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Hi all,
We are on a six month trip round Europe. We are now in Italy. We have a self build van that was not finished when we left the UK! Not ideal, it was all a bit hectic and stressful befoe we left.
We fitted the solar panel and have wired it up along our travels. It charges up fine (although now I wish I'd bought a bigger panel- ho hum!) It's 80W and we have two leisure batteries. The charge controller has lights and tells me when it is charging, and how charged the batteries are. It's great!
The problem is what i'm trying to run off it. Only a fridge, which is 6amps. I know from when I have had it working that it drains the batteries quite quickly, which is fine. I worked out I can have the fridge on between 8am-6pm and leave it off at night and thta's enough to keep things cold and not discarge the batteries completely. On cloudy days this time is reduced, not ideal, but a part time fridge is better than no fridge!
BUT, we have got through 3 lots of female cigarette wires so far- keeps melting them! fridge has male cigarette plug, then wired in female end plug to fuse box. Fridge says 15 amp fuse, but this is obviously too big if it's melting wires?incidentally, when I plugged it into the van 12V socket (with an extension, as it would'nt reach otherwise)that melted too, which is isolated from the solar system.
My questions are
1. Should I put a lower fuse in?
2. Should I just have a fuse on the negative wire from fusebox to appliance?
3. Is it possible to have power surges with a solar system?
4. Is it my fridge? I can't get it working on mains at campsites either but I suspect that is because the electric is 3amp and the fridge is 6amps? It gets hot at back, but not cold in fridge.
Any help much appreciated! Thank you!
Without knowing the make and model of fridge, it is highly likely that it is only designed to run on 12volts when the engine is running and then it must be hard-wired and connected via a dedicated relay.
Normally, leisure fridges are designed to run from either gas or mains electric.
Gerry
For clarity, by fridge do you mean built in compressor type fridge or a 3 way cooler box . I assume from your description that you don't have an absorption fridge as referred to by Gerryd as he is correct, they only work of 12v when the engine is running.
Also does the unit always overheat the supply cable or only sometimes? A fuller description of the equipment/issue gives us a better chance of finding an answer.
I doubt it's the solar panel. Yes, variations in supply are possible, but the regulator should ensure that these don't reach the 12v supply to the battery.
An absorption fridge will work straight of the battery, the reason they usually only work with the engine runny is they are wired that way because otherwise they will kill the battery in a short space of time. It will be melting the wire because the current draw is too much for the wire. some heavier wire will cure the problem but not the cause.
Hi,
Thanks for your quick responses! It's a three way coolbox. Make is Riviera, bought on ebay.
The 12v male cigarette plug supplied is not long enough to plug directly into van 12v supply.
We would like to run it off the solar panel, seeing as we spent about £300 setting it up! So, do you think that if we got some thicker wire (6mm?), chopped off the plug and wired it directly into the fusebox that would work? Is a relay a switch, so that you can switch it off when required?
Thanks for your help!
x
:)Since you are in Italy at the moment, if I were you I would be looking for an auto electrician. In Italy they are usually very skilfull at finding and curing silly little faults that baffle us mere mortals.
Look out for an 'officina elettrauto' and give them a go. They don't usually charge the earth, and as I said are very skilfull at 'fixes'.
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France
