Home refrigerator in catamaran?

[mikedefieslife]

I wonder is European fridges are more efficient than US fridges. Or if like Diesels, are just 'fixed' to pass the various power standards.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I wonder is European fridges are more efficient than US fridges. Or if like Diesels, are just 'fixed' to pass the various power standards.

Here is the link to the EU label efficiency calculation and test procedures

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ...17:0046:EN:PDF

[rom]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I wonder is European fridges are more efficient than US fridges. Or if like Diesels, are just 'fixed' to pass the various power standards.

I would suppose they are the same ? Samsung is neither EU nor US. In EU we can still buy inefficient fridges. But there's got to be an efficiency label on the equipment (not with marine systems it seems...) and we can choose from rather poor to very high efficiency. Tthe highest rating these days being A+++. e.g. about 60kWh a year for a 150L fridge !

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

I wonder is European fridges are more efficient than US fridges. Or if like Diesels, are just 'fixed' to pass the various power standards.

Australia/NZ are about a decade ahead of Europe in refrigeration efficiency and testing and Europe is in turn about a decade ahead of the US. The Oz/NZ testing standards got rolled into IEC 62252 which is now used in both Oz/NZ and Europe. These standards were developed in hopes of obtaining reasonably real-world performance numbers.

A large independent study completed in Europe last year - conducted on fridges in actual homes - found that half the refrigerators used more than their label-stated energy. Of course that also means half used the label-stated value or less. The worst offender was found to use 32% more than the label-stated value. Some of that could be down to use patterns, but having the worst offender be 32% over seems within reason (to me), especially if the overall distribution is centered around the label value, which it seems to be.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

Australia/NZ are about a decade ahead of Europe in refrigeration efficiency and testing and Europe is in turn about a decade ahead of the US. The Oz/NZ testing standards got rolled into IEC 62252 which is now used in both Oz/NZ and Europe. These standards were developed in hopes of obtaining reasonably real-world performance numbers.

A large independent study completed in Europe last year - conducted on fridges in actual homes - found that half the refrigerators used more than their label-stated energy. Of course that also means half used the label-stated value or less. The worst offender was found to use 32% more than the label-stated value. Some of that could be down to use patterns, but having the worst offender be 32% over seems within reason (to me), especially if the overall distribution is centered around the label value, which it seems to be.

If they are reporting average consumption and there is nothing odd about the distribution pattern (ie: mean and average significantly different)...50% reporting more usage means they got it right.

I do suspect many boaters will see higher actual consumption as the tests likely assume a household installation where the room temps are kept around 70-72F. Boats tend to be poorly insulated and unless you are running the air/con will often be much warmer. On shore power, most people don't care, so if you are looking for efficiency away from shore power, you may see much higher usage as most anchored boats aren't running the air/con 24/7, so on 80-90F days, If the coils on the back of the fridge are in a small enclosed space, they could easily be seeing 90-110F temps.

[Palarran]

I've gone ahead and committed to removing my old fridge/freezer and installing a home unit. The dimensions I had to work with were 44"w x 72"h x 30"d. The depth lead me to only look at counter depth units. I couldn't really see getting a 36" wide unit through the boat and down into the port hull, so went with a 33" wide unit.

This is what I ordered:
https://www.sears.com/kenmore-253700...h/p-A027947757

I like it because of it's size, 4 doors and no handles, solid glass shelves that bridge the whole distance, adjustable legs instead of rollers. It doesn't have a energy rating but that didn't mean that much to me anyway. I'm going to increase my battery bank to 1200ah and am pretty confident that will run it and the boat for 12 hours. We typically run the generator for one hour in the AM and one in the PM to make water, cook, coffee, and recharge the bank.

The price was $850 including tax and shipping to the docks in Ft. Lauderdale. They estimate the cost to ship to Freeport at less than $200. It's going to cost about $1000 to install it as the yard has to tear out the old one and build teak laminated fillers to go around the sides. All in all it's really reasonable compared to repairing my existing refrigerator. And it should really keep stuff cold in the freezer.

[CatNewBee]

Nice!

