AnswerID: 353049 Submitted: Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 12:01
Tenpounder
replied:
Hi Frank. I am a bit confused by this, because every Engel I know about has two cables with it, one to plug into 240v, and the other to plug into the vehicle's low voltage system.
Because the Engel uses a low voltage compressor, it makes sense to use the 12v supply direct, and not an inverter.
If you plug your Engel into 240v, then the inbuilt convertor (what we used to call a transformer) converts the 240v into low voltage power which then feeds the compressor.
When you mention an 'inverter', I imagine a external unit designed to convert 12v (plugged into the vehicle) into 240v (plug a 240 plug into the inverter to replace a normal power point). If you used this sort of option, you would be starting with the vehicle's 12v supply, inverting it up to 240 volts, then feeding that into the Engel, which would the break it down to low voltage to feed into the compressor.
Becuase each conversion uses energy, this would have to be a very inefficient way to run the
fridge (like perhaps using 30 to 40 percent more
battery power for the same result).
It sounds to me that the inverter you mention was bundled with the Engel as a marketing exercise that has nothing to do with the operation of the
fridge itself.
Chris (SA)
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