Questions about Nova kool fridge
Wayne, would you please let this post stay in the TC section as they have the most knowledge of the DC compressor fridges. X TCer here and I have some questions for the folks that have the DC compr...
Forum Discussion
Keep in mind, that unlike an absorption fridge running on 12V, the compressor fridges ONLY draw that amp load when they are running. Yes I know the absorption fridge will cycle as well BUT in any kind of heat on 12V (the least efficient mode) it will pretty much run constantly. Even out here in the 100+ degree temps of the desert my compressor fridge runs around one third of the time, with the absolute worst being a 50 percent duty cycle.
Yes you are still going to have to provide venting as the heat needs to go somewhere, just as the heat from your home fridge needs to. The installation instructions for your specific fridge will have the size of vents required. In my case I had my current camper made without the exterior vents (still needed a solid hatch to access the compressor area) and designed an interior vent setup instead. This helps the camper stay warm/cool as there aren't a couple of big holes allowing ambient temps and wind into it.
The 110V option is up to you and it is really just one of those 110V-to-12V converters. It can provide an extra layer of redundancy though as I found out once. I hadn't been paying attention to my solar panels and they had gotten so dirty they were barely charging. Plus it was VERY hot out and thus my batteries had warmed up as well. Because of this when I plugged into shore power the charger kept kicking off due to battery over temp to protect them. So I simply plugged the fridge into 110V and waited until night when things had cooled down enough to allow my batteries to start charging.
My previous camper had the compressor fridge (Tundra 4.2), (2)T145s and 270W solar setup and I ran the fridge constantly for over a year without ever plugging into an outlet. Current camper has same fridge/solar but I added two more batteries (4) Lifeline AGMs this time.
**Thanks mkirsh it was the percent sign apparently.
Yes you are still going to have to provide venting as the heat needs to go somewhere, just as the heat from your home fridge needs to. The installation instructions for your specific fridge will have the size of vents required. In my case I had my current camper made without the exterior vents (still needed a solid hatch to access the compressor area) and designed an interior vent setup instead. This helps the camper stay warm/cool as there aren't a couple of big holes allowing ambient temps and wind into it.
The 110V option is up to you and it is really just one of those 110V-to-12V converters. It can provide an extra layer of redundancy though as I found out once. I hadn't been paying attention to my solar panels and they had gotten so dirty they were barely charging. Plus it was VERY hot out and thus my batteries had warmed up as well. Because of this when I plugged into shore power the charger kept kicking off due to battery over temp to protect them. So I simply plugged the fridge into 110V and waited until night when things had cooled down enough to allow my batteries to start charging.
My previous camper had the compressor fridge (Tundra 4.2), (2)T145s and 270W solar setup and I ran the fridge constantly for over a year without ever plugging into an outlet. Current camper has same fridge/solar but I added two more batteries (4) Lifeline AGMs this time.
**Thanks mkirsh it was the percent sign apparently.
