Most solar refrigerators are an ordinary cabinet with a battery box put next to it. The BCD-168 is a different arrangement: the battery lives inside the base of the cabinet, behind the ventilated grille at the back, and the freezer sits underneath the fresh food compartment, opened at knee height. One is a power decision. The other is a cold-air decision. Both come from the same question a buyer should ask before signing - what happens on the third cloudy day, and what happens twenty times a day when the door opens.
The cabinet holds 168 litres in two compartments - 111 litres of fresh food above and 57 litres of freezer below - runs on 12 V / 24 V DC from its own pack or from an external bank, and also takes 220 V AC on the standard build. It arrives as a single appliance: one carton, one power connection, one warranty document.
The sections below are written from the field outward. Where a figure depends on the destination market or the configuration ordered - battery chemistry and capacity - we say so rather than print a number that a different factory version would contradict.
 The BCD-168 as it ships: steel doors, bottom freezer, and the battery already inside the base. |
Fresh food on top, freezer below. The coldest compartment is the one you open least. |
Why the freezer went to the bottomCold air is heavier than warm air. In a top-freezer cabinet, every time the fresh food door opens, the cold that has settled into the lower compartment starts to slide upward and out. In a bottom-freezer cabinet the frozen mass sits under a solid divider, and the compartment that opens twenty times a day is the one furthest from it. The trade is bending. A bottom freezer is opened at knee height, so it suits a household that opens the fridge constantly and the freezer twice a day, and it does not suit an older user who would rather not stoop. We would rather say that plainly than pretend the layout is universally better.
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The battery is inside the cabinet, and that changes the installationA separate battery bank is the usual way to solarise a refrigerator, and it brings three problems that have nothing to do with refrigeration: a second box on the floor with its own enclosure, a DC run between the two that has to be sized for voltage drop, and two warranties from two suppliers who each believe the other one is at fault. On the BCD-168 the pack sits in the base compartment behind the grille, next to the compressor, sharing its ventilation. The cabinet terminals accept the panel or the external bank directly. There is no cable to size between the battery and the compressor, because there is no cable - only the internal harness that was designed with the cabinet. What a service technician gains is access: the grille comes off with four screws, the pack slides out on its tray, and the same opening gives access to the compressor, the start capacitor and the thermostat capillary. Battery chemistry and capacity are agreed at order stage, because the same cabinet ships to markets that specify a lithium pack and markets that prefer a lead-acid bank for local service reasons. It is declared on the rating label. |
Condenser grid above, ventilated base compartment below - battery, compressor and thermostat in one serviceable bay. |
| Consideration | Battery inside the cabinet | Separate battery bank |
| Installation | One power lead to the cabinet | Two units, two cables, one fuse per leg |
| Footprint | The cabinet only | Room for an enclosure beside or under it |
| Sizing the DC run | Not required | Cross-section chosen for length and current |
| Who owns a fault | One supplier | Cabinet maker and battery maker each test their own side |
| Scaling up storage | Add an external bank in parallel to the terminals | Replace the bank with a larger one |
Inside: three wire shelves and a pull-out basket
The freezer is deliberately plain: three wire shelves and one clear basket at the bottom, with no runners or flaps to jam in a hot kitchen. Wire lets the cold air fall through the whole compartment instead of pooling on a solid tray, which is why this cabinet pulls down quickly after a defrost. Food that would roll off a shelf - a whole bird, a bag of ice - goes in the basket, and the two shelves above it take the flat packs that stack.
| Position | Opens | Belongs here |
| Top shelf | Several times a day | Ice, frozen bread, vegetables in bags, the things used while cooking |
| Middle shelf | Weekly | Meat and fish in portion packs, flat-frozen and stacked |
| Bottom basket | Monthly | Bulk buys, whole birds, the reserve that is not touched in normal weeks |
Three wire shelves and the clear basket; the freezer door has no balconies to block them. |
Bottle retainers in the fresh food door: liquids belong here, not on the wire shelves. |
A domestic footprint: it stands where an ordinary two-door cabinet would stand. |
Where it stands, and what it needs around itBecause the battery, compressor and condenser all sit in the same base bay, the rear clearance is not cosmetic. Air has to enter through the grille, pass the compressor and leave through the open grid above it. A cabinet pushed against a wall will run longer for the rest of its life. Keep at least 100 mm behind the cabinet, 75 mm at each side, and leave the top hinge free to swing. Avoid direct sun and any position next to an oven or a cooking fire: a cabinet rated for 32 °C ambient that sits at 40 °C will not fail today, but it will run almost continuously. The floor matters more than buyers expect. A loaded cabinet of this size puts close to 100 kg on four small feet, so on a timber floor put a board or a bearer under it rather than hoping the boards will spread the load. |
One panel, one cable, one switch-onThe installation is short enough to describe in full. Mount the panel where it sees sun from nine to three, run two cores to the controller, run two cores from the controller to the cabinet terminals, fuse the positive at the battery or controller end, and switch on. Polarity is the one mistake that ruins the first afternoon: the cabinet has marked positive and negative terminals, and reversing them will destroy the controller inside the base before the compressor ever runs. Check with a meter before connecting, not after. Let the cabinet stand upright for a few hours after transport before switching on, especially if it travelled lying down - oil has to drain back to the compressor. Then run it empty until the freezer reaches temperature, load it, and leave it alone for a day before judging performance. A cabinet that has been in a container for six weeks in the tropics will take longer to pull down on the first day than it ever will again. That is normal, and it is not a reason to add a second panel. |
Panel, controller, cabinet. The battery is already inside the appliance. |
What actually changes consumption
Rather than quote a single daily figure that will be wrong in half the installations, here is what moves it. Two identical cabinets in two houses can differ by a third, and it is almost never the compressor that causes the difference.
