Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?

Running a small chest freezer off a 200Ah lithium (assume 12V, so 2.4kWh usable at ~100% DoD, though I'd stick to 80% in practice giving ~1.92kWh) overnight — is this feasible?

Context for my situation: I've got a shepherd's hut build underway and I'm planning to power it from a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 with a 400W solar array feeding a Victron MPPT. The freezer I'm looking at is a small chest unit, roughly 60-litre class, rated at around 85W compressor draw but obviously the compressor cycles rather than runs continuously.

From what I've read, these small chest freezers typically average somewhere between 0.5–1.0 kWh per 24 hours depending on ambient temperature and how full they are. So overnight (say 8–10 hours) I'm looking at roughly 0.2–0.4 kWh consumption in theory.

On paper that looks very comfortable within a 200Ah battery's capacity, but I'm uncertain about a few things:

• Compressor startup surge — will my 1000W Victron Phoenix inverter handle the inrush current without tripping?
• Ambient temperature effect — the hut can get quite warm in summer, pushing the freezer to work harder
• Solar replenishment — in winter months, will a 400W array realistically recover overnight draw before the next night?

Has anyone actually run a setup like this and got real-world consumption figures from their freezer? Ideally with an energy monitor on it rather than just guessing from spec sheets. I've got a Shelly EM sitting in a

@Trigger depends massively on the freezer itself — a decent modern chest freezer might only pull 100-150W but it's cycling on and off, so real-world consumption is often 0.3-0.5kWh per 24hrs in a temperate UK climate.

Your 1.92kWh usable overnight (say 8-

Great points from @BoxerProject already. To add some numbers — a typical small chest freezer (say 60-100L) in decent ambient temps might average around 30-50Wh per hour once you account for the duty cycle. Over an 8-10 hour night that's roughly 240-500Wh total, which sits well within your 1.92kWh practical capacity. You'd likely wake up having used 20-30% of your bank at most.

Where it gets trickier is summer ambient temps or if the freezer's working hard to pull down temperature initially — that'll push consumption up noticeably. Also worth checking the freezer's actual energy rating label rather than relying on peak wattage figures.

Short answer: yes, very feasible overnight. Most people find chest freezers one of the friendlier loads for off-grid setups precisely because of that low average draw.

Really solid analysis already from @BoxerProject and @LiFePO4Pro. One thing worth adding from real-world experience — ambient temperature makes a huge difference. I ran a 60L chest freezer in my motorhome last summer and consumption dropped noticeably once I moved it out of direct sunlight and into a shaded locker.

Also worth checking the freezer's energy label — decent modern units (Liebherr, Tefcold etc.) often quote annual kWh. Divide by 8,760 and you've got average draw.

Your 1.92kWh practical capacity should be workable overnight if the freezer is well-loaded (thermal mass helps enormously) and ambient stays reasonable. Pre-cooling before solar drops off is an easy win too.

Monitor it properly — a Victron BMV-712 will show you exactly what's being consumed so you're not guessing after the first night.

Ran this exact experiment last summer in my motorhome. Small Icemaster chest freezer, 100Ah LiFePO4 (Fogstar Drift), ambient probably 18°C inside the van overnight.

It pulled roughly 0.8–1.0kWh over 8 hours — well within what @LiFePO4Pro was describing. Your 1.92kWh usable buffer should be comfortable for overnight, assuming the freezer lid stays shut and it's not a warm evening.

The killer detail nobody mentions: what's the freezer's starting load? Mine spikes to nearly 400W on compressor kick-in. Made my Victron SmartShunt show some alarming momentary numbers, but settled quickly.

At 80% DoD on 200Ah you've got decent headroom. Just don't run it freshly loaded with warm food — pre-freeze everything before switching to battery.

Worth flagging — ambient temp makes a massive difference to duty cycle. My cabin setup runs a small Shoreline chest freezer and in summer it's cycling way more than winter, easily doubling the draw over a night.

@VickyFisher's real-world data with the Fogstar is useful. I'd also say keep an eye on your Victron battery monitor if you've got one — the SOC readout overnight tells you pretty quickly whether you're cutting it fine.

80% DoD is sensible on the 200Ah but if you're also running any lighting or phone charging alongside, it adds up fast. Run it solo for one night first and log the consumption before adding anything else.