Trouble is the compressor doesn't run all the time afaik plus with a fuel powered unit of some kind you still need fuel, admittedly not much in all likelyhood but I'd like to get away from the dependency on fuel.
I've been looking at making my own solar panels from factory offcuts which are available quite cheaply and not very hard to wire together or mount into a useable panel. Living on top of a cliff wind power would be ideal but they don't seem to generate enough power unless pretty large and then they're also pretty expensive.
I wonder what the power output of solar panels covering the roof of a 6' x 4' shed with an apex roof would be, or even half of the roof area?
You would need a lot of solar panels to run a freezer and a huge bank of batteries. The cheapest way would be to get a fridge out of a caravan that runs on gas. Connect it to a gas bottle and you can make these run at low temps.
EcoSolarCool is a US brand of solar powered refrigerators & freezers. This range of products are designed with advanced technology that
combines the latest innovative compressors and computerised digital
control systems. There are several customer reports that show as low as a 150 watt solar panel powering an 8.8 cubic feet EcoSolarCool solar powered freezer or an equivalent EcoSolarCool solar powered refrigerator. These products offer huge savings on consumers' energy utility bills and are an excellent alternative especially compared with existing propane powered products. EcoSolarCool solar refrigerators range from 4.1 to 6.2 cubic feet and their freezers from 3.5 to 8.8 cubic feet. http://www.ecosolarcool.com
The simple answer is yes you can run your freezer off a solar panel set up, a better answer is yes if you know how much power the freezer needs on the cooling cycle.
Then you could work out how many panels of a fixed size & output you would require, many solar panels list their efficiency ratings as a % of power output eg 80% efficient however if your read the fine print on how they obtain their rating you will find most are averaged at 12 hours in direct light.
so to use a panel rated at 80% efficiency you would need to be on the equator.! and in the UK you can expect about 6hrs average this will obviously how much you can get out of a solar setup.
I have an Engle 45ltr fridge this uses 2.5ah @ 12v when its on its cooling cycle, It will make Ice and I can run it off a leisure battery topped up with solar indefinitely.
