12 volt compressor fridge- any reason not to buy this one ?

Hodag1 wrote:
Dave,
Novacool said the way our Outfitters have cut outs on the outside wall low and high are ideal.

Thanks, it's good to know. I am sure that Bob at Outfitter did not cut out any vents on the outside walls for Stevein29 at his request, only inside venting. Might be wrong.

Jfet who is working on a custom TC was wondering. Did not want to give him a bum stear.

Dave

Dave,
Novacool said the way our Outfitters have cut outs on the outside wall low and high are ideal.

Hodag1 wrote:
you still need a sidewall cut out near the TOP of the coils.

On the NovaKool drawings regarding ventilation, It looks to me like there are bottom front, dual side and top vents in the inside cabinet.

No mention of ventilation from the outside of say an RV or boat.

Are you saying that you need a sidewall cut out in the inside cabinet or the outside of the RV near the top of the coils?

Dave

you still need a sidewall cut out near the TOP of the coils.

Jfet wrote:

Hodag1 wrote:
Novacool is electric only. The coils are on the back and heat is exhausted to the outside from the back.

Thanks. So you still need cutouts in the side wall.

From my reading, a compressor fridge is going to draw about 4 amps and run at 30% duty cycle in 85 degree temps. Figuring a lower duty cycle at night, that is about 1 amp-hr in a 24 hour period, so 24ah.

24ah x 12V = 288 watt-hr.

So you need a battery and a 150 watt solar panel pretty much dedicated to the operation of the fridge, and you can never park under trees for extended period.

Figuring a 4 year life span on a heavy used AGM at a cost of $200 for the battery, that would be $50 a year. Solar panel should last 10 to 15 years and is around $250, so call it $20 a year.

$70 a year to run the fridge on 12V DC

Propane for the fridge is probably going to be a bit more. At $3 a gallon, $70 would only get you 23 gallons, or about 2 gallons a month. I think you would need double that for the fridge.

On my unit, I have a outside vent near the bottom of the fridge compressor.

Another guy with the same unit, think it was Stevein29, has only inside venting in the cabinet above the fridge.

When I am in cold country for awhile, I remove the outside vent, put insulated foil across and replace vent. I have holes in top fridge cabinet like Stevein29.

Your AmpHr numbers maybe a little low if you are in 95F+ weather but I have no way of verifying this.

Dave

Hodag1 wrote:
Novacool is electric only. The coils are on the back and heat is exhausted to the outside from the back.

Thanks. So you still need cutouts in the side wall.

From my reading, a compressor fridge is going to draw about 4 amps and run at 30% duty cycle in 85 degree temps. Figuring a lower duty cycle at night, that is about 1 amp-hr in a 24 hour period, so 24ah.

24ah x 12V = 288 watt-hr.

So you need a battery and a 150 watt solar panel pretty much dedicated to the operation of the fridge, and you can never park under trees for extended period.

Figuring a 4 year life span on a heavy used AGM at a cost of $200 for the battery, that would be $50 a year. Solar panel should last 10 to 15 years and is around $250, so call it $20 a year.

$70 a year to run the fridge on 12V DC

Propane for the fridge is probably going to be a bit more. At $3 a gallon, $70 would only get you 23 gallons, or about 2 gallons a month. I think you would need double that for the fridge.

Novacool is electric only. The coils are on the back and heat is exhausted to the outside from the back.

bigfootford wrote:

crosscheck wrote:

pezvela wrote:

On our last trip in the spring to Utah/Arizona, we seemed to be the only one not running a genny even though we have a compressor fridge. We were away 6 weeks and did not run our genny once and had no shore power. I don,t know this for sure but I bet most if not all of the genny users, had absorption fridges.

Dave

Are you running a microwave, TC stereo or a TV at all?

I dont understand the significance of supposing that all those other genny users had absorption fridges? People with absorption fridges who run gennies aren't doing it to run the fridge, obviously. They probably have other electrical draws that you dont have. Most common? TV usage, in my experience.

The reason I brought up the point that I seemed to be the only one not runny a genny was in response to a thread from bigfootford who said that "most of us solar guys have solar to keep us from using our Gennys because we like the quiet" or something like that. He continued on and said that if he had a compressor fridge, he would have to have some genny time.

So solar and a large battery bank does work if you have some daylight.

