Not true! We are just practical here and realize solar is so far from practical, why make a political statement and lose you frozen food. I realize an ammonia system works fine for an RV, but most homes have freon models. To convert from an everyday use system to an RV setup is probably not going to happen for most folks. Solar, as it is now, will never produce more than 5% of our power. Now if much of our appliances start using less than a 100 watt bulb, it would be exciting. If just one air conditioner uses 50 amps of 220, you would need acres of panels to run one thing. If you just want to have a couple of lights, no problem. If I were building a new home, I would consider an absorption system for cooling and refrigeration. A solar heater with a small backup for night time would work for that system.
We are not against solar or wind or even alternative fuels, but we are just not buying into impractical answers that will never generate the supply needed for the load. The lie being spread now to our youth that we can run our houses on solar and wind if we just spend enough money is polluting the discussion. Believe me, when a workable solution comes, Freepers will be first in line.
Roger to all you said, I’m not getting down on Freepers; the community just doesn’t support solar. As a complete power solution, no, it doesn’t work. My point is that solar does work in limited circumstances. In this instance, the solar refrigerator I wrote about does work. I’m using one now, the total cost for my setup was under $1200 (fridge, solar panel, and battery), and could be more practical than a generator simply because it doesn’t need any fuel to keep food cold. I may have to replace my battery every 5-7 years, but I won’t have to scrounge for fuel for the generator if SHTF.
Just as a note...
A/C using 50A @ 240V is 12kW.
Around here we get about 1kW of sun per square meter. At 15% efficiency that’s 150W per square meter. Therefore you would need about 80 square meters of panels to power the A/C. Throw some more losses in there and say 100 square meters. That’s 10 meters by 10 meters or 33 feet by 33 feet of solar panels. That’s a long, long way from “acres of panels to run one” even if you tripled the size of it to run the A/C well into the night...
There are plenty of arguments about the cost effectiveness of it all, but area is not that big of an issue.