410 freezer/frig daily AH

Don S/V ILLusion · Dec 5, 2012

A good assumption is that it runs at 50% duty cycle after reaching temp (during your season) Obviously, if you are referring to winter in MA, you can shut it off

.

I'm not familiar with the 410 but if you have separate units for refrig and freezer like my 40.5 did, obviously you can double thus figure:

5 amp hrs@ 50% duty cycle = 60 amps/24 hrs

Nodak7 · Dec 5, 2012

Don Lucas said:
I know how much my freezer/frig system on my 2001 410 uses in operation. But I've never left it on for more than a couple of days at a time and since it normally got filled with a lot of soda/beer to cool down and the freezer was mostly empty the system for the most part runs continuous.

I'm working on sizing my solar panels and wonder if anyone has a good average daily amp/hr for their system for after it has cooled everything down?

4-5 Amp Hrs is my history.

Sailgunner · Dec 5, 2012

Never could get the original system to cool the refrigerator side down to I installed a separate system for it. Increased power but at least I have cold beer.

Bill Roosa · Dec 5, 2012

in the heat of summer (90+F) mine draws 5 amps at 75% duty cycle. or 3.75 amp continuous effective draw. Since you have the panels on for only 12 hours you have to collect enough to power the system at night (plus storage losses)
3.75 Amps * 12 hours = 44.5 AH which you will use as you produce it.
That leaves 44.5 AH you have to store in the batts for the night. you loose 10% when you charge and 10% when you discharge so 44.5*1.2=53.4 AH produced to get 44.4 supplied to the reefer. That means you will have 53.4 AH over 12 hours collection or 53.4/12=4.45 amps. Add that to the 3.75 for running the reefer during the day and your solar panel needs to produce (averaged over the day) 3.75+4.45=8.2 amps AVERAGE.
Now unless you are actively aiming the panels they produce 100% only occasionally and then for a very brief time. figure 50% output (0 at dawn and dusk and 90% at mid day) for horizontally mounted panels that don't get shadows. this does not account for a lot of cloudy days so you might want even more panel to insure you don't drain the batts excessively.
Sooo 8.2 amps / 50% effectiveness = 16.4 amps max panel output or at 14.4 volts charging voltage a panel size of at least 256 watts!!!!! holy sheep dip Bat Man

Which is why most cruisers also have really big alternators, wind generators and a hydro generator in addition to as much solar as they can stand.

now if you had a way to aim the panels directly at the sun all day long you could reduce your panel size by at least 40%.....

Bill Roosa · Dec 5, 2012

Alternately (and my solution BTW) is to only run the reefer during the day and let the holding plate cool the unit during the night. you get an automatic 20% reduction just from not storing the juice in the batts.

seadaddler · Dec 5, 2012

Solar

I added 2- 195 watt 12 volt panels with blue sky 3024 charge controller on my 2007 H-36 and I run a engel portable and my stock front load ref and they are flat off my arch over my bimini,all #4 wiring into my arch down to under nav station to charge controller.
They keep the 2 ref cool and never shut them off and do use alot of other 12volt things like TV and cell and computer,I have 4 6 volt T-105 batteries a a start battery too.
Nick

Nodak7 · Dec 13, 2012

Don Lucas said:
Still looking for some more actural experience answers to how many amp/hrs you frig is using per day.

Don, if you look at my earlier post you will see that I use 4-5 A/H. Therefore I believe you just have to multiply that by 24 to get the total usage in a day 4.5x24=108amps. This is my actual experience.

Nodak

Bob 04 H260 · Dec 13, 2012

The duty cycle of the compressor will depend on many factors, the water/air temperature, how often you open the doors etc.
One thing to check is that on our 2003 H356 the refrigerator spillover fan was wired to only run when the compressor turned on and the compressor is controlled by the thermostat in the freezer. So it made it difficult to maintain the refrigerator temperature properly and the compressor ran more that it really needed to. I don't know if this is common practice but I wired the spillover fan direct to 12 v, the compressor runs less, and the frig temperature is easier to maintain at 38*.
Bob