Factor | Effect on run time |
| Door openings | Each opening replaces cold air with warm; standing open while deciding costs several minutes of compressor time |
| Ambient temperature | Above 32 °C the cabinet works outside its rated class and duty cycle climbs steeply |
| Rear ventilation | A blocked grille raises the condensing temperature, which is the single most expensive fault to ignore |
| Frost in the freezer | A few millimetres of frost act as insulation on the evaporator and cost more than any door habit |
| Loading pattern | A full cabinet is more efficient than an empty one; packing it solid is not |
| Gasket condition | A gasket that no longer seals lets warm, humid air in continuously - the paper-strip test takes a minute |
Service: what the owner can do, and what needs a technicianThe cabinet was designed so that the four most common failures do not need a refrigeration engineer. That is not generosity; in the markets this model is sold into, a technician may be a day's travel away.
The battery tray is a middle case: it is a screwdriver job, but whether the pack should be replaced or the controller checked first depends on the reading at the terminals, so we send a one-page test procedure with every cabinet. |
Compressor, capacitor and thermostat capillary share the base bay with the battery. |
Reference configuration - BCD-168
Everything below is fixed for the standard cabinet and can be quoted as it stands. The only row that moves is the battery, because the same cabinet ships to markets that specify different packs; chemistry and capacity are written on the order confirmation and on the rating label.
| Model | BCD-168 |
| Type | Standing refrigerator freezer, two doors, bottom freezer with three wire shelves and a pull-out basket |
| Total capacity | 168 L total - 111 L fresh food, 57 L freezer |
| Temperature range | 0 to 10 °C fresh food / -18 °C and below freezer |
| Power supply | 12 V / 24 V DC from the built-in pack or an external bank, plus 220 V AC input on the standard build |
| Battery | Built into the ventilated base compartment; chemistry and capacity specified per order |
| Control | Mechanical thermostat, capillary type |
| Defrost | Manual, freezer compartment |
| Refrigerant | R134a or R600a, declared on the rating label for the destination |
| Body | Steel plate exterior, ABS interior liner, wire shelves, clear freezer basket |
| Product size (W x D x H) | 500 x 560 x 1300 mm |
| Carton size | 535 x 620 x 1340 mm |
| Gross / net weight | 45 / 42 kg |
| Loading quantity | 160 units per 40'HQ |
| Certification | CE; other marks on request |
| Warranty | Cabinet 1 year, compressor 3 years |
| Included | Three wire shelves, freezer basket, door balconies, ice tray, DC lead, instruction sheet |
Straight off the line: shelves taped, basket secured, protective film on the doors. |
Packing, loading and private labelEvery cabinet leaves with the shelves taped, the basket strapped, the doors wedged and a protective film on the steel, then goes into a printed export carton with foam corners and a strapped base. The rating label carries model, serial number, refrigerant charge and battery configuration. Because the battery travels inside the cabinet, the pack is isolated and the terminals are capped before packing; a note in the carton explains how to reconnect it. Where the destination treats lithium cells as dangerous goods, the pack ships separately in the same carton with its own documentation - tell us the market and we will quote the compliant version. Minimum order for a private label run is 100 units: door panel print, carton artwork, rating label and instruction booklet. CKD and SKD kits are available for markets with high duty on finished appliances. |
168 litres arranged for a household that opens the top door all day. |
Who this cabinet is forIt is the right size for a couple or a small family, for a rural house that already has a solar array, for a shop that sells chilled drinks and keeps a little frozen stock, and for a clinic storing temperature-sensitive supplies where a separate battery box would be one more thing to secure. It is the wrong choice for a household of six that cooks from frozen every day - that is a 268 litre job - and for a site where nobody is available to defrost the freezer twice a year. If you are unsure between the 168 and the 268, send us the household size and the daily frozen consumption, and we will tell you which one we would ship rather than quote both. |
Questions buyers ask about this model
Can the built-in battery be replaced in the field?Yes. The rear grille is removable, the pack sits on a slide-out tray, and the connectors are keyed so they cannot be reversed. A replacement pack is a stock item for us; we ship it with the test sheet that tells the technician whether the pack or the controller is at fault. |
Can I connect an external battery bank as well?Yes, in parallel at the marked terminals, provided the two packs use the same chemistry and nominal voltage. Mixing a lithium pack with a lead-acid bank on the same bus is the one combination we refuse, because the charging profiles are incompatible. |
Does the bottom freezer make the fridge warmer?No. The two compartments share a compressor but not an air path; the divider is insulated and the freezer's cold stays below it. What the layout changes is how much cold escapes when the fresh food door opens, and that figure goes down, not up. |
