How many amps does your fridge consume over a 24 hour period ?

To much Id say Ill measure it next weekend ran it for ten minutes today its was working but the label scared me a little and the company that made them is long gone. It will do for now After Googling for a good fifteen minuets , could only find one link to an old cruise forum ,Ill just add a battery or two for now keep it powered up It might not be that bad thought it read 38 amps its 3.8 amps Ill test it next weekend while shes on the hard

Sure the size matter. But very much depend and ambient temperature.
If using as cooler than 50-50 on-off,
If drop to -10 than 80 to 90% cont. on.

Hi,

I have a Ozefridge fridge. It uses around 40 amp hours per day in summer, much less in winter. Peak current draw is 7 amps. The fridge is a eutectic arrangement with a tank of coolant in the fridge. The compressor generally runs twice per day, around 2-3 hours per run.

Regards

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LMY said..

Hi,

I have a Ozefridge fridge. It uses around 40 amp hours per day in summer, much less in winter. Peak current draw is 7 amps. The fridge is a eutectic arrangement with a tank of coolant in the fridge. The compressor generally runs twice per day, around 2-3 hours per run.

Regards

As this is my first keeler to own I would like very much to make the right decision when buying some items a Good Fridge is one of them. I retire in three years and I would like to have this old boat ready to cast Anchor. I wondered if you used a water cooled compressor, if the heat generated could be transfered to heat maybe small insulated container for warm water for the odd shower. pity to loose or waste the heat.
I used to use a few coils of black polly on the roof of the house to heat a swimming pool would be warm in three days just by passing the filter pump for the pool a three way T with a gate valve slightly closed so instead of the filtered water returing to the pool the pump would push it through the black polly on the roof and return to the pool worked really well.
LMY do you have the water cooled version?

HG02

My compressor is installed in a cockpit locker, the locker is quite large, around 2 m long, 1 m deep and 0.5 m wide. The locker does not have any real ventilation and with the compressor running the locker got very warm. Fridge draw down times were excessive. I added water cooling and the system worked much better, fridge draw down times were reduced a lot. The water pump draws about 1 amp, but with the shorter draw down times I feel that this is a better arrangement.

I use the water tanks as the water source, you can run sea water but I preferred fresh . The discharge water is not very hot, so the shower idea is probably not a goer. It would not be very difficult to set up the system to divert water to a bucket when required, if you wanted to give it a try.

Fridge insulation is critical. My fridge has very good insulation, before I put the fridge in 2 bags of ice would reduce to one over a 2 day trip.

I installed a fridge a few years ago and consumption now depends most on how much is in the fridge and whether it is cold. The fridge specs say it uses 4 amps when running, almost nothing when not running. I put a small desktop computer fan in it to circulate the air which improves efficiency a great deal.

If I put frozen stuff in the bottom and fill it right up with milk, butter, salad etc the fridge runs for about 12 minutes on and 8 minutes off at the start. Running time reduces over time as the contents get colder. After 24 hours it is down to about 4 minutes on and 20 off. It can get down to 3 minutes on for 20 minutes off.

So, if it is running the compressor for say 20% of the time on average, it will use approx 20 amps a day. That is, 4 amps times 24 hours but only running for 20% of the time.

It looks like with custom made fridge with good insulation
you can achieve much better efficiency,
than Waeco or even Engel fridges.

I used to sell ice just thinking about it ,the ice manufacture only keeps the ice just above melting point to keep cost down ,so if you want ice to last longer put it in the freezer at home before you take it on board

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LMY said..

HG02

My compressor is installed in a cockpit locker, the locker is quite large, around 2 m long, 1 m deep and 0.5 m wide. The locker does not have any real ventilation and with the compressor running the locker got very warm. Fridge draw down times were excessive. I added water cooling and the system worked much better, fridge draw down times were reduced a lot. The water pump draws about 1 amp, but with the shorter draw down times I feel that this is a better arrangement.

I use the water tanks as the water source, you can run sea water but I preferred fresh . The discharge water is not very hot, so the shower idea is probably not a goer. It would not be very difficult to set up the system to divert water to a bucket when required, if you wanted to give it a try.

Was hoping it would take the chill off it solar bag will do for me I think when Im up north

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Charriot said..

It looks like with custom made fridge with good insulation
you can achieve much better efficiency,
than Waeco or even Engel fridges.

Well I thought id used the old fridge cabinet and refurbish the inside with really good insulation and modify the size and insulation thickness.
And I like your idea of using the cock pit locker with water cooling Id say fresh water would be better to .
Many thanks for the imput

As with any fridge the "thermal mass" that is kept inside it is important to help its efficiency. Don't just keep a few things in it....keep it filled, even if you just keep bottles of water in it (water has a great thermal mass, air has very little). Best thing is to always keep the fridge topped up with beer

All these post are interesting sort of, but what I wanted to know is how many Amps does your fridge use. Whether it's eutectic or evaporator plate

As noted in my post above 20 amps when full and cooled down. You can't give a figure for other situations because it all depends ............!

KemoSabe,
Too Many variables to give a definitive answer.
Name plate is 3.8 amps Max and if drawn continuously then it is 3.8 amps X no of hours run 3.8x24=91.2 but this is not how power is measured.
Batteries are rated in ampere hour therefore a 120 AH battery can in theory supply the fridge for 31.5 hours (this is a simplistic approach and there are a lot of other factors in play.
Realistically the fridge may only draw 3.8amps for 60% of the time which would equate to 2.8 AH average
How often the maximum current is drawn depends on things like ambient temperature, how often the door is open and how much is actually stored in it.
I am pretty sure this is what MorningBird has already said

It's a bit confusing what current we talking about
when fridge draws current continuously or cycling.

Before you go any further, look at puzzle from different angle.

Snap shot of 24 hours, create a list.
....current fridge 3.8 times 24 hours ...= 92 amp / hours
......radio....5 hours... 2-5 amps ......= 25 amp / hours
.......Nav. Instruments.....
........lights.....maybe guess 4 hours times 3 amps
......etc.. You get a picture.
N O W
How are you going to replenish usage ?
...run the engine avery day 5 hours..!
...instal solar panel...how many ?
I can tell you 100W panels is not enough.
Do you really wont instal 200W of panels.

Chariot,

I can only comment on my boats set up, but your daily amp hours for a fridge are way higher than I use.

My fridge draws 7 amps when running. In summer it runs for 2 to 3 hours per run, and makes 2 runs per day. Call it 40 amp hours per day.

I have two 55 watt solar panels. The panels generate about that amount of power per day, in summer.

In winter the fridge uses less power, and the panels generate less. I have found that the fridge load and generation from the panels are about balanced regardless of the time of year. There was no science in setting this up, the panels cover the space I had available and I added the fridge to the existing cabinet, pure luck involved.

My fridge runs at 3amps it is a condenser type keeps fool cold at 0 degrees Celsius and can go colder it runs all the time, as I live aboard.

Hi Guys I am going to take my engel fridge from my camper on the boat to go away this weekend. Should be fine.
I have a built in fridge with the eutectic plate still in place with copper pipes that ran to an engine driven compressor.
The compressor is long gone. Can i re power the old eutectic plate with an electric compressor which seems more modern.
What do you guys reckon any advice would help
Hugo

Here is my monitor on the EvaKool 60 we have set up as a freezer. They use a BD-35 danfoss compressor

Very impressive result. I know Danfoss compressors are still one of the bests.
Very famous in Engel fridges.
24 amps during day & night operation is incredible.