I'm sure there is an easy answer!

[Sabina Sanzio]

All I want to do is sell coffee!! In short ... I've had a mid life crisis and bought a catering van. It has a full size domestic fridge onboard. I need to keep milk cold from home to event site. I'll hook up at home and chill fridge till I leave. Am planning on using an inverter to keep fridge cold during journey and hook up or generator once at venue. The plate on the fridge states the input power is 50w and the lamp power less than 15w. Please could someone advise what size inverter I'll need and what size cable I'll need to buy (it'll need to stretch a few meters from front to back of van through cupboards etc). I'm not an electrician, I've got zero experience and am at my wits end. Please can someone help?!

 

[westward10]

There are plenty of 12/230v inverters about which plug into the vehicles cigarette lighter. Look online and just use an off the shelf extension lead for the fridge.

 

[Wilko]

Hi - I'm thinking that 50W average sounds a bit low for a full size domestic fridge (?). And when the compressor starts it will draw a lot more current, say 4A for a few seconds and that would need to be factored into selecting the invertor too. Can you advise the fridge details?

 

[FatAlan]

How far are you travelling? How about a few ice packs to tide you over till you get on site. A load of chilled milk sealed in a fridge for a couple of hours isn’t likely to warm up much.

 

[buzzlightyear]

How far are you travelling? How about a few ice packs to tide you over till you get on site. A load of chilled milk sealed in a fridge for a couple of hours isn’t likely to warm up much.

what a flask ,they keep thing cold or hot .

 

[Marvo]

Congratulations on embracing your mid-life crisis.

Can you post a couple of pictures of the fridge and the electrical info sticker on it please?

As mentioned your easiest solution is a cooler box with ice just for the transit period then use the fridge and generator once you're parked.

A normal domestic fridge run from an inverter gets a bit messy. You'll need a fairly high-end inverter (something like a Victron) that will tolerate the momentarily high start current every time the compressor kicks in and they cost about 500 quid. You'll also need to check that the alternator is capable of powering the inverter as well as doing its usual job of charging the van battery.

 

[dmxtothemax]

As far as loads go, this is a small load, You may have to experiment a little with the inverters, as the start surge of the fridge ( if their is one ) will be a problem for some smaller inverters. you can try starting with a small 150w inverter, if that doesn't work try a 300w inverter, that should have no trouble. I would use a seperate battery bank, and put a solar panel on the roof to top up your batteries during the day. the most expensive part is the batteries, good batteries are not cheap but I would use good one's any way. two medium sized batteries would be sufficent.