Edgestar fridges?
- Thread starter Trunk Monkey
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Why? I mean why would you do that?
I was just wondering why you wanted to use the inverter, you might have had a good reason. Running directly off the 12V circuit will be more efficient because the won't be conversion loses. Can you tap the supply to the inverter? Just be sure the wire is heavy enough to minimize voltage drop from the battery.
Frig is working good so far! I have to take an hour or two for some temperature and run time data collection though. With temp setting at 36deg, when it kicks on it cools down well below 36. Lowest I saw was 18deg. I tell you what! , I did indeed enjoy not having soggy wet bread and fishing through melted ice water!
Great isn't it? I just got a fridge a couple weeks ago. Haven't had it out but one time so far and it wasn't even hot out yet. I'm sure it will be great in the summer heat. One thing though, it seems to be pulling my battery down a lot faster than I thought it would. And it's a 100ah battery. It's down to 75% (12.5V) after just a few hours. If I didn't have solar to bring it back up in the morning I'd be in trouble before too long.
anybody knows the specs on the 63L compressor itself? Nominal voltage range? And what kind of power supply circuitry? Am trying to get a feel for the efficiency of the unit...
FWIW, I'm currently running the 63L unit on a measured 120V AC in an ambient temp of 70F and at a setting of 0F. (The display swing is +- 3F and the actual temp towards the top of the full fridge inside is a very constant -2F.) It is drawing 70W / 0.97A and running 68% of the time. Interestingly, that is quite a bit less energy use than a 120V only freezer unit I have that is 2/3 the outside size and 1/2 or less on the inside (but does not have a condenser fan).
FWIW, I'm currently running the 63L unit on a measured 120V AC in an ambient temp of 70F and at a setting of 0F. (The display swing is +- 3F and the actual temp towards the top of the full fridge inside is a very constant -2F.) It is drawing 70W / 0.97A and running 68% of the time. Interestingly, that is quite a bit less energy use than a 120V only freezer unit I have that is 2/3 the outside size and 1/2 or less on the inside (but does not have a condenser fan).
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The figures above were for the fridge having reached dynamic steady-state, meaning everything inside and the fridge itself no longer change temperature on average through the cycles. At that point, the compressor will only need to take care of the heat losses through the insulation. These should not depend dramatically on what is inside and so the average duty cycle should not change very much based on content after steady state is reached, I would think. The temperature swings inside may be different though because of variations in thermal mass. This may mean different individual run times but not so much different average duty cycles I think. I may do a measurement of this when it's empty.
The duty cycle will, however, depend a lot on the ambient temperature and the setting, of course.
As stated, the fridge is full. Of food and ice, the latter to increase the thermal mass. Mostly nice carnivore delights.
And for those interested, I'm measuring the standby draw (compressor not running) at 5.7W when on 120V AC. Looks like the fan is also off when the compressor is off btw. So about 5 or 6W may be the lowest draw experienced on AC it seems, which is not trivial. That doesn't mean it'll be that much in DC, though, because of the AC/DC circuitry particulars (which I'm curious about).
If that helps, for practical use keep in mind that the average temp of the food in the fridge will not be exactly the setting temp displayed. Mine is quite a bit lower. Going from memory, I think I needed to set it to 38F to get something like 34F or so average actually inside. If I set it to 34F it will freeze water and (much worse) possibly break bottles of good stuff, so watch out... Could be due to calibration issues or to the location of the thermistor. YMMV. Easy to figure out, though.
Btw, repeating myself but can't say enough good things about having a wireless thermometer when using one of those things, especially one with an alarm. You really don't want to be in the desert for a week and discover belatedly the fridge stopped working the evening before and everything is now thawed or warm...
We've had our 43qt for 5 years now and it's still going strong. i have mine wired in from a Blue Sea fuse block and it works great. One of the plastic handles broke last year so I bought some metal ones but otherwise no issues. For anyone on the fence, once you get a fridge, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.
Interesting...
I have my 63L set to 0F which means it's cycling between -3 and +4 on the display. 70F ambience.
I'm measuring the temperature at the bottom of the main compartment at -7F and it's about +6F at the top almost touching the lid. (This fridge is very symmetric, isn't it?) Not surprising there is a difference given thermal stratification, but that is a big difference. Fridge is close to full.
I'm sure it's less when using it in fridge mode, though, but it might be possible to use the stratification to have the bottom below freezing and the top above. Maybe use a solid shelf halfway up to help... mmm... I'll try that sometime.
I have my 63L set to 0F which means it's cycling between -3 and +4 on the display. 70F ambience.
I'm measuring the temperature at the bottom of the main compartment at -7F and it's about +6F at the top almost touching the lid. (This fridge is very symmetric, isn't it?) Not surprising there is a difference given thermal stratification, but that is a big difference. Fridge is close to full.
I'm sure it's less when using it in fridge mode, though, but it might be possible to use the stratification to have the bottom below freezing and the top above. Maybe use a solid shelf halfway up to help... mmm... I'll try that sometime.
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I've been using a windshield reflector to lower inside temps while in the driveway. One thing I've noticed though... the factory tinted windows don't seem to block heat very well. The side of my fridge itself was getting very warm in the afternoon sun which only comes in through the rear passenger window. I started covering the fridge with a towel to keep sunlight off it. I have aftermarket 35% tint in my other car that blocks heat, or Infrared, from entering much better. Has anyone noticed this with the factory tint?
Mine does not have much of tint in the back, if any. So I made an aluminized fabric cover for the fridge so that when it's hit by sunshine it could reflect a lot of the irradiation. Seems to help some. The thing is that it reflects probably much onto the inside surfaces of the truck, so those get hotter in turn and the inside air still increases anyway. Probably a good idea to crack the windows open to reduce that problem.
I use cheap furniture pads (harbor freight) ~$5 each on sale. I get the ones that have a light grey on one side.
Anything white or reflective causes to much glare on the rear window IMHO.
Anything white or reflective causes to much glare on the rear window IMHO.
You can use mylar covered bubble wrap they sell at home depot to cover your rear windows. I have that with small velcro squares to hold it to the windows, and some brown nylon ripstop curtains that velcro to the rubber weatherstripping on the inside of the rear sliders. The rear window curtains are two layers of the brown ripstop, made em 5 years ago or so. I also made a double layer curtain for the rear window for privacy, held with velcro. I also made some single layer ripstop curtains for the rear door windows to put up when we do road trips. I put the mylar up about a month ago, and it has knocked down the cargo area temps by about 10-25 degrees. You can also use that mylar bubble wrap around your fridge or cooler too.