Solar Refrigerators & Freezers

Solar Refrigerators and Freezers for Off-Grid Homes, Cabins, and Backup Power

A solar refrigerator or freezer is built to use very little energy, so a modest solar panel and battery setup can keep food cold around the clock. Krato Power carries SunStar DC and AC chest freezers and upright refrigerators, built in the USA for off-grid homes, cabins, RVs, and backup power. Every order ships free with no sales tax and a price-match guarantee.

DC or AC: which solar freezer do you need?

• DC chest freezers (SunStar ST-8CF, ST-15CF, ST-21CF) run straight from a 12V or 24V battery bank and sense the voltage automatically. There is no inverter running all night, so less of your stored energy is wasted. Best for off-grid cabins, RVs, and dedicated solar setups.
• AC chest freezers (SunStar ST-15CF-AC, ST-21CF-AC) plug into a standard 115V outlet, so they work on grid power, a portable power station, or a home battery system with an inverter.
• AC/DC upright refrigerators (SunStar ST-10RF and ST-16RF) run on 12V or 24V DC and 115V AC, with a refrigerator section and a freezer section.

Every SunStar chest unit has a two-in-one thermostat, so you can run it as a freezer or as a refrigerator. Running a chest freezer as a fridge uses far less power, because cold air stays in when the lid opens.

How much solar does a solar freezer need?

SunStar rates the 8 cu ft ST-8CF DC at about 385 watt-hours a day as a freezer (0°F) and 145 watt-hours a day as a refrigerator (38°F) in a 77°F room. The 15 cu ft ST-15CF-AC is rated at 470 watt-hours a day as a freezer, and the 21 cu ft ST-21CF-AC at 615 watt-hours.

As a rough guide, one chest freezer needs about 200 to 400 watts of solar panels and a LiFePO4 battery of at least 1 to 2 kWh to run through the night and a cloudy day. A hot room, frequent lid opening, and loading warm food all raise daily use, so size with some headroom.

Build the system around it

A DC freezer needs solar panels, a solar charge controller, and a 12V or 24V battery. SunStar recommends wiring the freezer directly to the battery with a fuse or breaker in between, not to the load port on the charge controller. Want it done for you? Start with a solar panel kit, or run an AC model from a portable power station.

Solar freezer FAQs

Can a solar panel run a freezer without a battery?

Only freezers made for solar direct use can. SunStar chest freezers and refrigerators run from a battery bank, which the panels recharge during the day, so they keep running at night and on cloudy days.

Is a solar freezer worth it?

If you are off grid or want food storage that rides through long outages, yes. SunStar says its appliances use roughly a half to a third of the energy of conventional units, which shrinks the panels and battery you need to buy.

Can I use a regular freezer on solar?

Yes, with an inverter and a bigger battery and array. A standard freezer uses more energy and needs extra power to start its compressor, so a high-efficiency model is usually cheaper to run off grid.

Helpful guides

Start with our solar freezer guide for panel and battery sizing tables. Also see how to run a refrigerator on a portable power station, what a 100 watt solar panel can run, and how to build an off-grid battery bank. Questions? Call our US-based team at 888-855-7286 and we will size the panels and battery for your freezer.