Residential Refrigerator or Not?

[UTTransplant]

When you do have Solar installed, be sure to do your research.  There are quite a few (a lot maybe) of solar installers who scrimp with materials in various ways or do poor quality installs. 

Here is a link to Handy Bob's website with good advice.  Yes he rants more than necessary, but he provides lots of good info about what anyone considering solar needs to be self educated about.  You don't have to agree with everything he has to say.  However you should do follow up research to confirm the things Bob has to say.  http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the-rv-battery-charging-puzzle-2/

There is more info about solar installs in the links I gave earlier.

DH Kevin is an electrical engineer, and he designed and installed the solar setup we have on our current trailer. It is great. I have no worries about the RR and dry camping after August when he can get to it. Oh, and our son in law is a young electrician without any worries about climbing on roofs! We don?t even pick the motorhome up until 11 June, and he wants to do some good measurements on energy use before finalizing the design. He also wants to see the final layout of the roof to see how many panels make sense. He?s currently thinking about 800 watts, but hasn?t finally decided. We have the specs of the wiring harness that will be pre-installed in the unit, and the wires are plenty big enough for even DH to be happy (he is notorious about using bigger wire than absolutely necessary). We have already bought the Trimetric battery monitor, and he will install that within a few days of picking up the motorhome. Part of my nervousness is just the lack of firm data. It will help when I see the specs of the refrigerator. Yes, I know I could call and ask, but there is nothing that would change so I haven?t done it. We just intend on not much dry camping until September. I know we have 10 or 12 days dry camping in Missouri in October, but we will need the gennie a lot there since it is mostly in the trees. November will be a week or two in Death Valley without hookups followed by Quartzsite in January. Those will get the solar a good workout.

 

[Frank B]

UTTransplant:


I haven't had a look at Handy Bob's site in a long time. However, you might want to consider residential style solar panels. They are cheaper per watt than the RV style, and if you get the ones made with 5-inch ingots, they are only about 32 in wide, but still provide in excess of 40 Volts. That output works well with a good mppt controller. No need to put those panels in series, which reduces complications with possible shading.

 

[butchiiii]

I think that the residential panels are the way to go now. You can get panels up to 330 watts each for a good price.

 

[UTTransplant]

Thanks for the hint to look at the residential panels. He hadn?t really started looking at specific panels yet, and a lot has changed in just the two years since the last set was spec?d out.

 

[johnaye]

Our motorhome came with a nevercold, I mean Norcold.  Shortly after we bought the motorhome the Norcold went out.  We had the Amish kit installed and it still did not cool or make enough ice (19 in the Freezer and 40 in the refrig).  After a year we had the Norcold replaced with a Samsung 19.4 cu ft. counter depth three door.  The freezer is on the bottom.  The unit sticks out about two more inches than the Norcold.  I think the 18 cu ft fits flush, but we wanted the extra storage.  We love our Samsng.  It makes so much ice we have to turnt the ice maker off.  We have an inverter which powers the the refrig when we are going down the road.  We have yet to camp off the grid with the Samsung, but people who have done so say there is no real problem as long as you use the generator to keep the batteries.  Right now, the freezer is at -2 and the refrigerator is at 36.  If you do go with a residential unit check out recubed solutions for a door lock.  We bought one and love it.  The only issue have had when traveling is occasionally items will come off the shelf when we are traveling.  We have learned to be very careful when opening the doors when we stop.  I am going to try to cure this with some spring loaded braces. 

 

[bigbillsd]

