. Where do you live? The region will determine how much sun, on average, you will receive. In Wisconsin we get about three hours of full sunlight each day. Temperature also is important. The warmer your location, the worse solar panels work. If your area is over 85 degrees, your panels will not produce as well.

3. What size panels? Panel ratings are made using short circuit current and open voltage peaks. In th real world you can expect about 80% from a panel. My 75 watts panels will peak at 56 watts on a sunny and cool day. In the summer, the panels degrade to about 48 watts.

4. What is the power needed for your unit? If you draw is, on average, 200 watts you will need to cover 200 watts.

Let's do the math now. To do so you take the 200 watts times 24 hours. So we will need to collect 4800 watts a day of power. Assuming you live near me you will have three hours of equivalent full sunlight to do this with 56 watts an hour from each panel. That comes out to 168 watts a panel per day. The minimum number of panels for my area would be 29. This should give you enough for all but the warmest days to cover your unit.