Allwaters - 10-5-2024 at 06:35 AM
Good morning all,
I have been running my dual zone Iceco cooler of Renogy's solar controller (and batt) But am planning on an upgrade... I am looking at the Pecron ones
but not sure how big of a unit I need as they have numerous models. Basically I want to be able to charge it as well as run the cooler while I am
driving, as well as solar and AC shore power. Does any electrically minded person (I am not one) know about what size unit I am needing? My uses are
the cooler and phone charging... maybe run a blender now and then...
wiltonh - 10-5-2024 at 06:25 PM
There are two versions of the dual Iceco cooler. There is a 60 and a 75. The 75 uses 0.635KWH/24. That means it takes 635/24 which equals 26.45
watts.
Running off of 12 volts in your car this would require 2.2 amps from your alternator. Running off of 120 volts AC it would require about 1/4 amp.
Percon has many different sizes so I chose the E600LFP to check on, as it is one of there smaller units. It has a battery listed as 614Wh. It puts
out both 12volts Dc and 120 volts AC.
Every time you change the voltage from one type to another you loose about 15% to heat. This means that the best way to run that cooler is off of the
12 volt plug in the top right hand corner.
The easy way to calculate the length of time it will run is to divide 614Wh/26.45W which is 23.21 hours.
The next thing to consider is how long will it take to charge back up. It takes 2.2 hours off of the grid. It takes about 7 hours using your car.
Solar has a limit of 300 watts maximum. It takes 2 to 4 hours depending on how much sunlight and the angle of the panels.
You need to decide how many hours you want to run the cooler with out any input power to the solar generator. If 23 is enough then this unit will
work. If you want several days then you need to look for one that has a larger battery.
BooJumMan - 10-6-2024 at 07:18 AM
How many watts of solar do you have?
Still best to size battery assuming no solar input for conservatism.
Your largest draw will be the fridge obviously. Most of those units are 60W. If it was running 24hrs a day, it would pull 1440 Wh of power. Usually
they run about 50% though, so 720 Wh would be more realistic.
So, if you round up to 1000Wh a day, you can then figure out which model you want, and how often you need to charge it. My pick would be this one:
https://www.pecron.com/products/pecron-e2000lfp-portable-pow...
Assume you can run 2+ days w/o charge input. If you have 2x the amount of solar input vs your output, you could run "forever" as long as there is sun.