Tuesday, May 03, 2005 at 07:10
Never bothered to work out how many watts is dissipating but as a Refrigeration Technician I do know about heat from condensors and the efficiency involved/affected. With commercial refrigeration, the efficiency of the system is greatly decreased by inadequate air flow across the condensor. The same with a car refrigerator, whether it is a fan cooled condensor or not.
Over the course of our just completed holiday i noticed this with our Trailblazer........
On Fraser Island, where ambient o/nights were in the 17-19 deg C range, I would turn the fridge off at night before turning in, say 10 PM. In the morning at say 6:30, I would turn the fridge back on and the compressor would start immediately and run for some time to bring the temp inside the fridge back down. On the days where we were stationary, I had the rear doors of the truck open, the fridge extended out on the fridge slide and the fridge "shaded" and it operated quite efficiently. On the days where we were driving around the island ALL day, with the rear door shut and not as much airflow around the condensor, I could hear the compressor running longer during it's "run" time. This is simple "Fridgie" rule.... reduced effiency condensor = longer run times.
Part 2 of our trip was at
Gorge River Staion near Bonalbo NSW... o/night ambients of 11-12 deg C.Turned off the fridge at 10ish, back on at 6 or 7am and each day the compressor didn't start until after we had opened the fridge to get breakfast food out. During day when doors were opened and fridge out on slide, compressor run times very short compared to almost continuos running when out on the tracks.
The short answer is that the condensor has to "breathe" to be efficient. Try blocking the condensor of your kitchen fridge and see how efficient that is then!
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