Modelling and sizing of a 12 V DC photovoltaic refrigerator

Photovoltaic technology has a great opportunity in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) due to it is high intensity of solar radiation. In this study sizing of different components of photovoltaic dc refrigerator is carried out at different locations in KSA. Different equations were used in sizing the peak wattage of the solar panel, battery size and the ampere value of the solar charge controller. A photovoltaic refrigerator is installed at Madinah site in KSA, various measurements were done for this refrigerator including the compressor run time, power and energy consumption of the refrigerator. Error between the calculated and measured value is carried out at different operating conditions. The minimum and maximum error of the daily energy consumption of the refrigerator was found to be 0.6% and 2.4% respectively, while the minimum and maximum error of the daily battery ampere-hour consumption was found to be 1.0% and 2.79% respectively.