The guys running their gennys were in the over flow area with no services because they had no or little solar, they have to top off their batteries somehow.

We run our micro very little and for a short time.No cooking.

We have a TV but do not operate it.
Sirrius radio operates from the truck into the TC speakers.
My wife uses her hair dryer every day.
Besides the fridge, our electrical usage is relatively small. Grind coffee, blender for margaritas, charging electronics,water pump, LED lights.
When it is cold in the mornings, TC heater turned on for10-15 min. max.

Dave

So can you or someone give us some real AH readings for a 24 hr usage.. Preferably Summer and above 95 deg?

Then we can all do the extra math for our personal usage. TV, laptops etc.

Jim

I can't give you that info as I don't have a trimetric hooked up like you. Someone else might be able to give you some numbers.

We are heading down to canyon/desert country again for our fourth time in April and because of the elevations, the highest temps we saw in 3 years was 95F and our fridge was drawing a lot of juice. That was when I decided to add another 140W panel and things are much better. As you should know being from California, there can be as much as a 30F drop in temps between high and low in the desert so at night the draw from the fridge drops a fair bit.

My way of monitoring the batteries is to look at the Blue Sky solar/battery monitor and if the voltage numbers are getting toward the 12.4V range, we conserve.

Hey, nice Bigfoot. They made yours just down the valley from me.

Dave

crosscheck wrote:

pezvela wrote:

On our last trip in the spring to Utah/Arizona, we seemed to be the only one not running a genny even though we have a compressor fridge. We were away 6 weeks and did not run our genny once and had no shore power. I don,t know this for sure but I bet most if not all of the genny users, had absorption fridges.

Dave

Are you running a microwave, TC stereo or a TV at all?

I dont understand the significance of supposing that all those other genny users had absorption fridges? People with absorption fridges who run gennies aren't doing it to run the fridge, obviously. They probably have other electrical draws that you dont have. Most common? TV usage, in my experience.

The reason I brought up the point that I seemed to be the only one not runny a genny was in response to a thread from bigfootford who said that "most of us solar guys have solar to keep us from using our Gennys because we like the quiet" or something like that. He continued on and said that if he had a compressor fridge, he would have to have some genny time.

So solar and a large battery bank does work if you have some daylight.

The guys running their gennys were in the over flow area with no services because they had no or little solar, they have to top off their batteries somehow.

We run our micro very little and for a short time.No cooking.

We have a TV but do not operate it.
Sirrius radio operates from the truck into the TC speakers.
My wife uses her hair dryer every day.
Besides the fridge, our electrical usage is relatively small. Grind coffee, blender for margaritas, charging electronics,water pump, LED lights.
When it is cold in the mornings, TC heater turned on for10-15 min. max.

Dave

So can you or someone give us some real AH readings for a 24 hr usage.. Preferably Summer and above 95 deg?

Then we can all do the extra math for our personal usage. TV, laptops etc.

Jim

pezvela wrote:

On our last trip in the spring to Utah/Arizona, we seemed to be the only one not running a genny even though we have a compressor fridge. We were away 6 weeks and did not run our genny once and had no shore power. I don,t know this for sure but I bet most if not all of the genny users, had absorption fridges.

Dave

Are you running a microwave, TC stereo or a TV at all?

I dont understand the significance of supposing that all those other genny users had absorption fridges? People with absorption fridges who run gennies aren't doing it to run the fridge, obviously. They probably have other electrical draws that you dont have. Most common? TV usage, in my experience.

The reason I brought up the point that I seemed to be the only one not runny a genny was in response to a thread from bigfootford who said that "most of us solar guys have solar to keep us from using our Gennys because we like the quiet" or something like that. He continued on and said that if he had a compressor fridge, he would have to have some genny time.

So solar and a large battery bank does work if you have some daylight.

The guys running their gennys were in the over flow area with no services because they had no or little solar, they have to top off their batteries somehow.

We run our micro very little and for a short time.No cooking.

We have a TV but do not operate it.
Sirrius radio operates from the truck into the TC speakers.
My wife uses her hair dryer every day.
Besides the fridge, our electrical usage is relatively small. Grind coffee, blender for margaritas, charging electronics,water pump, LED lights.
When it is cold in the mornings, TC heater turned on for10-15 min. max.

Dave