Off grid use

The 12v leisure battery is intended to provide low current power for water pump, lights, control circuits of fridges and control circuits of heating. The refrigerator should not be cooled by 12v except when the engine is running and alternator output is generated. The vehicle should be wired up with a relay to prevent the leisure battery from being used for the refrigerator. When you are pitched and off grid, you should use gas for the fridge, cooking and heating. A 100wat solar panel will not power a refrigerator, but may support the daily power requirement for the low current circuits, if the sun is good enough.

Isn’t that just absorption fridges, Obbernockle? I got the impression that the OP has a compressor fridge which is designed to run off the 12v leisure battery. I’ve heard they can drain batteries, though.🤷🏻‍♂️

I googled whether this was ok and it looks as though a bigger solar panel would be needed, 150w rather than 100w.

I suppose you have checked or had checked whether the leisure battery is ok? If you have been advised it can run your compressor fridge via the solar panel as the panel will not be at it best if not in full sun

Modern solar panels work well even without full sun JVB.

A solar panel at this time of year (especially 100w) wont keep a compressor fridge going for long.  You dont say whether you are just trying things out on the drive, or have used the van in a real life situation.

If you are using the van on a real life situation, then your battery will be used for water pump, flush, fan for any heating, lights.

We have a 120w solar panel, a 95amph battery and even in the summer I  would be pushing it to get two days without driving.

Others who know much more than I will tell you that too many vans are sold without the necessary power to give any reasonable off grid time.  Others will also tell you what you need  if you seriously want to be off grid.  Probably a lithium battery!  But that is a whole other story.

If you dont get the answers you need on this forum try a motorhome forum (like Motorhome Fun - prob not supposed to mention it here!!)

Realistically for sustained off-grid use you’re not going to get reliably far with a 12v fridge unless you use gas. A compressor fridge will use less power than absorption, but in hot conditions assuming 4 amps/hour for 50% of the time a 100AH battery will be flat in about 24hrs (assuming 50% discharge) maybe 48 hours in cooler conditions? You might get 60AH from a 100w solar panel in absolutely ideal circumstances, but for the most part it will a fraction of that in the UK (maybe 5AH on a bad day in winter) so no guarantee it will keep the fridge (or other electrical stuff) going. 

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To run a compressor fridge off grid, you need a serious amount of solar plus, for preference a decent capacity lithium battery. The good news about lithium is that they are about 35 - 40% of the weight of a normal leisure battery. You need to do your sums but somewhere around 3-400W of solar and 200Ah lithium if you want to be off grid for more than a day or two, I would think. I've got 300W of solar and 240Ah of lithium but my fridge is absorption and runs off a refillable gas cylinder when off grid, which is most of the time.

Thanks for all the prompt replies. Putting all your comments together means I am getting the drift of this now. I was hoping that my setup would suffice for a weekend away without hookup but I can see I’m pushing it now. I don’t know why a compressor fridge was fitted (incidentally , it’s only 12/240volt so no gas option) Also I didn’t say in my original post that there are 2 x 120 amp FLA batteries fitted. Even so, It seems I need to upgrade the solar capacity or get a 3-way fridge!