The refrigerator(s) to use in an off-grid solar installation—in my humble opinion—are full-sized refrigerator/freezers. Never attempt to use those tiny Walmart fridges that will hold about eight soda ... View MoreThe refrigerator(s) to use in an off-grid solar installation—in my humble opinion—are full-sized refrigerator/freezers. Never attempt to use those tiny Walmart fridges that will hold about eight soda cans; they're seriously inefficient in their design and use more power per day than the full-sized variety believe it or not.
I'm running two refrigerators right now, one that's inside and one that's outside under the awning. The smaller refrigerator is the 3.2cu MagicChef variety. The larger one is a 4.5cu Vissani. Both are under $200 in price. Normally either use less than 120W when they're cycled on.
The problem, though, with the larger freezer is that it has a defrost feature that will drain your batteries at night by using something like 1600W during that mode. Like me, you'll want to do open heart surgery on the freezer and remove the connector from the heating element in there—problem solved.
Next, I'd recommend that you put non-perishable items in one and the stuff that would spoil in the other. Combine this with a pair of TP-Link TAPO smartplugs and schedule them to run only as needed. My smaller fridge with the perishable foods runs on a 5:45AM to 10PM schedule; the larger fridge outside which mostly stores water and juice is on from 8:45AM to 5:45PM.
I used Gorilla glue to affix the thin styrofoam packing sheets to the west-facing evening sun to minimize the heating effect for that outside fridge. I put two quart water bottles in the freezer and refrigerator sections to lower the temperature extremes.