What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Topic: What small residential fridge fits through the door? (Read 3133 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #25 – November 05, 2018, 10:25:46 pm

Get a plug in realitively cheap kw meter, measure your average power consumption. Nameplate data means nothing. How you drive it means everything, how often is the door opened, loading it up with already cool or cold food or beverages, letting hot moist leftovers to cool first, did you seal and insulate the existing exterior vents, highly recommended as the ambient inside the coach in the summer will always be less. Bonus is reduced humidity if you let it vent to the inside. Your roof AC also will do less work. Mike think of your fridge as a race car.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #26 – November 05, 2018, 10:28:35 pm

Mike, this is one of those things where labels may not be telling the whole truth.

Get a Kill A Watt meter
P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor - - Amazon.com

or a TP Link smart plug with energy monitoring, read the results on your phone.
https://amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0178IC5ZY/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

Hook it up for a month and then report

As an Amazon Associate Foretravel Owners' Forum earns from qualifying purchases.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #27 – November 05, 2018, 10:49:02 pm

Like the TP smart link thing, can be moved in your house or coach to isolate anomalies woops I don't have Alexa!

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #28 – November 05, 2018, 11:05:25 pm

It doesn't need Alexa, just the KASA app on your phone ot tablet. If you have Alexa, it can control it. We have smart plugs in the coach as well as other Alexa contollable things. Alexa, turn on the living room light. Cool stuff.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #29 – November 06, 2018, 08:26:41 am

From the LG installation manual: "This is a freestanding refrigerator and requires a minimum of 2 inches (5 cm) clearance above, behind, and at both sides for adequate air circulation and to reduce energy consumption."

Is your existing compartment large enough?

Bob

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #30 – November 06, 2018, 09:18:05 am

The rear of the unit, (right at the compressor motor), faces the OE vent grille with room for air to move vertically up to the OE roof vent. The sides are snug with maybe 1/2 in gap.

I have hopes of adding a second alternator to feed the coach powerpack and solar .
The initial test with a 750 watt inverter showed very little draw. So little that I opened the door to verify power and wait for it to kick on. The compressor is very quiet. very impressed so far. If it draws as little as it looks like it does I will be very happy.
I used an DC industrial shunt but the reading is off the low end of the scale . I ordered the "Kill a Watt" meter . Thanks.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #31 – November 13, 2018, 01:50:43 pm

Measured amps @.91 wither the amp clamp . Measured with the killa watt@ .89 amp.
About 82 watts running right now .
Volts reads 113. Same as the bus meter.
Looks pretty frugal and my yellow tag says 45$ per year .
I still dont quite understand how this can be ice cold and use 100watts or less.

Edit ; I opened the door and the amp meter shows the light @ .015 or so (LED light.)
The compressor does not run with the door open. Let the cooler warm up a few seconds. Close the door. The fridge must have some sort of smart box where it waits a couple of minutes to start the compressor . Compressor starts and the amps go to .90+-3. Watts to 83 +-. It does run maybe 20 minutes or more . Never shows more than .85 watts. often .79. Goes to 0 when compressor stops.
It sure gets a lot of BTU from very little power. My 2 8D should run it for over 12 hrs.
I added a second alternator, ( GM 1 wire 105 amp ) in place of the ac compressor . The new PSW inverter should be here today or thurs.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #32 – November 13, 2018, 08:51:01 pm

Mike, the refrigerators today are pretty efficient. Best way to understand power use is to measure it over a month or so of actual use. You will get a total watts and a total time. Average use over time is what you need to know. Looks like somewhere around 70 watts per hour may be typical.

Watts divided by your DC voltage plus losses through the inverter gives you about avarage amp draw on the battery
100 watts / 12.6v / 0.90 = 8.8 amps from the battery. 100 watts /113 volts AC = 0.88 amps AC.

Bob, my Samsung needs 3/8" on the sides and 1" ar the rear. I have at least three underneath and open for ventilation and maybe 5" at the top. All of that can vent out through the roof vent in the summer.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #33 – November 14, 2018, 02:02:35 am

Was the compressor running? Energy usage depends on ambient air temps at the condenser, how often you open the door, the humidity when you open the door, and how long the door is open, and how warm the supplies you loaded into the refrig. You may be driving it on flatlands, once you get to a steep grade consumption will change

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #34 – November 14, 2018, 07:57:03 am

Roger how do you open and close the roof vent?
Chris

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #35 – November 14, 2018, 08:57:03 am

This is what I did to add open/close to the refrig roof vent. You can see six of eight waterproof solar panel cable entry points in the side of the vent base. The cover comes off with four screws.

