@DanF What solar panels did you end up going with?
The "Meg" Build
- Thread starter Lt.Dan
- Start date
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
I plumbed in the ducting to pull air from the inside of the RV to the generator/inverter compartment. I have it pulling air from a plenum that used to feed from the furnace to the upper bath/bedroom, but it got so insanely hot that I rerouted the ducting to blow into the living room instead. So this plenun pulls cool air from the bathroom/bedroom and into the compartment with an inline 4" duct fan.
Then I mounted this exhaust fan to pull air from the compartment into the propane storage area. This storage area is open to the atmosphere, so it works best. It also forced all the cool air across the inverter to get out.
Links to the parts used:
Inline 4" Fan
4" Register
Ducting
Exhaust Fan
Thermostat Controller
Then I mounted this exhaust fan to pull air from the compartment into the propane storage area. This storage area is open to the atmosphere, so it works best. It also forced all the cool air across the inverter to get out.
Links to the parts used:
Inline 4" Fan
4" Register
Ducting
Exhaust Fan
Thermostat Controller
K8MEJ
Owner, Off-Grid Power Systems
Looking at the haphazard way GD runs their plumbing, HVAC, and wiring - even on a top of the line unit - pisses me off all over again.
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
Its definitely painful to see how they are all built and wired, but I can't imagine how some of the other manufactures are...
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
Finally got fed up with the fridge on Friday too, so I called a buddy over and we ripped it out.
Went to a local scratch and dent appliance store that we all love, and picked up this Whirlpool, 36" wide, counterdepth model. Built in ice/water dispenser and all. Exactly what I wanted.
And me and the wife put it in the hole. It involved some very very careful maneuvering. I even had to unscrew the island from the floor and tilt it to get the fridge around one of the corners, even after taking the doors off the fridge.
And about 6 hours later. The fridge is cold and working awesome.
Now I just have to cap off the old propane line, and run a water line to the back of it so we can have water. But it's so nice, and even 3.5 cu/ft larger!
Tested running watts is 135w compared to the 600w of the old Nevercold.
Went to a local scratch and dent appliance store that we all love, and picked up this Whirlpool, 36" wide, counterdepth model. Built in ice/water dispenser and all. Exactly what I wanted.
And me and the wife put it in the hole. It involved some very very careful maneuvering. I even had to unscrew the island from the floor and tilt it to get the fridge around one of the corners, even after taking the doors off the fridge.
And about 6 hours later. The fridge is cold and working awesome.
Now I just have to cap off the old propane line, and run a water line to the back of it so we can have water. But it's so nice, and even 3.5 cu/ft larger!
Tested running watts is 135w compared to the 600w of the old Nevercold.
Nice work! Probably too late as sounds like a PITA to get it in but whenever I have a RV fridge out I like to install the foil coated XPS foam along the outward facing wall. It helps on really hot days with that side in the sun to boost efficiency and lower power usage. But with a home fridge it might be insulated well enough the gains would not be huge.
That 135W is with compressor off I bet? Can you try to do a test with compressor running? Most home fridges will be 2.5 to 3A to run the compressor - still well under the Nevercold.
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
That 135w is with the compressor on i believe. I even opened both doors for 15 minutes to force it to come on.
Thats really good, what brand fridge? At 135W what has to be sub-1A for compressor as electronics and fans will take some.
GSXR1000
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2020
- Messages
- 865
what is the airflow for the fridge.... normally sucks air from front bottom out rear..
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
Its a Whirlpool. I have another whirlpool in our shop that is almost 30 years old, top of the line back in the day with a water/ice dispenser. Everything works perfect and its been kicking ass 24/7 since we bought it. Even it uses less power than the nevercold lol
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2020
- Messages
- 21,315
And so I finally got smart and put some window screen material around the grill on front to catch cat hair. The fins on the bottom and back are difficult to clean.
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
You are correct, it sucks air in the front and out the back, which the rear vent just happens to line up perfectly with the opening in the wall.
I bought REC Alpha (All black) panels. It's been a nightmare with Solaris. I do NOT recommend buying from them. I ordered the 365AA panels and they sent me the non all black version. Ended up with the 355AA all black after finding out they didn't have the 365 version in stock. Hence the reason they sent me the other ones. I guess they thought it wouldn't matter. Still in a battle with them after almost 2 months and it has my install on hold...
Thanks for the update. That stinks you're having all those problems with them, but appreciate the info.
135W is reasonable... Been running a Wemo kWh monitor on my circa 2004 kitchen fridge with front water/ice, and it averages 160W despite having never cleaned the condenser coils and being on an outside wall in our warm Texas climate. Nice work tho, @Lt.Dan! Curious what your daily kWh use is with the new fridge? Should come down substantially, I'd guess ~5kWh?
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
Thanks! I haven't put my Kill a watt monitor on it yet, but specs from the manual state 570kwh/year, so that averages out to a little over 1.5kwh/day
No worries, just meant I'd expect you to see your daily usage drop measurably. In my experience, avg fridge run time was approx. 50%. So mine was pulling ~2kWh daily. If you're saving 60-75% and assuming same run time, you'll be down 5-6kWh avg. daily consumption - substantial!
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
I'm doing some testing with the AC today. It is 90* outside right now, and I individually turned on each AC unit, let the current settle, then record my number, which was actually pretty surprising.
First off, each fan, on high, draws 250 watts alone. So 3 AC units means 750 watts for just the FAN. Then I individually set the AC 5 degrees lower than the temp inside, and after 1 minute, each AC was pulling 1250 watts +/- 50 watts. This is also after the inverter, so count in the 92% efficiency (which i measured at full 6300 watt load with a calibrated Klein clamp meter) and we get roughly 1350 watts out of the battery.
All in all I'm pretty happy, I've seen some rooftop ACs pulling 1500 watts, and sometimes upwards of 1800 watts! We'll see when it gets up over 110* here where I live (which is easily 2 weeks out of the summer).
First off, each fan, on high, draws 250 watts alone. So 3 AC units means 750 watts for just the FAN. Then I individually set the AC 5 degrees lower than the temp inside, and after 1 minute, each AC was pulling 1250 watts +/- 50 watts. This is also after the inverter, so count in the 92% efficiency (which i measured at full 6300 watt load with a calibrated Klein clamp meter) and we get roughly 1350 watts out of the battery.
All in all I'm pretty happy, I've seen some rooftop ACs pulling 1500 watts, and sometimes upwards of 1800 watts! We'll see when it gets up over 110* here where I live (which is easily 2 weeks out of the summer).
GSXR1000
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2020
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13.5k or 15k ?
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
They are all 15k BTU.
