Since this is more of a trailer sailer problem, Ill put this here.
Next year, if things go to plan, Im going to spend more time on my 1990 Mac 26S - mostly docked in marina's, sometimes on anchor.
Ive thought about an elecric fridge to make life easier but these very much complicate things. 200 amp hours of battery capacity I currently have is marginal and gets worked hard using up battery life (assuming about 35 amp hours per day for a small fridge). Adding the fridge just about triples my existing power needs and since it can just about deplete the battery in a few days, you need a large solar panel plus probably some sort of gas generator backup. I sort of looked at the cost of this (fridge, about a 100 watt solar panel, maybe a 40 amp battery charger and a Honda 1000 watt generator to supply AC to the 40 amp charger) and on the trip I am planning, the cost just to add the fridge would be better spent (and make the wife happier) on hotel rooms near the marina.
However.. in looking at this, I was wondering about having a two ice chest system where one ice chest held the food and the second ice chest just held ice. There would be some sort of heat transfer between the two ice chests - maybe as simple as pumped air circulating between the two ice chests through two insulated air ducts - one cold, one warm. You would just put for example blocks of ice in the "ice only" chest and the air pump would tranfer the "cool" to the food ice chest. Maybe some sort of metal "heat sink" would aid in tranfering cold from the ice to the air that would be pumped to the food ice chest. The "ice only" chest would be always clean so you could even use it for ice cold drinking water when the ice had melted. Just thow in a fresh block of ice every few days.. The DC power draw could be very low as in the idea above, you would only need to keep a small fan running.
Would this work.. has it already been done?
edit - sort of like the attached drawing??
Next year, if things go to plan, Im going to spend more time on my 1990 Mac 26S - mostly docked in marina's, sometimes on anchor.
Ive thought about an elecric fridge to make life easier but these very much complicate things. 200 amp hours of battery capacity I currently have is marginal and gets worked hard using up battery life (assuming about 35 amp hours per day for a small fridge). Adding the fridge just about triples my existing power needs and since it can just about deplete the battery in a few days, you need a large solar panel plus probably some sort of gas generator backup. I sort of looked at the cost of this (fridge, about a 100 watt solar panel, maybe a 40 amp battery charger and a Honda 1000 watt generator to supply AC to the 40 amp charger) and on the trip I am planning, the cost just to add the fridge would be better spent (and make the wife happier) on hotel rooms near the marina.
However.. in looking at this, I was wondering about having a two ice chest system where one ice chest held the food and the second ice chest just held ice. There would be some sort of heat transfer between the two ice chests - maybe as simple as pumped air circulating between the two ice chests through two insulated air ducts - one cold, one warm. You would just put for example blocks of ice in the "ice only" chest and the air pump would tranfer the "cool" to the food ice chest. Maybe some sort of metal "heat sink" would aid in tranfering cold from the ice to the air that would be pumped to the food ice chest. The "ice only" chest would be always clean so you could even use it for ice cold drinking water when the ice had melted. Just thow in a fresh block of ice every few days.. The DC power draw could be very low as in the idea above, you would only need to keep a small fan running.
Would this work.. has it already been done?
edit - sort of like the attached drawing??
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