I found a power pack at costco that I would like some opinions on. It is a xantrex xpower powerpack solar. It can be charged with 12v dc, ac or solar and contains a 10 amp-hour battery inside. It can power 12v dc, 120v a/c or usb. Is something like this too light weight to run a engle/arb fridge and possibly more if needed? Costco - $99.99 After $20 OFF Xantrex? XPower? Powerpack Solar
xantrex powerpack solar opinions?
- Thread starter rockhead
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typical fridge: something like 2-3A per specs I vaguely remember. Not sure what the % running is, but if it runs full time in hot weather (do they?), then you'd have something like 5 - 10 hrs of run time off this thing. (Seems optimistic.)
I got a serious DC power pack that allows me to start the engine too. Probably much higher capacity too. Detailed thread here. Different purpose, though, but could be used for fridge.
I got a serious DC power pack that allows me to start the engine too. Probably much higher capacity too. Detailed thread here. Different purpose, though, but could be used for fridge.
I have a xantrex power pack. its the 400 watt model jump start and all that... I know what a 60 watt draw will last about 4 hours. not sure about a fridge. I use it for camping lights, pumping up the air mattress. Th lights are LED so there is very low power draw with them. I like the solar version and figured it would be a great option for long periods on the trail..
Bogo
FOOF
My "power pack" is a large deep cycle lead acid battery (160 AH) and a set of battery clips wired to a pair of cigarette lighter sockets. Heavy loads like the inverter and refrigerator I hook directly to the battery via their own clips. For lighter loads I use the cigarette lighter socket harness. For recharging it I can hook it up in parallel with the engine battery via jumper cables or use a 120VAC powered battery charger. I normally only charger it off of AC power. Only once have I charged it via jumper cables and running the engine. Even then I didn't bother to fully charge it up. Just to restore most of it's charge.
- Thread starter
- #5
I bought the xantrex powerpack solar and have a review myself. The solar cell takes 46 hours to charge the unit according to the manufacturer!!. I charged the unit on 110v as recommended and plugged in the ARB fridge. 6 hours later and the unit only had a 40% charge left on it. This product is too lightweight and I will be looking for something else.
Bogo
FOOF
Some thoughts on remote power.
How much power do you need? Think of this as Amp Hours (Ah). An ARB style compressor refrigerator can at most draw 3*24 Ah @ 12VDC. That is at most 72Ah per 24 hour period. It could easily use only half that, but let us use worst case. That means 72Ah of usable capacity is needed. Since you shouldn't discharge a deep cycle lead acid battery more than 80% it means we need 72AH/(80%/100) = 90Ah of battery capacity per day.
Solar panels cost, but look like they would pay well in cutting fuel use if you have to idle to recharge a battery. I'm just going to assume a flat installation with no angling the panel for better catching of the sun. That means you will get about 4*(rated capacity of panel) per day. So if it is a 72Watt solar panel it will only provide 4*72W on average. That is only 288W or 24Ah @ 12VDC. Unfortunately battery charging isn't 100% efficient. I'll assume we have a quality charge controller for our solar panel. That means we will likely get 90% efficiency or only 21.6Ah recharge per day. Prop that panel up so it catches the sun better and you will get more power out of it, but I wouldn't count on more than 6 times it's rated capacity.
One thing to note is during the middle day hours the solar panel will be directly powering the refrigerator. These are also the hours when highest draw will likely occur. That reduces the battery capacity needed per day. Unfortunately for cloudy days you still need that capacity. It just means you have more spare capacity.
Given my numbers are worst case I'd bet you could run a compressor based refrigerator off of a couple 72W solar panels if it is only wanting to run 50% of the time. I'd suggest having a 120+Ah battery bank so there is some flexibility in running the engine for recharge if the sun doesn't cooperate or temperatures are making the refrigerator run a higher percentage of the time.
If you are using one of those heat exchangers for hot water off of engine heat, that is a good time to also recharge the battery with the engine alternator.
On recharging the battery with an engine powered alternator. Don't bother to charge the last 10% to 15% as it starts to get quite inefficient as you can't charge at high current rates. Only do it if you have to run the engine for something else. Remember that maximum discharge for a deep cycle lead-acid battery, well, factor in not recharging to 100% and you now only really get 65% to 70% of the battery's rated capacity usable per day.
On that battery bank. I'd recommend using 3 60+Ah batteries and having a bit of extra equipment so they can be re hooked up in series so you can do a bit of welding if needed.
How much power do you need? Think of this as Amp Hours (Ah). An ARB style compressor refrigerator can at most draw 3*24 Ah @ 12VDC. That is at most 72Ah per 24 hour period. It could easily use only half that, but let us use worst case. That means 72Ah of usable capacity is needed. Since you shouldn't discharge a deep cycle lead acid battery more than 80% it means we need 72AH/(80%/100) = 90Ah of battery capacity per day.
Solar panels cost, but look like they would pay well in cutting fuel use if you have to idle to recharge a battery. I'm just going to assume a flat installation with no angling the panel for better catching of the sun. That means you will get about 4*(rated capacity of panel) per day. So if it is a 72Watt solar panel it will only provide 4*72W on average. That is only 288W or 24Ah @ 12VDC. Unfortunately battery charging isn't 100% efficient. I'll assume we have a quality charge controller for our solar panel. That means we will likely get 90% efficiency or only 21.6Ah recharge per day. Prop that panel up so it catches the sun better and you will get more power out of it, but I wouldn't count on more than 6 times it's rated capacity.
One thing to note is during the middle day hours the solar panel will be directly powering the refrigerator. These are also the hours when highest draw will likely occur. That reduces the battery capacity needed per day. Unfortunately for cloudy days you still need that capacity. It just means you have more spare capacity.
Given my numbers are worst case I'd bet you could run a compressor based refrigerator off of a couple 72W solar panels if it is only wanting to run 50% of the time. I'd suggest having a 120+Ah battery bank so there is some flexibility in running the engine for recharge if the sun doesn't cooperate or temperatures are making the refrigerator run a higher percentage of the time.
If you are using one of those heat exchangers for hot water off of engine heat, that is a good time to also recharge the battery with the engine alternator.
On recharging the battery with an engine powered alternator. Don't bother to charge the last 10% to 15% as it starts to get quite inefficient as you can't charge at high current rates. Only do it if you have to run the engine for something else. Remember that maximum discharge for a deep cycle lead-acid battery, well, factor in not recharging to 100% and you now only really get 65% to 70% of the battery's rated capacity usable per day.
On that battery bank. I'd recommend using 3 60+Ah batteries and having a bit of extra equipment so they can be re hooked up in series so you can do a bit of welding if needed.
cracking it open
has anyone cracked one of these open i want to know befor i buy if there is room to cram a bigger battery in there
if there is how much room it seems that with that box there might be a bit of open space if anyone is curious find out for me
has anyone cracked one of these open i want to know befor i buy if there is room to cram a bigger battery in there
if there is how much room it seems that with that box there might be a bit of open space if anyone is curious find out for me
Gentlemen BEHOLD!
Optima group 31 blue top, SunSaver charge controller, Arco panel and a meter to see what's going on.
Optima group 31 blue top, SunSaver charge controller, Arco panel and a meter to see what's going on.
