Author Topic: Residential refer power use.  (Read 6400 times)

Marty and Suzie Schenck

  • Guest
Residential refer power use.
« on: April 19, 2016, 06:47:59 PM »
Two years ago my wife and I installed a Samsung RF-197 residential refer in our 2002 Thunder and we think it has been the best thing that we have done to our coach. Over the last couple of years there have  been several questions on this forum about power usage so I thought I would do a little experiment and pass on the numbers. Our coach has 4 three year old lead acid batteries to power the inverter. The coach is sitting in our driveway in direct sunlight with no possibility of shade so the single solar panel does get direct light. The only draw on the batteries (when I unplug from shore power) is the refrigerator and any parasitic draws such as microwave and digital clock displays and electronic memories in the TV's, stereos, radios and CMP-20 display. Ambient temperatures here were high of about 88 degrees. The ice maker was turned off and refer set to economy mode. At 10:00am I unplugged from shore power and started my readings and the temps in the refer were set to the factory settings of -2 and 38 degrees.
10:00am    13.6 volts
2:00pm      13.2 volts
7:00pm      12.4 volts
10:00pm    12.2 volts
At each time that I took voltage readings I also peaked at the temps in the refer and they stayed the same except for the 2:00pm reading at which time the temp in the refer was 39 and the refer was running and the inside temp of the coach was right at 99 degrees.
Looking at these figures one can see that some new refrigerators are not power mongers and are quite efficient. So for those that still wish to dry camp, in my opinion, there would be no problem as long as you could run your generator once a day. I hope this helps those that are leery about residential refrigerators. Marty 

Mike Groves

  • Guest
Re: Residential refer power use.
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2016, 06:57:22 PM »
Great!  That jibes quite closely with what I just observed. 

Thanks!  Mike

Mike Groves

  • Guest
Re: Residential refer power use.
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2016, 12:35:12 AM »
Just another added note - with the sunshine in Portland Oregon today my 12.3V returned to 13.6 by noon according to the CMP.

Mike

Bob Stone

  • Guest
Re: Residential refer power use.
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2016, 03:52:17 AM »
Marty & Mike, a couple of variables are not mentioned: how many watts of solar panel were supplementing the battery during those daylight hours?
And, even though there is lower ambient temperatures during the winter months there are fewer hours of sunlight with much less energy. Considering these factors any guesses as to what might be the status of your batteries on a December or January morning without shore power?


Thank you...


Marty and Suzie Schenck

  • Guest
Re: Residential refer power use.
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2016, 04:33:40 AM »
Bob, there are a lot of variables to consider. My numbers were intended to only show the little amount of draw on the batteries from the refrigerator. Everyone uses power differently. My coach only has the factory 100 watt or so solar panel so that is of little use. I thought long and hard about going residential and really wanted to keep the original but I (we) have no regrets about changing. I think my main point was to show people that do dry camp, that maybe on the fence about changing, that it is very do-able and depending on how much you use power, running a generator more often would not be necessary. I hope this helps. Marty