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by rom

I am not sure how a 543L fridge is relevant to this conversation. You are not using one on your boat and you will have a hard time finding someone who does and can provide actual electricity consumption figures. Let's be honest, the vast majority of us are interested in "table top" or smaller units.


Why are you trying negate what's been said here by cruisers with actual experience using residential fridges, that they draw about what the label says ?

We have that Samsung on ours
Plus 110 litre bar fridge x 2
Ad a 100 litre freezer.
All 240v and all front opening.

We cruise full time, never see a marina and everything runs off of solar and batteries, genset rarely used.

We don't know how much power it uses and don't care as we have sufficient solar and battery to never see batts get below 80℅

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

We have that Samsung on ours
Plus 110 litre bar fridge x 2
Ad a 100 litre freezer.
All 240v and all front opening.

We cruise full time, never see a marina and everything runs off of solar and batteries, genset rarely used.

We don't know how much power it uses and don't care as we have sufficient solar and battery to never see batts get below 80℅

May I enquire how much solar panels and size of batterys please,
This is the easy way of working out what works,

Thanks, Brian,

[Simi 60]

9 x 250w jinko panels
Midnite classic 150mppt
8 x 220ah12v agm set up as 24v
Victron 5000/100 inverter charger

The above setup also does a rheem 180 litre 240v hot water system.
And all that refrigeration is at least 12 years old now so a newer version of same would be so much more efficient.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

9 x 250w jinko panels
Midnite classic 150mppt
8 x 220ah12v agm set up as 24v
Victron 5000/100 inverter charger

The above setup also does a rheem 180 litre 240v hot water system.
And all that refrigeration is at least 12 years old now so a newer version of same would be so much more efficient.

Thanks for that,

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

We have that Samsung on ours
Plus 110 litre bar fridge x 2
Ad a 100 litre freezer.
All 240v and all front opening.

We cruise full time, never see a marina and everything runs off of solar and batteries, genset rarely used.

We don't know how much power it uses and don't care as we have sufficient solar and battery to never see batts get below 80℅

Originally Posted by Simi 60

9 x 250w jinko panels
Midnite classic 150mppt
8 x 220ah12v agm set up as 24v
Victron 5000/100 inverter charger

The above setup also does a rheem 180 litre 240v hot water system.
And all that refrigeration is at least 12 years old now so a newer version of same would be so much more efficient.

Awesome

[CatNewBee]

The Admiral wants this one installed instead of the freezer on port side of the entrance.
Samsung RB29HER2CSA*

She would prefer the LG, but it is too tall. Will see, if I can make the conversion, some furniture needs to be cutted and presumably the floor would need some work too below the freezer I think it is no floor at all, just a frame holding the aggregate in place...

[Palarran]

That looks like a really good option. I followed the link to your new electrical setup. Does that Victron inverter supply 220v split phase power where you have 110-0-110 or just 220-0? If it's single phase 220-0 how are you going to power the refrigerator or are you in an area where this is the standard.

I'd really like to install the smaller version of your inverter on Palarran but it doesn't do split phase that I can tell.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by Palarran

That looks like a really good option. I followed the link to your new electrical setup. Does that Victron inverter supply 220v split phase power where you have 110-0-110 or just 220-0? If it's single phase 220-0 how are you going to power the refrigerator or are you in an area where this is the standard.

I'd really like to install the smaller version of your inverter on Palarran but it doesn't do split phase that I can tell.

We are EU based, 240V single phase 50Hz. When going for the fridge/freezer I would add a small pure sine wave inverter matching the demand ( I guess 200...300W would be sufficient, but I will measure this first by hooking up to the Victron and checking the gauges on the computer) I have a 2kVA MassSine from Mastervolt and a 5kVA Victron Quattro, but they use to much power when idle, so I turn them only on when needed. A smaller inverter would draw less power idling when the fridge compressor does not cool.

It will run always on 12V DC, so in a 110V environment I will not hook up or use a 220V split phase, the Victron runs on 60Hz too, so charging the LiFeYPO4 would be possible too I guess, not sure if it can convert 60Hz to 50Hz, but as a charger it should be fine.

You can always hook up 110 / 110 split phase as 220 single phase, it is the same, just do not connect the neutral wire.