The vents are plastic register vents, slide the handle one wat and they open, the other and they close. The screen got cut out, I trimmed the flanges where they overlap and put them in place with some 3M 4200 UV sealant/adhesive. If I really want to seal them tight I put silver alipuminum duct tape over them but usually they are fine just closed up for travel in the winter. Once we get to somewhere warm, I open them up again. Open/close twice a year.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #36 – November 15, 2018, 12:05:11 pm

22hrs of run time , 1.1KW used.
So to summarize where I am at this point .
I wanted to remove the 30 yr old propane fridge , Found this little "9.2 Insignia" . Fit it pretty easy by belt sanding the opening about 1/8 in . Around 380$
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-9-2-cu-ft-bottom-freezer-refrigerator-black/6220705.p?skuId=6220705

Measured the watts at about 90. (max)
Started doing some quick math and decided to buy another 8d Battery . For a total amp hr of around 400-500. They are both start batteries. Cheap at Rural King at 125$

Looked for a good 1000 watt inverter , Bought ebay PSW for 125$ with good ratings .
1000W 2000 Watt Power Inverter Pure Sine Wave 12V dc 110V 120V ac LCD Remote...

I like to be able to run the fridge while driving without genset. .. So I removed the engine driven AC compressor and added a GM performance 1 wire 105 amp alternator. 112$
Looks just like this only GM performance brand ;NEW ALTERNATOR 110A CHROME STREET ROD GM HIGH AMP OUTPUT ONE 1 WIRE | eBay

Used #4 welding cable to run to coach batteries.
So here I am , hoping for 12 hrs or more of refer run without genset.

Will add solar next as soon as the race budget recovers..

Edit ; 28hrs of refer and computer run , no problem, bats still read 12.4 V.
stoopid fone ..

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #37 – December 11, 2018, 12:48:21 pm

50 hrs of fridge run time and the bats read 12.4 .
Success.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #38 – December 11, 2018, 08:24:11 pm

From your previous post you are using about 50 watts per hour. 50 watts x 50 hours is 2500 watt hrs. (2.5 Kwh). Lower than most but not much.

If your batteries started at 12.6 volts and ended up at 12.4 volts then 2500 watts / 12.5 volts = 200 amp hrs. If you have 2 8Ds you have used at least 80% of your usable capacity. Refrigerators run in cycles. Be sure to measure voltage while the refrigerator is running, it will be a more realistic voltage.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #39 – December 11, 2018, 10:28:02 pm

The Kill a watt said about 37 per hr average for 500hrs. The above meter read looks right at 1.1 @ 22hrs. So some place between 37 and 50 depending on ambient temps.
I will read the meter off tomorrow . It is cooler now then the first few weeks of run.
The running watts are around 70 . It did start at around 85 ish. It has come down steadily along with time and the temps .
The inverter supplies 122 V.

40 hrs has been no problem with enough battery to start the gen, still over 12.4 .
I just plugged the bus in late Mon afternoon, after sitting from sat noon ish.

On your suggestion ,I will keep the batteries over 12.5 . Thanks.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #40 – December 12, 2018, 09:11:44 am

A fridge is a fridge is a fridge...right?
I made the mistake of going too cheap and installed a Vissani 10 cu ft model in my previous motorhome. Apparently some fridges have heating elements in them so that they can operate in environments such as the garage or the outside vent area of a motorhome. The cheaper ones only operate at room temperature and will shut down if it is too cold out. The cheaper ones don't defrost either, so the freezer will work too hard and ice will block the passage way to the fridge. Spending an extra $100 for a Whirlpool would have solved my problems.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #41 – December 12, 2018, 09:35:36 am

The energy guide for your refrig is a good place to start for target energy use.
374 KWH/year is about 43 watts per hour. That is a good number, pretty much on the lower end. So your meter numbers are good. The refrig just sitting there running will use much less than when you are opening the door and wondering "what's for lunch?". You probably have to add about 11% to that to get battery loads because of losses in the inverter. They are usually around 90% efficient.

Good job!

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #42 – December 12, 2018, 09:45:31 am

I could not find many positive remarks for the "Vissani" I could not find any negative ratings for the" Insignia." It fit my space and is bottom freezer. It has auto defrost . I hope that it works a for a few years.
Not sure what you are talking about RE heating elements. The only heaters are for defrost .

Roger. I cant read the inverter loss with my shunt. It is low also.
There is such a huge variance of Chinese electronics it seems. All that I have had in the last year has been really nice . So far.

Today the ambient temp is too cool for a fair reading. 97 hrs- 2.65 KW

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #43 – December 12, 2018, 10:00:21 am

The Samsung that many of us installed, & I assume many other brands/models, uses a heating element to reduce condensation on the exposed parts of the door frame. It is disabled with the "energy saver" switch.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #44 – December 12, 2018, 11:03:46 am

We normally leave the Samsung in energy saver mode unless we are along the gulf coast. Pretty easy to tell when it needs to be on.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #45 – December 12, 2018, 11:50:25 pm

Propane fridges come apart with cooling coil separate from box.

Re: What small residential fridge fits through the door?

Reply #46 – December 14, 2018, 12:15:44 pm

While you have already bought and installed a fridge, I wanted to add that this LG bottom freezer fridge works quite well. It is taller than the original fridge so you will have to do some woodwork and will lose the cabinet below the fridge but I'm extremely happy with it.

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