New 12 volt compressor refrigerators
I'm seeing these new 12 volt compressor refrigerators in RVs. Anyone have experience with them? Plusses minusses???
Forum Discussion
12v is old school in the boat world, so not a new technology.
We happen to have gotten one in our current unit. They do have pros & cons.
Pros:
- The cool much quicker.
- No need for external vents which can lead to leaks in the roof.
- Better control of temp.
- For the same size space in the trailer, you get around 50% more interior space.
Cons:
- For off grid, you do need more battery/charging capability.
Ours came with a single 100amp 12v battery and a 50w solar panel. It draws around 50w when running. So assuming a 50% duty cycle, you will need around 600w-hr of usable power.
- By itself, the 50w solar panel will generate around 200-250w-hr per day, so it's not going to handle it.
- A 100amp-hr lead-acid battery holds around 600w-hr of usable power (rated power is near double but regularly dragging it down below 50% will result in a short life for the battery). So for a single overnight, it's doable but multiple days of boondocking are not going to work.
Our solution:
- Buy 2nd 100amp-hr battery giving us 2 days of usable battery power.
- In the morning run the generator for an hour. With a 50amp converter, that's around 500amp-hr in. Then the solar tops it up over the rest of the day.
- Check in the evening and if not above 90%, give it another hour on the generator.
We already have the generator for other purposes and only boondock occasionally. If not, we would pick up another 100-200w of solar, so the solar system could handle it all.
We happen to have gotten one in our current unit. They do have pros & cons.
Pros:
- The cool much quicker.
- No need for external vents which can lead to leaks in the roof.
- Better control of temp.
- For the same size space in the trailer, you get around 50% more interior space.
Cons:
- For off grid, you do need more battery/charging capability.
Ours came with a single 100amp 12v battery and a 50w solar panel. It draws around 50w when running. So assuming a 50% duty cycle, you will need around 600w-hr of usable power.
- By itself, the 50w solar panel will generate around 200-250w-hr per day, so it's not going to handle it.
- A 100amp-hr lead-acid battery holds around 600w-hr of usable power (rated power is near double but regularly dragging it down below 50% will result in a short life for the battery). So for a single overnight, it's doable but multiple days of boondocking are not going to work.
Our solution:
- Buy 2nd 100amp-hr battery giving us 2 days of usable battery power.
- In the morning run the generator for an hour. With a 50amp converter, that's around 500amp-hr in. Then the solar tops it up over the rest of the day.
- Check in the evening and if not above 90%, give it another hour on the generator.
We already have the generator for other purposes and only boondock occasionally. If not, we would pick up another 100-200w of solar, so the solar system could handle it all.
