RV vs residential refrigerator?
We are on the fence about trading out our 10yr old Dometic for a Whirlpool residential refrigerator. Because of space in our floor plan, it looks like the only choice still made that small... It loo...
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We went back to a propane fridge for the 1981 truck camper because it was not possible to keep the 120v fridge (replaced the busted original 3-way) running four days off-grid with not much sunshine. Got fed up with that. It might be easier in California! Love our new-to-us Dometic 7401L :)
Those 120v res fridges don't use much power, but they eat up lots of battery AH over a whole day. With four batts and 255w solar we just got by with lots of sunshine. No hope without the sun.
When the batts run down some in a day or two of no sun, now you have the inverter loaded voltage to keep above 11v (it varies by inverter model) problem or the inverter will shut down, so no fridge. That means you need more of a battery bank to keep the loaded voltage up, even though you would be still above 50% with just two batts but without much load.
It is all a big struggle with a smaller RV to find room for enough solar and battery bank to go off-grid without a propane fridge. You also need a generator and charger for that needed big battery bank to cart along too for when the sun doesn't shine. And gas for the gen.
Those 120v res fridges don't use much power, but they eat up lots of battery AH over a whole day. With four batts and 255w solar we just got by with lots of sunshine. No hope without the sun.
When the batts run down some in a day or two of no sun, now you have the inverter loaded voltage to keep above 11v (it varies by inverter model) problem or the inverter will shut down, so no fridge. That means you need more of a battery bank to keep the loaded voltage up, even though you would be still above 50% with just two batts but without much load.
It is all a big struggle with a smaller RV to find room for enough solar and battery bank to go off-grid without a propane fridge. You also need a generator and charger for that needed big battery bank to cart along too for when the sun doesn't shine. And gas for the gen.
