Forum Discussion

brandonrv's avatar
brandonrv
Explorer
Jul 31, 2014

best way to run residential fridge on limited shore power?

So my new coach is 50amp and I am going to a camp this weekend that just has 30.

I'm just trying to conserve as much amps as possible to avoid a brown out. Ill have to have both ACs on while we are in the coach at full blast due to it being really hot out.

Are these residential fridges an LP hog?

It's a norcold 4 door. I was told the battery will run it which leads me to believe the LP would be fine as well.

With both ACs on high cool it leaves me with about 10 amps to work with. I'll run the water heater on LP for sure.

Just wondering what others do. If it burns too much LP it's probably worth just running it on the 30amp power. I'll just have to watch what else we plug in with 2 ACs, Fridge and the TV goin.

Thanks
Class A
  • brandonrv's avatar
    brandonrv
    Explorer
    Jul 31, 2014
    Bill.Satellite wrote:
    The Norcold is not a residential refrigerator so don't get confused by posts you might read in other forums about their usage. A RR runs on A/C only and would be the same kind of fridge you have in a house (Samsung, GE, etc.).
    You have an RV fridge and it is designed to operate on either propane or A/C depending upon your situation or needs. The propane option allows the fridge to stay cold even while traveling (no A/C) but it also allows for your particular situation where you would like to reduce the A/C load. You can run your fridge on propane for an entire season on a 20-30# bottle. If you have a large built-in propane tank you could likely run it for a year if you did nothing else.


    Makes sense..

    Yeah I was worried about "residential refrigerator".. That's what the dealer was referring to it as and that's what Fleetwood refers to it as in the option upgrade.

    But then when I took delivery and they went over it I realized it functioned exactly like an RV fridge it was just bigger I was very pleased with that.

    Should just call it large 4 door RV Fridge to not confuse things.
  • Bill_Satellite's avatar
    Bill_Satellite
    Explorer II
    Jul 31, 2014
    The Norcold is not a residential refrigerator so don't get confused by posts you might read in other forums about their usage. A RR runs on A/C only and would be the same kind of fridge you have in a house (Samsung, GE, etc.).
    You have an RV fridge and it is designed to operate on either propane or A/C depending upon your situation or needs. The propane option allows the fridge to stay cold even while traveling (no A/C) but it also allows for your particular situation where you would like to reduce the A/C load. You can run your fridge on propane for an entire season on a 20-30# bottle. If you have a large built-in propane tank you could likely run it for a year if you did nothing else.
  • brandonrv's avatar
    brandonrv
    Explorer
    Jul 31, 2014
    Desert Captain wrote:
    Refrigeration running on propane uses very little. You may have to manually shut off the ac to the frig as most will run on ac if it is present. Simply turn off the ac breaker for the frig and it should automatically shift to propane. Save your ac for the air conditioning but if you have to run two units on high in a 26' coach I would have them checked.... but on the other hand I don't know just how hot it will be where you are camping. Good luck.

    :C


    Just upgraded to a 36' coach :) 2014 Fleetwood Bounder 35k and Down here in South Texas it's about 105 heat index for the majority of the day.

    Fridge has a switch built in to go from LP to AC. Thanks for the input.
  • Desert_Captain's avatar
    Desert_Captain
    Explorer III
    Jul 31, 2014
    Refrigeration running on propane uses very little. You may have to manually shut off the ac to the frig as most will run on ac if it is present. Simply turn off the ac breaker for the frig and it should automatically shift to propane. Save your ac for the air conditioning but if you have to run two units on high in a 26' coach I would have them checked.... but on the other hand I don't know just how hot it will be where you are camping. Good luck.

    :C
  • brandonrv's avatar
    brandonrv
    Explorer
    Jul 31, 2014
    2oldman wrote:
    Very few household refrigerators run on LP.


    this particular norcold 4 door does luckily. Maybe not a true residential they just call it that.
  • bob_b1's avatar
    bob_b1
    Explorer
    Jul 31, 2014
    Residential fridges are very efficient. My 10 cubic foot fridge only runs at 1 amp and it only runs for 20-30 minutes total each hour. It could take a few more surge amps to start the compressor, but that only happens for a second or two.

    With that said, I don't think that you have a residential fridge. You probably have an absorbion fridge. They have can draw about 3 amps on electric because they are heating the ball of ammonia by using an electric rod. A small pilot flame is much more efficient at doing to this.

    Use the gas mode. It uses very little gas.
  • rgatijnet1's avatar
    rgatijnet1
    Explorer III
    Jul 31, 2014
    Use the LP for the refrigerator. For a weekend, or a month, you will not even notice the usage.

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