Residential Fridge & Residential AC ??

[Hermes]

We are planning to full time in a 5th wheel. In researching 5th wheels suitable for full time living, I notice some give the option of a residential fridge. If given the choice I think I would lean towards a auto refridge (elec/propane) Since I have no experience with a residential fridge in a trailer, my first question is, since they require electricity to operate, what do folks do when traveling as far as keeping food cold? For those who boondock at least on occasion, how much amperage do they typically draw?
With regards to residential AC, I get the idea they typically involve a heat pump, so how does this affect heating? Is heat still provided via propane? The AC would not be an issue for us as when boondocking we go to higher elevations when hot or stay at a campground that provides at least electric. Thanks.

[BFL13]

We have a 120v- only small fridge (3.2 cu ft) in the truck camper and run it from inverter/battery bank (500AH bank). That is big in a TC! It draws about 5 amps when on and is "on" 2/3 to 3/4 the time in 24 hrs. So scale up for your size fridge in the big 5er.

The 230w solar we have for the TC is enough to replace the fridge AH while the batts run down with the other 12v stuff, so we can go a week off-grid before the batts get to 50% and need a recharge (at home by then) We could do the same thing with no 120v fridge and no solar to put that in perspective)

It is a big nail-biter for whether the sun will come out enough to replace those fridge AH every day. Any cloudy day and you get behind and can't catch up. Need generator (and a big amp fast charger) on stand-by, or no hope!

So imagine full-timing with no generator and a residential fridge! The sun does not shine every day all year. You can fill the roof with solar and you can get by better, but you absolutely must have a generator if you have a 120v-only "res" fridge!!!!! Just ask Mr Wiz here 🙂

[Chris_Bryant]

Further confusing things- in the literature Dometic refers to the unit as HP- which actually means High Performance, not Heat Pump.

[Hermes]

A fair point, my apologies for the confusion

[MrWizard]

around Here, air conditioning is referred to as A/C .. as "AC" mean 120v alternating current electricity

it gets confusing when somebody start talking AC as air conditioning in a thread talking about electricity

an NO you are not going to run the roof A/C or basement A/C from batteries and solar, for that you still need a generator or shore power, the battery bank required is way to big
there are one or two members powering a small window A/C for a few evening hours, but They must recharge the batteries the Next day using a generator

lanerd wrote:

Hermes wrote:
Thank you for the input. Ron, by residential AC some manufacturers are using the term referring to cold air returns as opposed to the standard RV AC units which are noisy.

Ok, you got me here. I'm not sure what you mean by "cold air returns". Can you explain this to me please?

AC units only cool existing air from inside the rv (or house). I've never heard of one that will take outside air and heat/cool it. My mh has intakes on the ceiling that takes the interior air, runs it through the AC unit to either heat it or cool it, and then returns it back to the interior of the rv. My home AC units does exactly the same so I don't think it makes a difference (in the process) whether the AC is on an rv or house.'

Ron

[Hermes]

Chris Bryant wrote:
I believe he is talking about ducted return- Newmar has had it for a long time, others are coming out with it now. Makes it *much* quieter (and much harder to service 🙂 ).
Dometic has come out with what they call The Quiet Zone

Exactly.

[Chris_Bryant]

I believe he is talking about ducted return- Newmar has had it for a long time, others are coming out with it now. Makes it *much* quieter (and much harder to service 🙂 ).
Dometic has come out with what they call The Quiet Zone

[lanerd]

Hermes wrote:
Thank you for the input. Ron, by residential AC some manufacturers are using the term referring to cold air returns as opposed to the standard RV AC units which are noisy.

Ok, you got me here. I'm not sure what you mean by "cold air returns". Can you explain this to me please?

AC units only cool existing air from inside the rv (or house). I've never heard of one that will take outside air and heat/cool it. My mh has intakes on the ceiling that takes the interior air, runs it through the AC unit to either heat it or cool it, and then returns it back to the interior of the rv. My home AC units does exactly the same so I don't think it makes a difference (in the process) whether the AC is on an rv or house.'

Ron

[Hermes]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Add some solar panels, in fact if you full time populate the entire roof with panels.

Consider going to a 24 volt DC system with a DC to DC converter for the 12 volt side of the unit.

The biggest hassle of a propane fridge is the need for the RV to be almost perfectly level. They are expensive to operate on the electric setting, which doesn't matter--unless you are in an RV park that meters the power.

When the fridge finally fails, I will replace with a residential unit.

Will definitely go solar, I refuse to own a generator. On my current TT I have 320 watts of solar that serves us well but will likely increase that once we get a 5th wheel and ready for full timing. I had not thought about 24v, but may look into it. I am warming up to the idea of a residential fridge. Thanks for all these helpful suggestions.

[jrnymn7]

rr2254545 wrote:
Two necessary items - yes residential electric fridge and stacked washer and dryer

You mean like this?

Stacked W & D

[jrnymn7]

How about in cold weather? A propane fridge needs the rear cabinet heated... I imagine it's the same for a residential?

[horizon36]

We changed out our gas fridge for a residential unit last Fall and absolutely love it. We only have four 6 volt house batteries and don't have any trouble dry camping. I added a separate 600 watt PSW inverter just to run the new fridge, this way we can shut down our main inverter and still run the fridge. That cuts our power consumption quite a bit overnight. We do have 375 watts of solar and that helps a lot. We need the generator about 1-2 hours a day, depending on how much TV we watch at night.

Go for the residential unit, add some batteries and at least 400 watts of solar or more if you don't want to run a generator.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Add some solar panels, in fact if you full time populate the entire roof with panels.

Consider going to a 24 volt DC system with a DC to DC converter for the 12 volt side of the unit.

The biggest hassle of a propane fridge is the need for the RV to be almost perfectly level. They are expensive to operate on the electric setting, which doesn't matter--unless you are in an RV park that meters the power.

When the fridge finally fails, I will replace with a residential unit.

[Hermes]

Thank you for the input. Ron, by residential AC some manufacturers are using the term referring to cold air returns as opposed to the standard RV AC units which are noisy.

[rr2254545]

Two necessary items - yes residential electric fridge and stacked washer and dryer