House Battery Bank (6 volt?)

[TomC]

Check out Lifeline L16. They are 400amp/hr each @ 6V. I'm going to start with running 4 for 800amp/hr @ 12v with a 2800 watt Magnum true sine wave inverter. Everything is electric except for the propane furnace and stove. Good Luck, TomC

[bevans6]

The 382 kw fridge uses about a kw per day, if it has a 25% duty cycle that would be 166 watts when it is on.  After losses, that would be 190 watts for the inverter.  If you figure three times load to start a motor, particularly a compressor motor that has some load on it, that's around 600 watts to start.  I think your finding of 500 is intermittent and 750 works is dead on.  Leaving starting aside, 1kw a day is around 41 watts per hour average, call it 50 watts for losses, that is about 4 amps at 12.6 volts.  If I have a 460 AH battery bank, which I do, and will accept draw down to 50% SOC, that gives me 230 AH to play with so I might expect to be able to run that fridge for 57.5 hours.  Obviously I am guessing about the duty cycle, but the average power draw should be somewhat close.

Sounds like a long time to me, but I think I did the math right...  

Brian

[bevans6]

so what is watts of a 120V fridge that "says" it uses 382 kwh per year?

What is math problem?

using watt=kilowatt-hour/hour

.04=382/8765.81

I know this is wrong, fridge runs fine on 750 watt invertor; will not run consistently on a 500 watt one (I have a 1500 watt hooked up now figured about 85% of capacity)

so what am I doing wrong?

Don't say the math

OK, I won't say the math...   

it's actually watts = (kilowatt-hours/hours)*1,000

Or around 40 watts.  I did more math in my other reply.   

Brian

[bansil]

thanks!!

[muldoonman]

Thanks for the explanation guys. Gonna be configing set up later and as usual will go twice as bis as needed. This old oilfield stout mentality is hard to get rid of!

[luvrbus]

I always find it interesting the fridge deal and the amp and wattage use the spec are given for a house at 78 degrees  

I have saw people start the generator and run the AC to cool the bus down here because the fridge is running to much it's very funny to me sure a house type fridge will draw less amps and use less watts at 70 degrees than 90 -100 inside a bus the temperature goes up so does the run time and cycles on house fridges and DC models it's not a perfect world but the Sunfrost gets it close to right they are not pretty but very efficient 

I still do not understand why people will spend 1000's on a inverter and battery bank to run a 500 dollar fridge for a few days 

[bansil]

I still do not understand why people will spend 1000's on a inverter and battery bank to run a 500 dollar fridge for a few days  

I'm cheap
I did the $99 invertor and 190 amp alt. (stock) route, with one 12V deep cycle battery and $150 worth of solar

WHY?

too keep beer and wine cold; and to keep ice cream frozen during the possible 10/12 hr day between plug-ins

see? makes perfect sense  

Alt. will charge batteries and power fridge when engine is running

If I can get 3-7 amps out of panels a couple hours a day, plus my 95 aH battery and an average load of 5 amps being pulled I should be fine for the occasional 2-1/2 to 5 hr stops in a days travel

any more I will be plugged into power of some kind ( I have actually had places let me plug in a 15 amp type extension cord free of charge )

so my cold food and beverages cost me about $350 not bad for wife being happy

[belfert]

I still do not understand why people will spend 1000's on a inverter and battery bank to run a 500 dollar fridge for a few days 

The closest RV fridge in size to my 15 cubic foot fridge is $3,000.  Then I have to have a propane system to run it.  I may have spent $3,000 on my inverter, batteries, and fridge, but the inverter gets used for way more than just the fridge.

[bevans6]

My inverter won't be running a fridge in my bus - until the RV fridge I have finally gives up the ghost.  But it will be running my air conditioner as I cruise the highways and byways, I guess that's a fridge of a sort!  It will also be moving inside the house for the winter, so that it will be the first line of defense in the random power outages we always seem to get.  It, the house battery bank and the start batteries will all live in the basement like a little family of trolls, waiting for the dark to come out and play...  When the power goes out it will run the few "must-have" things you have in a house - water pump, furnace blower, fridge and freezer every few hours, and the killer app - the TV and satellite receiver, and the internet box!   

Brian

[luvrbus]

SunFrost does not use propane,I follow some of the post I had a total electric coach with stacked 2500w Traces I had a lot more than 3 grand tied up the 2- 50L Trojans batteries were almost 3 grand I ask you Brian as you seem to keep records how much have you spent on up keep on your inverter and battery bank over 5 years  

 I am asking is worth the cost using a bus for a couple of weeks out of the year I know you have inverter problems along with the batteries and I believe you are on the second fridge so what is the cost to date.

I have good friends with Prevosts I helped one change batteries and do some work we replaced 8-8D LifeLine,with cables, isolators and 1 new inverter he spent almost 12 grand and that was his second set of batteries in a 2004 model

 Bansil's $350 I could live with

[belfert]

SunFrost does not use propane,I follow some of the post I had a total electric coach with stacked 2500w Traces I had a lot more than 3 grand tied up the 2- 50L Trojans batteries were almost 3 grand I ask you Brian as you seem to keep records how much have you spent on up keep on your inverter and battery bank over 5 years  

 I am asking is worth the cost using a bus for a couple of weeks out of the year I know you have inverter problems along with the batteries and I believe you are on the second fridge so what is the cost to date.

I have no issues with my inverter right now.  Fixed back in 2009 and working fine since.  I spent $900 on my inverter, $700 on the golf cart batteries I ruined, $700 for a used set of AGM batteries, about $600 for two refrigerators, and about $500 in cabling for the batteries and inverter.  (I got a large rebate on the second fridge.)  I spent about $3,400 total.  Sure, I could have bought a Sun Frost fridge, but the only thing I wouldn't need is the inverter.  I would still need the batteries and a converter.  The trouble is the Sun Frost RF16 fridge is almost $3,000.

Sun Frost for someone full timing or spending weeks in the bus would make sense especially with solar.

I personally can't stand RV fridges after having one in my travel trailer.  I considered DC fridges such as the Novakool, but I ultimately went the household fridge route.  I do use the inverter for more than the fridge.

[luvrbus]

I still think DC is the way to go it's proven in the marine world FWIW I saw a new coach with 4 of the drawer type Vitrifrigo 12/24 dc volt refrigerators and freezer 2 were refrigerators and 2 were freezers very impressive no refrigerator taking up space

[chessie4905]

   Back in the 50's, when I was a kid, we traveled (a family of 7) in a converted school bus; 1946 Chevy 6 cyl 4 speed with 3 speed auxiliary. Cruised at 50mph. We used a house gas refer first, but angle/ slope issues caused it to be replaced with one that you put 50 lbs of block ice up where freezers usually are. I don't remember how often ice needed adding, maybe every three or four days. Block ice was easy to obtain back then.

[Iceni John]

How does 0.1 kWh per day sound?   Yes, just 100 Watt/hours per day!   http://www.mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html   I know that converted chest freezers are not for everyone, but that's probably what I'll do.   I'm even thinking about using one as a fridge, and having a second small one as a freezer.   Both will easily run off my solar panels, using small dedicated inverters for each one.   Some full-timers are already using fridgers with good results, especially considering their low overall costs.

Just an idea.
John

[bevans6]

If full-timing and off the grid, that looks to be an excellent solution.  You could buy his thermostat kit and if he doesn't have a 120 volt option already just get an appropriate transformer. 

Brian