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DAS26miles's avatar
DAS26miles
Explorer II
Feb 10, 2015

Running fridge Norcold N611 off inverter?

My Norcold N611 runs normally off either propane and the house batteries for the circuit board with minimum amp draw, or off 120v. I have 2 group 24 batteries and was wondering in the event I run out of propane, can I run the fridge off the inverter? If so, how long with 2-85ahr? Could solar panels recharge the batteries to keep it going indefinitely?
  • When I had an N611 nocold I believe it was rated for 400 watts@120 volts. That would be a 30 to 40 amp draw from the batteries assuming your inverter is 100% efficient which it isn't. Figure that draw into your total amp hour capacity and you will get an ideas as to how long they will last. I ran mine off of the inverter while going down the road but not while camped. I finally ripped the nocold out and replaced it with a residential unit.
  • j-d's avatar
    j-d
    Explorer II
    Look up your 120VAC element's Wattage. I think it'll be just short of 300W at 120V. I'm just guessing that with losses on conversion plus the control board, you'll need about 360W at 12VDC, 30-Amps. That makes me think it won't run long on 150-AH. Another guess, I don't major in Boondocking/Solar/Batteries.
    What I can say is the industry pretty much phased out three-way fridges because they were energy hogs on 12VDC. They used a lower-wattage 12VDC element for that reason, and all they could do was try to keep an already-cold fridge cool.
    Fridge is downright stingy on LPG. How long do you plan to stay out?
    We camp a total of probably two months a year. Lots of Stove and Oven, Water Heater in Summer, sometimes Fridge, and I refill about annually. Even then it's not much more than about half gone.