want a fridge with low pwer consumption?

Submitted: Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 12:01
ThreadID: 19949 Views:7520 Replies:7 FollowUps:7
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Was at a friend's place on the weekend and he is off the main grid and struggles a bit with his solar panel and battery bank on rainy days and a dodgy water cooled diesel generator (off a yacht) to keep his batteries topped up on such days - anyhow, showed me a copy of ReNew Magazine (www.ata.org.au) which had in it an article where a guy got hold of a 240V AC freezer with a top rather than door opening style, replaced the thermostat which one that would make the compresssor kick in at 4C, moved the thermostat halfway up the unit. And did whatever else he did to make it work but from memory not much - and then used it as a fridge that operated between 4C and max 7C with about 200L capacity and used by his calculations 100W PER DAY!!! He attributes this astonishing power consumption to the excellent insulation, the top opening style, and a really powerful compressor and refrigerant system. I dunno, am no expert but it sounded amazing yet so simple. I don't remember the issue of the magazine. Makes u wonder. Even if you factor in a 20% inverter inefficiency when using off a 12v system, the power consumption was incredible. Opinions ? Did that sound feasible ? He was adamant as to the power consumption.
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Reply By: Nudenut - Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 17:00

Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 17:00
with what and how did he measure the power consumption?

Even doing pro-rata calcs based on size etc from the ratings shown here the claimed figure looks too good to be true
AnswerID: 95874

Reply By: porl - Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 17:18

Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 17:18
I can't remember exactly how he measured it. Maybe someone who reads this can get a copy. I'll check a news agent. I think I recall that in his measuring the compressor came on for an average of only 13 seconds at a time. Its a pretty serious magazine I thought and it was a featured article rather than a letter to the editor type thing. But its just unfortunate i don't have a copy of the article for more detail, well, yet.
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Follow Up By: Mainey... - Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 06:50

Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 06:50
- would that be 13 'minutes' at a time?

with decent insullation and running at 4 to 7 degree, which is a bit high unless he also has a seperate freezer, Ummm, not enough information...
Hi uncle, are you unhappy now!
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Reply By: Flash - Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 18:09

Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 18:09
??
100W is not a "quantity" of electricity.
Amp Hours (with voltage)
or WattHours (or Kilowatt hours) is.
If he means watt hours then that is different.
Anyway, a fridge running on 100 watt hours of electricity per day- (or 0.1 Kwh per day ie 0.1 "units" on a household electricity meter)....- I doubt it. Depending on the size of the compressor, that's equivalent to the compressor running less than an hour a day.
Great if true, but unlikely IMHO. Very, very unlikely!
Cheers
AnswerID: 95882

Follow Up By: uncle - Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 19:16

Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 19:16
I cant help you with any thing on this one as will admit to knowing bugger all about it,HOWEVER, I cant wait to see the reply from a know it all that seems to appear here on this forum from time to time!!cheers guys
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Follow Up By: GaryInOz (Vic) - Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 20:15

Monday, Jan 31, 2005 at 20:15
I didn't know Toyota made fridges??? LOL

Where is he????
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Reply By: porl - Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 10:23

Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 10:23
I went to the ATA website where the advertise the magazine, its in the current edition which I will try and buy today, though i suspect my average newsagent might not carry such product.

This is the relevant featureded article title:

"A fridge that uses 0.1kWh a day?
Tom Chalko tells us about his fridge conversion, which is the lowest energy user we have ever seen! "
AnswerID: 95992

Reply By: porl - Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 14:39

Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 14:39
Okay i went out at lunch and bought the magazine, should obviusly have done this in the first place.

This is a summary of what he did (and i don't necessarily know what it all means):

Bought a Vestfrost SE255 chest freezer with 600a refrigeratnt and a $40 battery-powered thermostat equipped with digital temp display and an internal 5A/240v latching relay. (he says the latching relay only uses battery power when switching on and off so with the thermostat working off AA batteries when the fridge is "off" it actually does not use any power.

A connection diagram is in the article but beyond my internet skills to replicate here.

Anyway, he put the thermistor cable inside the cooling compartment through the drain hole. He located it about the middle. Said the most time-consuming part was removing the thermistor from inside the thermostat - which he did by cutting it out from the circuit board with wire cutters. He protected the thermistor with shrink wrap tubing and silicone sealant.

He removed the 15w light, set the thermostat to 7C and switched on the AC power.

After two minutes the thermostat displayed 6.5C and the power was cut by the thermostat. Temp. continuted to drop to 4C.

He said in the first 24hours the "fridge", with goods transferred from his normal fridge, used 103Wh of energy, about 30% of which was used on start up.

He was in the hills in Victoria and acknowledges it is a fridge friendly place to be. Room temp. that day varied between 21C and 15C.

He said he measured energy use with his SparOmeter. Also said that first day the compressor was only operating for 90 seconds an hour.

The mag is called ReNew and is in most large newsagents, well 2 of the 3 which I went into in Brisbane city.

And hey, I'm not saying this is all right so any critical analysis very welcome, but I think i have put in here everything of consequence in the article.
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Reply By: uncle - Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 18:23

Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005 at 18:23
Waz up mmainey,got a guilt problem dude?????
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Follow Up By: Mainey... - Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005 at 16:49

Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005 at 16:49
UNCLE posted this followup
“I can’t help you with any thing on this one as will admit to knowing bugger all about it.”

uncle, why reply, as most of us are aware of your limited knowledge!
Why would I have a (quote) guilt problem (end quote) ?
Were you shaking in trepidation when you typed my ‘nik’ while you are still waiting for your reply from Redarc, is over a week now… no, I’m not guilty, are you maybe?
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Reply By: uncle - Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005 at 18:26

Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005 at 18:26
yep you bloody guessed it right Main man,I'm shakin in my boots shag!You sound like just another poor excuse of a small mans syndrome,nuff said here,cya
AnswerID: 96293

Follow Up By: Mainey... - Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005 at 23:12

Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005 at 23:12
uncle,
Please don't get upset, this is a family forum
just paste the reply you recieved from redarc
Ummm, you did get a reply....... didn't you ? ?
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Follow Up By: uncle - Thursday, Feb 03, 2005 at 06:45

Thursday, Feb 03, 2005 at 06:45
All I need is your postal address,(no PO boxes) and I can mail it to you?I just love it when someone who suffers from small man syndrome can have the added benefit of a computer screen for their security,......LOL
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Follow Up By: Mainey... - Thursday, Feb 03, 2005 at 10:21

Thursday, Feb 03, 2005 at 10:21
uncle why would you want to share it only with me, please contribute your information here with other EO forum members, be a nice 'uncle' and paste the redarc e-male on the forum, to show other guys the actual information you have received from redarc, after all you did post "you can mail it" implying you actually have received it..

This forum is used by many for the gathering and also sharing of relevant information and the e-mail from redarc you are claiming to have, should be shared with all.
Thank you.. in advance.
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