What happens if the battery runs flat overnight?The cabinet stops, and the freezer holds temperature for a few hours if they are full and not opened. Nothing is damaged; the thermostat and controller restart when power returns. Deep discharge is the real risk to the pack, so the controller cuts off before that point - which is why the first thing to check after a flat night is the charging side, not the cabinet. |
Does it run on mains as well as on DC?Yes. The standard build takes 12 V / 24 V DC and 220 V AC, so one cabinet can run from its own pack, from a vehicle circuit or from the mains where the grid reaches the site. The DC input is the primary one on a solar installation; the AC input is what makes the same cabinet sellable into a town where power is available but unreliable. |
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BCD-168 solar refrigerator with built-in battery - 168 L, 12 V / 24 V DC and 220 V AC Send the household size, the sun hours at the site and the battery chemistry you prefer. We will confirm pack capacity and any configuration change on the offer, and mark which parts ship inside the cabinet and which travel separately for customs reasons. |
Inside the factory that builds this system
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Hangzhou Juka Solar Technology was founded in 2015 around one problem: putting solar energy, new energy and smart control to work inside a refrigeration circuit. The range has since grown from a single DC chest freezer to solar refrigerators, solar ice makers, mobile ice-cream carts, delivery tricycles and beverage retail carts - all of them exported, most of them to Belt and Road markets. The work does not stop at the container. Partners in Ghana, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and India are supported in setting up their own local production for retail and delivery refrigeration, which is how a cold chain becomes permanent rather than a series of one-off shipments. For a solar system this matters more than for a mains-only freezer. Panel sizing, controller rating and battery capacity all depend on cabinet volume and site conditions, so the cabinet and the electronics are engineered together instead of being bought separately by the importer. |
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What is decided before the cabinet is built
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Wall thickness is a production parameter 65 mm or 110 mm foam is set on the foaming line, not assigned in a brochure. Insulation that is specified but not achieved is the usual reason a solar cabinet underperforms in its first hot season. |
One bill of materials Panel, controller, battery and cabinet are listed together, so the importer receives a system whose parts were sized against each other rather than sourced independently. |
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Voltage as an order option DC input, AC adapter voltage, plug type and control panel artwork are selected per market on the same platform - no separate tooling run for a different destination. |
Repeatable on the second container Foam thickness, fittings and controller model are held per customer, so a follow-up order matches the first one instead of drifting. |
Certification and test documentation
CE marking covers the electrical arrangement, and utility model patents cover the cabinet and the direct-drive control layout. Documents travel with the order so they can be presented at customs and to institutional or tender buyers.
CE - low voltage and EMC |
CE - supplementary schedule |
Utility model patent - cabinet structure |
On the floor
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Six control points behind every cabinet
01 |
Foaming runs inside a constant 20-23 °C room, so the foam quality does not shift with the season. |
02 |
Condenser and evaporator are nitrogen purged before any pipe joint is made, keeping the internal circuit clean. |
03 |
Vacuum is pulled to below 20 Pa. A unit that does not reach spec is never charged with refrigerant. |
04 |
Two leak tests per cabinet with an INFICON detector - one unpowered, one running. |
05 |
A constant-temperature test room confirms refrigeration parameters under identical conditions all year. |
06 |
Production and quality control are separate departments. Only cabinets signed off by a QC inspector are packed and warehoused. |
Machines on the line
Equipment |
What it gives the buyer |
Automatic laser cutting machine |
Consistent panel geometry, tight tolerances, clean edges |
Punch press and bending machine |
Repeatable cabinet forming from unit to unit |
Dual-gun high-pressure foaming machine |
Even density across the whole cabinet, no thin spots |
CACL high-precision filling machine |
Precise refrigerant charge on every unit |
INFICON high-sensitivity leak detector |
Finds leaks that ordinary detectors pass |
OEM, ODM and local assembly
Cabinet-only supply, private label, SKD and CKD shipments are all available, together with technical guidance for partners who would rather assemble locally than import finished units. Helping partners build their own refrigeration business is the part of the work that outlasts a single purchase order.
What can be changed on a standard order:
✓ Customer logo and cabinet colour
✓ Voltage options and plug type
✓ Packaging design
✓ Product configuration, baskets and fittings
✓ Panel, controller and battery included, or cabinet supplied on its own
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