In these times in which the price of electricity has become a luxury, there are many articles such as 'How to reduce the electricity bill?' or 'Tricks to save on the electricity consumption of your home'. And it is that, as if the panorama were not discouraging enough, all the forecasts indicate that in the coming months and, especially, during the next year, the prices of electricity and gas they will only increase in Spanish homes. So it is not surprising that now we all share our best tips and tricks to help in everything necessary to this end: consume less energy and be able to save on the electricity bill.
And with this article, we too want to contribute to this forced change and benefit anyone who might be interested. And it is that at Bluetti we have products that can help those homes that want to reduce their energy consumption. Our proposal is, mainly, that you switch to complete or partial self-consumption in your home. That is to say, that you collect solar energy with solar panels and store it in energy stations so that you can dose it and use it as you wish.
Why start by choosing a solar panel for a refrigerator?
Switching to complete energy self-consumption; depending on the size of your house, the number of people and the number of electrical devices; it can be a very expensive decision. If that is your idea and you want to go all out, you should start asking for quotes that include a sizing study along with the installation.
On the other hand, if right now you cannot make that investment but you do want to start little by little, we recommend that the first step is to choose the best solar panel for a refrigerator.
And it is that, using as a reference an article by Endesa from last year in which he analyzed “Which appliance uses more electricity at home?” , we were able to extract a lot of useful information that you will surely be interested in:
- The use of electrical appliances accounts for 55% of the electricity consumed in a Spanish home.
- The refrigerator accounts for just over 30% of the total cost of electricity for household appliances.
- Class 'A + + +' or 'A' refrigerators consume up to 80% less than class D refrigerators.
- The second household appliance that consumes the most is the washing machine and the television.
- Laptops are the household appliances that consume the least energy.
After seeing all this data, we knew that one of the keys to a more economical future in electricity bills was to focus on that appliance that devours energy for 24 hours: the refrigerator.
But as always, before you can make a decision you need to know technical information. And it is that, depending on your refrigerator and your particular needs, you can choose one or another type of solar kit, plates or storage batteries.
The different powers and labels of the refrigerators
Before entering which solar panel for a refrigerator you need, you should know the kind of refrigerator you want to buy or the one you already have at home. To do this, you will have to consult the famous energy efficiency label that all electrical appliances carry. Surely you already know them or you know something, but you need to know that, recently, have had some variations that are important to know. After the last change, these tags go from A to G. That is, a total of 7 degrees of efficiency that will indicate the efficiency of the electrical appliances that we buy.
Prior to this assignment, there were A+, A++, A+++, A, B, C, and D ratings. A terminology and classification that did not seem to be entirely clear to buyers. For this reason, this new formula wants to make it clear with a single letter, which appliance is more efficient than another.
But the important thing here is that you know that all appliances that previously had an A + + +, will directly become class B. With this they intend to leave room for new household appliances that are manufactured with technological improvements and that make them totally superior to those that we previously considered A + + +.
Before choosing a solar panel for a refrigerator, you should know its consumption
In general terms, you should know that a type A + + +, A or B refrigerator (depending on the type of classification it has) can have a consumption of between 175 and 285 kWh per year. And a refrigerator with classification A + or C could present an annual consumption of approximately 320 kWh.
Choose solar panel power for refrigerator
So, as we said, in any refrigerator you will find the energy label that will tell you how many kWh that particular appliance consumes per year. Now, suppose that according to the label, your fridge consumes 350 kWh per year. If we divide it by 365 days, that means 0.9 kWh per day.
On the other hand, if we have a typical solar panel power of 300W, it means that every hour of optimal sunshine, our panel generates that power. Now we have to calculate 300W x 6 hours of sun (more or less depending on the season of the year), which would be 1800W or 1.8 kWh per day.
So we have a refrigerator that consumes 0.9 kWh per day and a hob that generates 1.8 kWh per day. In this case we only need 1 solar panel or two for the more forewarned and, as we will explain below, we must take into account the intermittent energy.
Take into account the energy intermittency to choose a solar panel for a refrigerator you need
We have to take into account that, for example, if we have a solar panel that generates 300 watts per hour under optimal conditions, means that it will only generate that amount of energy when it is properly focused and when it is sunny. Therefore, during the morning hours, at dusk or on cloudy days, our board will not generate that amount. Therefore, with 300 watt plates, we can imagine that, on average, it is very possible that you end up generating 150 or 250 watts per hour.
So when making your calculation, take into account the weather in your area, how many hours of sun you have depending on the season and all the factors that can cause your solar panel to not achieve all the expected performance.
The most important thing is to choose how to store the energy of the solar panel
Choosing a good solar panel for a refrigerator is important, but it is also important to find a good way to store and ration energy so that our refrigerator can be powered by that energy for 24 hours. And it is that, one of the first crossroads in which we find ourselves when we think about solar energy and powering a refrigerator is that the sun is only present for a few hours (from 8 to 5 hours depending on the season of the year) and, on the other hand, the fridge is constantly running.
Therefore, the idea of feeding your refrigerator with solar energy collected with the power of solar panels can only be carried out with the help of a power station or a storage battery that in turn acts as an inverter for use in our refrigerator.
What type of refrigerator should I choose if I want it to work with the power of solar panels?
Taking into account everything we have just seen, the best alternative we have is to always choose the most efficient refrigerator. That is, refrigerators that consume little energy (such as small vans) or class A (A + + +) or class B (A + +) refrigerators. In this way it will be much easier for us to think of feeding it only with power from solar panels and a storage battery.