I am happy with my Norcold 1200, its 12 years old and just works and draws almost no power when boondocking which I want to do more of.  When it dies I will replace its cooling unit with one made at JC Cooling in Indiana, I will probably drive there and let them install it too.  The OP's comment about 3 @ 12 volt batteries make's me think you will need to stick with absorption.  You probably don't have the Ah available to do a good job with a Res unit, most folks have 6 true deep cycles, not 12 volt batts. 
I am usually able keep the fridge cold enough to freeze the eggs.. my wife complains when I do that though.    Open up the top vent (if you have two side vents you MUST install blowers to get enough air in there)  See if you can make an air dam at the top of the open box behind the fridge to gently force the raising air over toward the top vent and outside.  I'm not sure why that's not something standard, it should be.  When I was camping in 100+ degree heat last spring and summer in the deserts of Az I put in an 8" 120 volt clip on electric fan at the bottom of the fridge backside and pointing upward toward the top vent.  I used the ice-maker plug to power it.  That worked perfectly!  This year I am installing an ARP with a small blower fan to suck air from outside the bottom vent and blowing it toward the top vent. 
You could also get one of those fans on ebay that mounts on the fridge fins that circulates the cold air inside the fridge.  My wife loves to pack everything on the top and second shelf, which prevents the normal circulation of cold air.  Residential units will normally have a fan inside the freezer blowing the cold air into the fridge side.  Our Norcolds don't have that fan, probably should, add one and its amazing how they cool down the fridge.  I had an old USB powered 4" desk fan I set in there a couple of times where it was close to 110 outside.  Used one of those little round rechargeable power banks to run it.  I have thought about adding a fan inside full-time, but currently I just redistribute the stuff to allow air circulation until I decide if I need to do that.  -Bill 

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The OP's comment about 3 @ 12 volt batteries make's me think you will need to stick with absorption.  You probably don't have the Ah available to do a good job with a Res unit, most folks have 6 true deep cycles, not 12 volt batts.

I keep preaching this, to little avail, but the individual battery voltage is irrelevant, whether 2v, 6v, or 12v. They are always combined to be a 12v system, so only the total amp-hours and number of deep discharge cycles is important. Golf car batteries in size GC2 happen to be good combination of AH and cycles, but they are hardly the only good ones.  There are 12v deep cycles with AH ranging from 75 all the way to 250+.
For residential fridges, the amount of AH needed in the battery bank varies with your time off-grid, but probably anywhere from 200 to 600 should work.

 

[garyb1st]

Are some residential models more efficient and therefore more suited to an RV?  Not sure where I'd put the extra batteries but if our Dometic goes south, I'm sure going to give it some thought. 

 

[Frank B]

Don't forget the Danfoss DC compressor fridges. The are more efficient than residential units and are made for RV's. Danfoss makes the compressor, but other companies, including Nircold and Dimetic

 

[SargeW]

Are some residential models more efficient and therefore more suited to an RV?  Not sure where I'd put the extra batteries but if our Dometic goes south, I'm sure going to give it some thought. 

Many of the new refers are very power efficient, so there are many choices available. Last time I researched I found that there are only a few refer manufacturers, and they make and rebadge the refers for a variety of retail outlets.  Ours is a Maytag, but many others are identical with a few cosmetic differences. 

Most will have Energy Use stickers on them (the bright yellow ones) that show what the expected power consumption is over a year period.  Tiffin has been using the Maytag brand for a while, just because they have found that they have a low incidence of problems being installed in a RV. 

As for storing items in the refer, Diane has discovered that using clear plastic bins with rubber feet on the refer shelves is the ticket for containing items on the shelf during travel. She will never have an RV with a gas refer again. 

 

[Kevin Means]

Are some residential models more efficient and therefore more suited to an RV?  Not sure where I'd put the extra batteries but if our Dometic goes south, I'm sure going to give it some thought.

Hi Gary. Yeah, some are more efficient than others, but anything made in recent years is going to be pretty efficient. Their size and features will also affect their consumption. An 18 cf res fridge, for example, with no ice-maker, consumes significantly less power than our 22 cf fridge with an ice-maker.

Ours has a pretty large ice bin, and everytime the heating element comes on to dump the ice, the battery monitor shows about a 40 amp increase in consumption. That only lasts for about five minutes, but it's consistent throughout the day until the ice bin is full, or until you turn the ice-maker off.

There's about a five amp increase in consumption everytime our fridge's compressor kicks on, and while I've never timed how long it runs, or paid much attention to how often it kicks on, it's pretty consistent throughout the day. The compressors in some of the smaller fridges only consume about half as much as ours does. Over 24 hours, that makes quite a difference.

Kev

 

[Deano2002]

my residential fridge draws 90 watts, its around 8 cf, we run the generator off and on depending how hot it is, never got to the inverter stuff yet