Question regarding residential refrigerators

I haven't had an RV refrigerator in years.

My 5er has a 10.8cu.ft. residential fridge. I power it with a 300 watt solar setup feeding two GC-2's in series and a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter. I have a Honda inverter generator for backup. The solar is not always enough to keep up.

We have developed a routine of starting the generator to run the coffee maker, toaster and hair dryer as well as getting a headache start on bulk charge on the batteries. About 45-60 minutes each morning. That keeps me happy (coffee), my wife happy (hair dryer) and the refrigerator happy:)

My new rig has enough solar to run everything as long as we have good sun. The generator is for cloudy weather.

I LOVE the space we get with the residential refrigerator. I will never go back.

Another bonus. I my refrigerator dies I can find one in stock at most any Home Depot or Best Buy for $300-$400.

Thanks all, glad to hear we would be OK with the generator running a residential refrigerator in addition to both of the ACs. We are not new to RVing, but new to the world of anything but toyhaulers. Our current and previous rigs have both been toyhaulers. So Michelle S's tip about the propane generator is very helpful.

As for solar, I am not opposed to it, but initially, it seems like another added expense for something we don't need that often. If we were full-timers, it might make more sense. (Neither of us are even 40 years old yet so we have a ways to go :)) We have a contact at Cummins so we do not pay full price or anywhere near it for the generator if it is not already included with the rig we buy. Our preferred dealer always has them already included with their 5ers and we do not plan on ordering one from the factory. If noise was a concern, we would not be camping "NASCAR" style at a music festival every year :) We leave the quiet trips for the fall when we don't need AC anyway, so the generator is only used for an hour or two every couple days to recharge the batteries so we can have lights at night. The built-in one we currently have is pretty quiet anyway.

Just be advised that while Generators in Toy Haulers are Gas, most in standard 5ers run off Propane. A 5500 Onan will run just about everything in the unit, but it will burn through a 40# propane tank in approx 10 hours.

JAC1982 wrote:

My main concern is if a built-in 5500 generator is enough to power a residential fridge, and both ACs, all at the same time. We aren't worried about running the TV or anything else with a heavy draw at the same time, and basically, the only time the generator is off is when we aren't in the camper or are asleep (so the battery would only need to power the fridge during these times).

That generator would easily be able to run two ACs and a residential fridge. Once running, a residential fridge uses somewhere on the order of 100W or so, I think.

A modern TV, even a reasonably large one, is not a heavy power draw, by the way.

“We don't plan on having a solar set up since we will have the generator.“

No solar “set up” since on many days that would eliminate the need to run a generator and this new fangled solar stuff is still experimental anyways? No, it’s not experimental. No, it’s not new fangled. No, you like the sound of generators?

YOu should be able to order either a standard RV type absorption or.. If you google carefully both Dometic and Norcold at one time made what I call Danfoss class Refrigerators.. (NOTE Danfoss is ONE of at least 3 different compressor designs) Engel makes some Chest Style refrigerators (Top lid) and at least one model can hit 3.6 Degrees (Freezer) if you ask it to (That model is against my left leg as I type which is how I know) they call the compressor a "Sling compressor" about 40 watts.. That's about the same as a dual 1141 light fixture.

They cool slow. but they do work and as I said Dometic and Norcold do sell chest style units in that design but they also made at one time Upright models.. Do not know if they still do.. Very nice.

And remember.... If you are ordering NEW. they give you what you want or they see your backside walking out the door with a blank line where the contract says "Buyer's signature" and to a salesman that is a BIG problem. in fact it is the ONLY problem.

As mentioned, we will buy a 5er that can have a built-in 5500 Onan (our current rig has this and we do not want to give up any amenities we currently have). We don't plan on having a solar set up since we will have the generator.

When we boondock, it's usually for 4-7 days. As an example of a use case, one trip is 5 days, at a music festival where it can get close to 100 degrees or above during the day, so we run the generator pretty much all day, and turn it off when we go to the shows around 5pm. We might run the generator a little after we get back around midnight so we can run the AC if the camper feels warm, but we turn it off before we go to bed.

My main concern is if a built-in 5500 generator is enough to power a residential fridge, and both ACs, all at the same time. We aren't worried about running the TV or anything else with a heavy draw at the same time, and basically, the only time the generator is off is when we aren't in the camper or are asleep (so the battery would only need to power the fridge during these times).

It depends on how long you want to run the frig without shore power. A typical new 18 cu. ft. residential frig can draw 30 DC amps from the batteries during its on cycle (cycling depends on installation, insulation, ambient temps, how often the doors are opened, etc.). I just had a conversation with an engineer at Battle Born Batteries about our new fifth wheel that's on order. With a residential frig, he recommends two 100 amp hour LiPO4 batteries and 300 - 400 watts of solar for anything longer than just travel days. Without solar, you would need a generator as mentioned above running a couple of hours every day to keep things charged. Also bear in mind that you can't draw lead-acid ("flooded") batteries nearly as low as lithium ion batteries - and LA batteries' voltage drops off as they drain.

Rob

A modern residential refrigerator doesn't use a tremendous amout of electrical energy (though the startup surge can be pretty substantial, hence the need for a decent sized inverter if running off of battery power). The typical energy star stickers I've seen are around 1 kWh per day. Provided you have a way of getting that much power into your batteries, and the battery bank is reasonably sized, you won't have any problems at all. For many people perhaps 200W or so of solar power would suffice under most circumstances, though of course that depends on where you're setting up camp. In the woods, shaded by trees, solar is not so effective!

In short, the answer is that it most likely needn't pose a problem, but you do have to make adequate preparations (or check for adequate equipment) to make sure that's the case. Not a few fifth wheels are set up from the factory with the assumption that the owners will not generally camp without electric hookups.