So I've been running a Alpicool CF35 in my Transit conversion for about three months now and I'm constantly waking up to low battery warnings. My setup is two 100w panels on the roof feeding into a Victron 75/15 MPPT, with a single 100ah lithium (a cheap Fogstar one). Fridge is set to about 4°C and in warmer weather it seems to be cycling almost constantly.
From what I can work out, the CF35 draws roughly 45w when the compressor is running and it seems to kick on for maybe 40-50% of the time, so I'm estimating around 50-60ah overnight. That's already pushing the limits of my 100ah battery even before I factor in lights, phone charging and the occasional laptop session.
I'm wondering whether the issue is simply that I need more battery capacity, or whether adding a third panel would actually make a meaningful difference given the fridge runs all night when there's obviously no solar input anyway. I've seen some people mention insulating around the fridge more carefully — has that actually made a noticeable difference for anyone?
Has anyone solved this on a similar-sized setup, or is 200w just not really enough to run a compressor fridge year-round in the UK without bumping up the battery bank?