Out wth the old, in with the new!

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Gary RV Roamer said:
It could be, but it would also be an entry point for outside heat (or cold). Not to mention the potential for critters and water. The back and sides around a residential fridge are not sealed off from the rear, and air has to flow underneath to shed the compressor heat. Unless the fridge is a model designed to be a built-in and sealed in a cabinet, I feel it is best to operate it in the normal residential fashion, with the air circulation kept inside. Besides, that's what the installation specs call for.
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Do you think that the heat will be an issue where it's going to go right into your coach and act like a electric heater?
 
Rene T said:
Do you think that the heat will be an issue where it's going to go right into your coach and act like a electric heater?
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Never mind. I just withdrew a statement I made but I am still interested as to what Gary feels about the heat.   
 
Do you think that the heat will be an issue where it's going to go right into your coach and act like a electric heater?
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Obviously I do not, since I have already made that choice.

The Energy Star power consumption estimate is 337 KHw/year, which works out to be less than 1 KWH per day. Not a while lot of heat energy to be dissipated, even allowing that it is also pumping heat from the interior of the fridge. Granted, there will be some heating effect, but I believe it is not significant and actually quite small compared to the other major heat gains in any RV.  I made an "Energy Star" rating one of my purchase criteria partly for that reason (the rest of it was a smaller inverter load).

I'll let you now this summer once I've gained some real experience.  ;)
 
I haven't read the entire thread yet but if you didn't destroy the ARP I might be interested in buying it.

Don't forget that you'll need to vacuum out the heat exchanger once or twice a year.  Especially if you have critters!  The stuff tha gets sucked in can be dangerous.  Several recalls and class action suits are related to dust bunny fires.  Some refers can be cleaned from the front but most require access to the back.

 
Yeah, RVs tend to be dusty and heat exchangers, fans, etc. tend to get dirtier than in many stick houses. Depends a lot of where you travel, of course, but I have to clean my coach computer fan intakes at least annually. It runs about 16 hours/day, so moves a lot of air through over time. I have a small under-counter fridge in the stick hours that needs vacuuming twice a year, but the big fridge rarely needs it. But the small fridge is 22 years old and nowhere near as heat efficient as the larger one, so blows a lot of air through and for more hours/day. It actually costs more to operate too!

Paul Unmack has already asked to have my ARP returned to him. I have one of the rare data collection models that he custom made. He uses them to diagnose problem fridges and could use an extra one, since it may take weeks or months of data tracking to identify the causes of overheating
 
In response to a couple of the questions Gary had:


The idle overhead of our separate non charger 1800 watt inverter for our residential refrigerator is minimal so it is always on while traveling. (Insures that we don't forget to turn it on when heading out). The main inverter always has a bunch of stuff plugged into it and runs 10-15 amps of draw so we shut it down while boondocking and use the new one to power the refrigerator. I mentioned last summer that while on an Alaska ferry we went 32 hours with the frig on 4 six boot batteries and still had 12.2 volts of battery left at arrival.


We still have access to the original inverter outlet behind the refrigerator but have never had need of it but it is good insurance if a problem arises with the 2nd inverter.


I sealed our vents and after two years the frig seems clean.
 
I'm estimating the fridge will need about 100 AH per 24-hour day from battery when no shore power is available, plus the inverter idle load draws another 30 AH. That's about 1/3 of my present battery bank AH, not counting the main inverter draw. Given that our typical travel day is rarely more than 6 hours between RV sites, and that even a long day of driving would be maybe 8-9 hours, I feel we are comfortable safe. A typical days battery usage is probably well under 100 AH. Others may well need more.

We normally travel with the main inverter on and it indeed sucks power keeping "stuff" like clocks and digital controls powered. Somewhere around 12A seems the norm, even with the 120vac stuff supposedly off (most are actually in standby rather than powered down). I shut it off if I need to be conservative with battery capacity, but that's not much concern to us any more.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
I'm estimating the fridge will need about 100 AH per 24-hour day from battery when no shore power is available, plus the inverter idle load draws another 30 AH. That's about 1/3 of my present battery bank AH, not counting the main inverter draw. Given that our typical travel day is rarely more than 6 hours between RV sites, and that even a long day of driving would be maybe 8-9 hours, I feel we are comfortable safe. A typical days battery usage is probably well under 100 AH. Others may well need more.

We normally travel with the main inverter on and it indeed sucks power keeping "stuff" like clocks and digital controls powered. Somewhere around 12A seems the norm, even with the 120vac stuff supposedly off (most are actually in standby rather than powered down). I shut it off if I need to be conservative with battery capacity, but that's not much concern to us any more.
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Gary, isn't your coach set up to charge the house batteries from the alternator?  If so, the amp draw while traveling would be a moot point as the batteries are continually being charged.

Mike.
 
Typically in class A coaches the chassis batteries have to be at full charge before any alternator current gets switched over to the house batteries.  The opposite happens when plugged in at an RV site.  I.e. House batteries first, chassis second.
 
8Muddypaws said:
Typically in class A coaches the chassis batteries have to be at full charge before any alternator current gets switched over to the house batteries.  The opposite happens when plugged in at an RV site.  I.e. House batteries first, chassis second.
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Not necessarily.  It depends on what type of charging system your coach is setup with.  If it has an isolating solenoid/relay the house bank will charge off the alternator and will merely "accept" the current based on the state of charge that they are at.  As charge rate goes up so does resistance therefore current going into the batteries will decrease.

Mike.
 
Gary, isn't your coach set up to charge the house batteries from the alternator?  If so, the amp draw while traveling would be a moot point as the batteries are continually being charged.
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Typically in class A coaches the chassis batteries have to be at full charge before any alternator current gets switched over to the house batteries.  The opposite happens when plugged in at an RV site.  I.e. House batteries first, chassis second.
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Yes to both of the above.
 
Rene T's question is a common one concerning this conversion. I gave my personal opinion, but others feel different. 

I always find it a bit perplexing when people raise questions like this about an RV, but wouldn't dream of applying the same logic at home. Home fridges vent indoors. Home water heaters stay on 24/7. External water or gas supply is rarely, if ever, shut off.  I'm not saying there is never any reason to do things differently in an RV vs a stick house, but (in my mind, anyway), there would have to a good and specific reason for it.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
Rene T's question is a common one concerning this conversion. I gave my personal opinion, but others feel different. 

I always find it a bit perplexing when people raise questions like this about an RV, but wouldn't dream of applying the same logic at home. Home fridges vent indoors. Home water heaters stay on 24/7. External water or gas supply is rarely, if ever, shut off.  I'm not saying there is never any reason to do things differently in an RV vs a stick house, but (in my mind, anyway), there would have to a good and specific reason for it.
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The only reason I was asking is because my house is 1500 square feet and my RV is maybe 300 square feet. Didn't think the heat would dissipate as fast in the RV.  When I walk in front of the fridge at home barefooted,  the floor is very warm so there's quite a bit of heat coming out from the bottom.
 
The older fridges used larger, less efficient compressors and waste energy. At least as important is that the Energy Star fridges have vastly superior insulation and go to extremes to seal off small heat leaks, so gain very little heat. That keeps them cool inside longer and allows the compressor to run only once in awhile. Of course, no technology can overcome a person who stands there with the door open for minutes at a time!
 
LOL, Bill!  One of the advantages of a residential fridge is that cooling recovery time is much faster than an absorption fridge. That's because it has forced air circulation as well as the compressors inherent ability to deliver cooling more promptly.
 
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