[aprssig] [OT] RE: APRS Solar Power (I was wrong)

[Brian B. Riley]

I have an 18 cubic foot refrigerator freezer that runs on propane.  
Have had it many years. The manufacturer's (Crystal Cold)  spec says  
it uses 0.39 (US) gallons per day, but my experience over the years is  
that the figure is closer to 0.25.

There are a number of high efficiency low power draw refrigerators of  
the conventional type but they are quite pricey. THough my 18 foot  
propane unit wasn't all that cheap.

On Oct 2, 2009, at 8:43 AM, Dave Baxter wrote:

> I don't know about US refrigerators, but over hear they take an  
> almighty
> kick to get the compressor motor started.  Not exactly (sadly)
> inverter/UPS friendly, or for that matter, small IC engine/alternator
> gen-set friendly either.  My 2.5kVA Honda powered gen-set, just will  
> not
> start our fridge, and that is an "A" rated appliance, so is a low  
> energy
> usage device.  (I forget the Wattage.)   It will run the central  
> heating
> system just fine though. :)
>
> I did experiment a while back with a simple change over relay (NOT
> recommended!) and found that once the compressor is running, the genny
> run's it just fine with hardly any loading.  But it still seems you  
> need
> the full 13A of the utility power socket to kick it into life in the
> first place, or some warning that it's all about to go dark so as to
> "prepare" for it, among other things turn the 'stat to Max (or would
> that be Min' for a 'fridge?).
>
> "Absorption" types by comparison, are just a resistive load (heating
> element) with a thermostat controller, so they do work just fine on
> inverters, there again, the most common Absorption refrigeration items
> over here are the "3 way" (12V, 240V, Propane/Butane) types used in  
> RV's
> as you'd call them, best to use them on the bottled vapour stuff if  
> the
> lights go out.  Assuming you have bottles of the stuff about the  
> place,
> and you can get the blessed things to light!   Some of the solid state
> Peltier Effect units are getting quite good too.



--
cheers ... 73 de brian  riley,  n1bq , underhill center, vermont
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