Ammonia versus Compressor Fridge...
After all the talk about Danfoss compressor fridges and how much better they were than the old school Ammonia Units, I decided to 'fiddle with mine and do a long term test using a remote digital recor...
Forum Discussion
Being retired and on a somewhat fixed income, I look at the expense of changing out a viable and good working Ammonia fridge for a Danfoss unit lets say a grand and then adding solar panels plus controller and all the other stuff associated with it in sufficient wattage to run it plus a multiple battery bank, at least another grand and then here in the east, you'll still need a genny because the sun don't shine every day so your battery bank gets depleted...another grand.
That's 3 grand right out of the gate. Consequently, people can talk about the virtues of a compressor fridge but if the ammonia unit can be tweaked to provide respectable performance, 3 grand is a lot of jack.... especially for me.
Please understand the I appreciate your comments and original discussion. I think it is a healthy discussion about moving, or not, to compressor refers in RV's. I wonder where you received the $3,000 approximately cost to go solar. It seems a little low to me for permanent panels, quality batteries, all the hardware and chargers, plus labor if somebody else does the work. None of my comments reflected anything about setting up a new solar system being less expensive than filling a propane bottle. I think solar installation labor costs could easily be $1,000, panels (enough to run the refer and some other stuff) another $1200, charger probably $350 or so, inverter $1200, batteries another $1000, plus a few hundred more in misc parts. Total cost more like $4500-5000. I am sure some people can say it can be set up for less, do it yourself labor, etc. Anyway thanks for the post and thread. It is interesting. I have not read on any RV website that those that went solar regretted it.
