Sailorchic34's new Fridge

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I thought California was suffering from a severe drought brought about by man made global warming?

They were a couple years ago and they kept.complaining about it..
See what happens when you compain to much.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

That drought thingy is way in the past. The grounds are totally saturated, all reservoirs are full and we have a massive snow pack. What we lack is sunny days. Been looking tooo much like Seattle weather.
.

Hey now we just had 5 straight days of sun. But are looking at a possible record wet feburary just need two more inches more of rain by the end of the month.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Hey now we just had 5 straight days of sun. But are looking at a possible record wet feburary just need two more inches more of rain by the end of the month.

We should have 2 more inches by tomorrow noon. I did enjoy the 5 days of sunny weather. Three on the boat getting it ready for SUMMER!!!. It's the 8-10 days of un-sunny weather coming next that I'm not so fond of.

I do miss those lovely drought years, had some good january and february sailing back then.

[Jim Cate]

Hmm... drought and bush fires, rain and floods.... sounds just like Australia! No wonder we feel so comfortable here!

Jim

[ErikFinn]

Thread drift, or is it anymore? lol, but here in Penang Malaysia it rained just about every day in January up to about until chinese new year and the local people said "never" when I asked them when was the last time it rained so much in January. Mind you the dry season normally starts in December here. A friend in Phuket in January complained the weather was lousy and raining most days. There was news about flooding in Thailand, people died and rubber plantations destroyed to the extent the tire prices are expected to rice in the future because of the diminished rubber production. Has there been more weird weather worlwide to the extent that it definitely is not normal anymore? Are the days finally numbered? Maybe someone knowledgeable could start a new thread?


Back to this thread: before I got myself an Engel and a new 12v boat fridge compressor and evaporator I had a Sanyo 240v ac 180 liter house fridge (about 150usd) in the boat, drawing about 100 ah a day (dc) after provisioning to half full and about 50 ah a day after inside temps pulled down and door not opened (measured with an ac power monitor, similar to Kilawatt, and converted to dc), but using straight ac shorepower in an air conditioned boat at about 25ºC so would be worse in the hook in a hot boat and after about 10% loss to inverter.
I think sailorchicks AC fridge installation is the only plausible one in a monohull, leaving the sidewalls (condenser coil) open for ventilation and frame bolted to the boat. I only would have had one eligible spot available in my boat and that would have been in an enclosed locker requiring major carpentry to make it work, so I gave up the ac fridge, contrary to my hopes. But Sailorchics ac fridge choice and installation looks perfect imho, Just needs the PSW inverter. And I would love one if I only had a good spot.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Hmm... drought and bush fires, rain and floods.... sounds just like Australia! No wonder we feel so comfortable here!

Jim

Heard on the news this morning that LA is expecting 6" of rain, and that is more than many years total.

[a64pilot]

The Energy ratings are a good indicator of consumption of course, normally people don't care, they go for the lowest price.
Frost free is an energy Hog, stay away from that, and some fridges have a switch that you can turn off the heated gaskets or door, something is heated, not sure what it is though, but of course electric resistance heating is a power drain

Seems the electric heating is a thing of the past? Now compressor heat is used?
http://www.applianceaid.com/heat-aro...rator-door.php

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Heard on the news this morning that LA is expecting 6" of rain, and that is more than many years total.

Southern California never gets much rain. So 6" is a lot down there. Northern CA normally gets 26 ish inches a year and we're about twice that now. With more rain every day for the next week. Way too wet. Luckily I already own an ark... er sailboat.

My old fridge was not too bad on the ah a day usage. But when it ran it pulled 15 amps (Ugh) Peukert effect did not help either. The new fridge is about 5.5 amps at 12.4v (via psw inverter) so pretty close to a standard.

If I was industrious, I would wire an inverter direct to the compressor with the thermostat wired to the inverter on/off switch. But then I would need a tansfer relay to switch between shore power and inverter. That would still be half the price of a 12V "Marine" fridge.

But then again simple is nice too.

[Cheechako]

Yeah, I used to consult for a factory in So Cal. a couple times when I was there it rained like heck. Parts of the factory were flooded with a foot of water as the drainage system outside wasn't setup to handle it. The parking lot and factory were rebuilt later on and the factory stayed pretty dry, but then the place next door flooded! Lawsuit...

[a64pilot]

Mine pulls about 6 amps at 13ish volts.
At 5.5 I think your all over a marine unit power consumption wise.
You think its a variable speed compressor?

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Heard on the news this morning that LA is expecting 6" of rain, and that is more than many years total.

If that happens, maybe some of those Hollywood people who said they'd leave the country might ACTUALLY do it.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Southern California never gets much rain. So 6" is a lot down there. Northern CA normally gets 26 ish inches a year and we're about twice that now. With more rain every day for the next week. Way too wet. Luckily I already own an ark... er sailboat.

My old fridge was not too bad on the ah a day usage. But when it ran it pulled 15 amps (Ugh) Peukert effect did not help either. The new fridge is about 5.5 amps at 12.4v (via psw inverter) so pretty close to a standard.

If I was industrious, I would wire an inverter direct to the compressor with the thermostat wired to the inverter on/off switch. But then I would need a tansfer relay to switch between shore power and inverter. That would still be half the price of a 12V "Marine" fridge.

But then again simple is nice too.

Why install a force transfer relay? You have sufficient solar and a battery charger. The inverter is just as stable and possibly more so than the shore power that may fail at any time. (KISS)

[a64pilot]

I think she is thinking to be able to go to 110 direct, however the only saving I see is the slight gain in efficiency when you lose inverter losses, which since your on shorepower, are insignificant.
Run the thing off of DC and when on shorepower, the charger runs it, the bank just acts like an accumulator, your not really drawing from the bank then, this is how a "marine fridge" is run?

I would use a small dedicated pure sine inverter though

[newhaul]

She has a psw inverter now running it. Also yes the marine friges do run off the battery and the charger in tandem like as you said.
Sc an idea for if you really want to switch from shore to battery on the cheap you could get the relays you need from a secondhand UPS unit.

[toodleoo]

Took a look at the owners manual and am wondering how the compressor will operate when the boat is heeled over or rocking at anchor? The manual is pretty specific about leveling the unit. It seems like a great deal.