Compressor Model Refrigerator / Freezers

Almot wrote:
It sounds like you have a heck of a solar panel. Running 6cf fridge and a separate 6cf freezer is a lot of amp-hours. I've always been partial to chest freezers, they tend to be more efficient, though in a trailer it's easier to find a room for an upright unit. Sundanzer and Steka have some ~6cf. One problem would be getting the chest inside before you build the trailer. Or making a door wide enough. With upright units this task is easier, they are few inches thinner front-to-back.

Real world energy consumption for those particular models? There is hardly a dozen people here with any 12 VDC compressor fridge or freezer. Here is manufacturers data for chest units by Sundanzer and Steka:

Sundanzer

Steka,

See graphs at the end of those manuals. Ignore the tables of "Standard Test Conditions" in Sundanzer manual, those are with no door openings.

Either Sun 165 or Steka 165 draws 650 WH/day at 90F and with some door openings. Note that with Sundanzer DCR means fridge, and DCF - freezer. Steka can work as either fridge or freezer, depends on what you want. So we are talking about 50 AH a day for a freezer, and less for a fridge of the same size.

Steka 165 is measured at -20C=4F (and another graph at 14F). Sundanzer 165 forgot to specify the inside temperature, but with both being same size and same Danfoss compressors, I "assume" that they used same 14F.

Oddly, you can get German Steka 165 for same or less than US made Sundanzer 165.

Good stuff, Almot. The Steca does seem like one of the more efficient fridge/freezers out there. The price, though. :(

I think I'll be using my small 120 volt for some time. At the amount of consumption I saw last year and the price differential between DC operated and AC inverted, it doesn't make sense to switch.

I think what Mex was referring to was the chimney effect of moving air across the condenser and compressor. If you're able to bring in cooler, fresh air and channel that across the heated components of the fridge and have a good exit for the hotter air, you should see a reduced energy consumption. The refrigerant cools faster with the chimney.