12v Refidgerators
I have been looking at new TTs and have found that quite a few have 12v only refriderators. Has anyone used these while boondocking? How long will they run on solar? I have 400w of solar panels and ...
Forum Discussion
A residential fridge, in the case of an RV, can mean two things:
1. It is only referring to the size; a residential size fridge, as opposed to the much smaller fridges found in RVs. i.e., as big as the fridge in your house kitchen.
or
2. Literally some people put a walmart/homedepot $100 house fridge in their Rv because its is $100 and not $1,000.
2 is really dumb unless you are parked at a trailer park and have already taken the wheels off the camper, so 1 is usually what Residential is referring to. You see this a lot when shopping for used campers as the seller ruined the absorption fridge and is putting in the cheapest option to have a working fridge hoping the buyer does not know anything.
On amp hours, be careful when calculating. A Danfoss compressor that pulls 3 or 5 amps, does not mean it pulls 3 or 5 amps for the entire hour. Those might typically only run 10 minutes total out of every hour, so it would take 6 hours to get a full 3 or 5 amp hour total (10 mins at 3 amps times 6 equals one hour at 3 amps).
So, I am guessing the calculation from a previous post was wrong.
One battery is not ideal for running a fridge as you need the extra battery to help with overcast days. Depending on other demands on the batteries you should be able to go 3 days even with a big compressor fridge, if you have a small one then you can go a very long time. The solar does work on cloudy days, but just at a reduced output, so you do always get some charging.
People do run these compressor fridges (like ARB or Dometic etc) off the car starting battery all afternoon and can still crank the vehicle, keep this in mind for reference to how little power it uses.
If I had it to do over I would have 3 four-volt batteries, or two bigger 6 volt (I have two golf cart now) and have an electric stove top instead of propane. I did the math of how little power I would need to cook for a few minutes each day, and concluded I could use inefficient electricity to cook with and still have plenty to run the fridge and fan and lights and charge a phone...
Propane is still king for heating water and is in a tie with the diesel heaters for heating the air.
1. It is only referring to the size; a residential size fridge, as opposed to the much smaller fridges found in RVs. i.e., as big as the fridge in your house kitchen.
or
2. Literally some people put a walmart/homedepot $100 house fridge in their Rv because its is $100 and not $1,000.
2 is really dumb unless you are parked at a trailer park and have already taken the wheels off the camper, so 1 is usually what Residential is referring to. You see this a lot when shopping for used campers as the seller ruined the absorption fridge and is putting in the cheapest option to have a working fridge hoping the buyer does not know anything.
On amp hours, be careful when calculating. A Danfoss compressor that pulls 3 or 5 amps, does not mean it pulls 3 or 5 amps for the entire hour. Those might typically only run 10 minutes total out of every hour, so it would take 6 hours to get a full 3 or 5 amp hour total (10 mins at 3 amps times 6 equals one hour at 3 amps).
So, I am guessing the calculation from a previous post was wrong.
One battery is not ideal for running a fridge as you need the extra battery to help with overcast days. Depending on other demands on the batteries you should be able to go 3 days even with a big compressor fridge, if you have a small one then you can go a very long time. The solar does work on cloudy days, but just at a reduced output, so you do always get some charging.
People do run these compressor fridges (like ARB or Dometic etc) off the car starting battery all afternoon and can still crank the vehicle, keep this in mind for reference to how little power it uses.
If I had it to do over I would have 3 four-volt batteries, or two bigger 6 volt (I have two golf cart now) and have an electric stove top instead of propane. I did the math of how little power I would need to cook for a few minutes each day, and concluded I could use inefficient electricity to cook with and still have plenty to run the fridge and fan and lights and charge a phone...
Propane is still king for heating water and is in a tie with the diesel heaters for heating the air.
