Potable Solar powered refrigerator and solar powered ice making

[bacpacker]

Good work DG. It looks nice and certainly works as planned.

[Domeguy]

So, what's left...I guess it would be the solar panel and the solar cable wires. Nearly all new panels now being made will have their own set of wires coming out of the underside of the panels. There will be a positive cable and a negative cable, usually coming from a box, sealed fron the elements. One of the cables will have a male fitting, and the other will have a female fitting. If you were wiring a series of panels together, you could wire one into the next one, and it into the next one, ect. Or you could wire them into a combiner box, and make many cables go in, and come out with just a pair, 1 negative and 1 positive. By as I am just using one high wattage panel, I just wired it straight to the charge controller. But I also needed it to be able to be easily unplugged for portability. I also wanted to make it idiot proof, because if I plugged the negative cable into the positive going into the charge controller, well, let's just say it wouldn't be good. The panels outgoing positive cable had a male connection, the negative had a female connection, so I wired the charge controller cables coming out of the box so the positive wire/cable also had a male connection, and the negative wire/cable had a negative connection. This way, even if someone tried to plug the panel straight into the box, the fittings wouldn't fit. And if you remember I earlier cut about 15' off the cable off each end of the 50' cable. I wired a male to the male ending cable, and a female to the other one with the female fitting. This way, the one with the double female fittings can only plug up to the male from the solar panel, and to the male fitting coming from the box connected to the charge controller, and the same for the other cable, but only in reverse. Now, they have been working on the solar cables/wires for years, trying to come up with a standard plug...they are now in its 4th generation on the solar connection. It cannot be unconnected once you plug male/female together without a special tool that I snaps the tabs in the fitting. So here is a picture of it, and the cable male female ends.[IMG][/IMG]
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Notice how the male fittings has rubber O ring gaskets on it. This keeps all the connections water tight.

[Domeguy]

Like I said, this was solar generator 1.0. Did it work, yes it did. Would I change things, yes I would. I would make the box a bit larger, mainly to give the inverter a bit more wiggle room and to give more room for a hand to fit on the bottom. I Mwould make it weather resistant, and do something to keep it portable. I just left to on the bed of the truck due to its weight, and if there was the threat of rain, I covered it with a tarp. I meant to install handles, but forgot. More batteries could be added, but would need to be outside, then wired into the batteries on the inside. The solar panel was large and heavy to move, but I wanted and needed the extra power punch that a small solar panel just wouldn't provide. One way to increase the size of this for more power, while still keeping it portable, might be to put 6-8 batteries in a wooden cradle in the bed of the pickup truck to keep them from sliding around. Then connect them to the power box, and have a total of 2-3 full sized solar panels, wired together and laying down flat across the bed of the truck. They wouldn't get the best direct sunlight, but they would get a lot. And they could be made to raise up some to face the sun if needed, bit I'm thinking of keeping it simple. So this would give me 12 volts with 600-800Ah with about 700 watts of incoming solar energy to keep it all charged. But then you are talking about a system that would be big enough where a trailer starts to make sense. I like electricity, and want to be able to take it with me. I guess in just getting old enough where I want to have my cake and be able to eat it too!

[FLPrepper]

I have been thinking about you the solar generator for my ranch up north, I would like something portable. Years ago before the main house burned up we had a trash burner on the propane stove for heat, a propane refrigerator w/freezer. We even had propane lights too. Propane is great when it comes to refrigeration, I ran the numbers and I figure the propane refrigerator would use about 200 gallons a year if run full-time.

Now solar it free once you put out the money for the initial infrastructure. Now Domeguy you said you purchased two batteries, why only two, weight? How many and what size panels? What type of inverter?

I want a system I can take put up and down when I visit the ranch. If I left it would I am sure one of the dope growers in the area would steal it. I have a small trailer I was thinking about installing it in so I set it up easy. I could easily put four or more batteries in it to increase the storage. I wasn't sure how many panels I would have to have but if I could have some way to fold them out I figure it would be quick set up. What do you think?

Look into the Goal Zero Yeti 1250 kit. Fully portable.

https://completeprepperstore.com/sto...generator-kit/

[realist]

I see this as too small for my needs

[Domeguy]

Realist, There is no reason, with a small bit of research first, you could not make something like I did to suit your needs. If you needed any help, all you would need to do is just send me a message.