Nova Kool 9.1 cf refer / freezer combination

[Wood]

I'm pleasantly surprised with its insulation and power consumption. I just recently have been able to quantify consumption so thought I would post it here.

The unit is circa 2016. The total capacity is 9.1 cf and the freezer is 2.5cf. The fridge is set for 40*F. The freeze is set at 20*F.

Everything was off except the fridge, Balmar SG200 and BMS w/o bluetooth. The median temperature inside the boat was 74* F w/ samples every 4 hours.

I was off the boat on mooring from Sunday noon to Thursday 5PM so about 101 hours.

Total consumption was 174AH or about 1.75 amps per hour. I thought this was pretty darn good!

[rslifkin]

I've had a similarly positive experience since I put that same fridge in last year. I do regret not noticing that they made a dual compressor version, as separate fridge / freezer temperature control would be nice, as would a little bit more cooling power. But with a little bit of added insulation, it's pretty efficient, does the job well, and it holds more than any other fridge I could fit that fits in the same hole.

[Mike OReilly]

Similarly pleased with my Nova Kool LT201 installation. I haven't measured the amp-hrs specifically, mainly because it is easily managed by my passive charging system (400 watts solar, + a wind gen).

[Checkswrecks]

Thanks!

[stormalong]

20 degrees F is not cold enough for a freezer. US FDA recommends 0 degrees F. Getting down to 0 will take a lot more energy.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consum...ng-food-safely

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by stormalong

20 degrees F is not cold enough for a freezer. US FDA recommends 0 degrees F. Getting down to 0 will take a lot more energy.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consum...ng-food-safely

That depends on how long you want to keep food. If you're talking about a month or so, 20 should be fine. It won't keep most things for 6 months though.

I personally find my novakool holds things around 20 degrees in the freezer for stuff outside the evaporator area. Stuff in the evaporator area stays in the single digits.

[Wood]

Originally Posted by stormalong

20 degrees F is not cold enough for a freezer. US FDA recommends 0 degrees F. Getting down to 0 will take a lot more energy.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consum...ng-food-safely

That's OK. I don't wear a mask either.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by stormalong

20 degrees F is not cold enough for a freezer. US FDA recommends 0 degrees F. Getting down to 0 will take a lot more energy.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consum...ng-food-safely

0 is ideal. But tough on a boat, I can get down to zero, even neg numbers in winter, but not summer, Summer best we can see is single digits, so I usually run it at about 12-14 or so.
Fridge I run it at 34 any colder and vegetables freeze and of course that ruins them.

Normally we run an Engle as a deep freeze, it will get and stay real close to zero, but it’s running solid too.

[ayates]

Originally Posted by Wood

ITotal consumption was 174AH or about 1.75 amps per hour. I thought this was pretty darn good!

That works out at 41 AH/day, which is exceptional!

I have done a lot of testing with an RFU9000, purchased in early 2017. I added 3" of extruded styrofoam to the sides & top, and 1" underneath. With the fridge temperature set just above freezing, the freezer goes to -7C (20F). The freezer has no separate temperature control.

With an ambient temperature of 20C (68F) I saw a 34% duty cycle which corresponds to ~41 AH/day. When the ambient temperature rises to ~25C (77F), the duty cycle rises to 50% (~60 AH/day), and when it rises to ~30C (86F the duty cycle rises to 61% (~73 AH/day). In all cases the door was not being opened.

Originally Posted by rslifkin

I do regret not noticing that they made a dual compressor version, as separate fridge / freezer temperature control would be nice, as would a little bit more cooling power.

That dual compressor option is new. It didn't exist a few years ago when we purchased our RFU9000. I would certainly have gone for that too!


Allan.

[rslifkin]

If the dual compressor option is new, it probably came out just after I bought mine last year. That would explain why I didn't see it at the time. Darn...