Residential refrigerator and boondocking, Confused!

Hi,

I don't have a electric frig, but it can be done with solar. You will need a pure sign wave inverter, the factory already installed them in the electric refrigerator models. THey also typically install 6 to 8 batteries, so you have a 600 to 800 amp hour battery that will be 360 to 500 pounds weight.

But you will save weight in the propane tank. Personally I would rather have a pair of propane refrigerators to increase the capacity, and can choose to shut one off if I am not buying and bringing along 3 weeks of food for a crowd.

I would rather not run the generator 4 hours per day, but would run it say 1 hour in the morning, and let the solar top off the batteries. By installing several 100 to 150 watt solar panels, you can collect more electric than the refrigerator uses. But probably not more than the electric stove will use. I am not sure if you can bake things like cornbread in a convection microwave, but it sounds like it would work well. Otherwise I would have a problem giving up my propane oven.

You would need to run the generator anytime you are baking, probably should run it while cooking (except rare occasions, like when heating coffee, or if the battery is full and you are out of the generator run hours that some parks have to keep it quiet).

So I plan on sticking with my gas stove and gas oven.

I might give in on a residential refrigerator, they are becoming much more energy efficient, and solar panels have come way down in price. You can buy solar panels for about $1.25 per rated watt, yet the motorhome manufactures recall the 90's when a 100 watt panel cost $400 and they still try to charge $500 for a small solar panel.

SunELec.com

I would also say that 6 batteries is enough weight. Any more, and you might as well just run the generator more. You will have enough battery capacity to collect 12 hours of solar power. You will have more than 24 hours of run time too.

One RV owner says that he can dry camp longer in his all electric RV tan past RV's. This is because of the 6 batteries and several solar panels. And the heating is Aqua Hot diesel fired furnace. 135,000 Btu's per gallon, not the 95,000 Btu's of propane per gallon or 115,000 of gasoline. That is why a diesel gets slightly higher MPG than a gas engine.

Fred.

TinBenders, we are all electric with 8 house batteries and 2 chassis batteries. We have a residential Jenn Air side by side refrigerator/freezer with water and ice in the door. We also have one solar panel on the roof to keep the batteries topped off.

Our manual says run the generator 2 hrs. in the morning and 2 hrs. in the evening. Seems to work perfectly when boondocking as breakfast is in the morning and dinner in the evening when watching TV in both events. We also have a auto genny start if for some reason the batteries fall below a certain point.

Personally, I like an electric coach and don't prefer having propane on board. Our coach uses one fuel, diesel. Our Aqua-hot heating system uses diesel or electric. The generator is diesel.

MM.