Dry camping with Residential Fridge

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by lowryc50

I checked the Energy Guide and it said 387 Kwh/yr then I divided by 365 days which gave me 1.06 Kwh/day then I converted that to watts which was 1060 watts/day then I divided by 12 to get the daily AH which was 88AH/day

Does that sound like the right math?
Thanks for the help

That's about right. Now you need to add inverter loss of about 10%, nothing is 100% effecent.

Last thing is inverter idle amps. That's how many amps the inverter uses just sitting, turned on. Your inverter specs will list it.

Some use 2 amps or more, in idle mode. That adds 48 AH to the calculation.

I searched out one that uses .5 amps, in idle mode, to save battery capacity, but I boondock all winter long with solar only.

[TRebel]

Here is another tip: Try to keep the freezer portion of the refrigerator pretty full. I keep a few gallon milk jugs full of water froze solid in my freezer, when the food inventory may be low. This cuts the compressor run time down considerably.
And of course, keep the doors closed as much as possible.

[1badhemi]

Originally Posted by lowryc50

I checked the Energy Guide and it said 387 Kwh/yr then I divided by 365 days which gave me 1.06 Kwh/day then I converted that to watts which was 1060 watts/day then I divided by 12 to get the daily AH which was 88AH/day



Does that sound like the right math?

Thanks for the help

On top of that if you have auto start it should have a setting on it for quite time usually 10pm to 6am might be preset if you set the clock on it to actual time i have the same situation but 4 6volt batts now i know ill be ok .

[Scottybdivin]

Originally Posted by lowryc50

I checked the Energy Guide and it said 387 Kwh/yr then I divided by 365 days which gave me 1.06 Kwh/day then I converted that to watts which was 1060 watts/day then I divided by 12 to get the daily AH which was 88AH/day

Does that sound like the right math?
Thanks for the help

You can reduce that some by turning off the ice maker and defrost mode.

[rarebear.nm]

You math and numbers look good. There are many other electric loads to also consider. Some fairly large some very small. Are all of your lights LED, if not converting them to LED will save a lots of power. Do you use hair dryers, coffee makers, TV, computers, microwave oven and water pump. If you have a standard propane furnace the fan uses a lots AHrs. Without the furnace our daily energy usage is about 106 AHrs and 175 AHrs on cold weather. We have a standard propane/electric frig and water heater. While back I did a full energy audit of every 12 volt item in our RV. It was an eye opener about some items.

[vsheetz]

Originally Posted by Outbound

After listening to everyone on residential refrigerators it makes me wonder why there are so many being retro-fitted, must be the initial cost which is not always the best route, seems the electric/propane is a much better way to go if you do a lot of dry camping.

We dry camp often, as I commented previously. Our previous two coaches were RV refrigerator. Current coach is RR. Would never want to go back. The RR works so much better, has larger capacity, etc.

[CountryFit]

Originally Posted by vsheetz

We dry camp often, as I commented previously. Our previous two coaches were RV refrigerator. Current coach is RR. Would never want to go back. The RR works so much better, has larger capacity, etc.

Exactly. I was from RV fridge to RR, I know all of those. With an RR, I no longer need to worry about coach level, soft ice cream, and foiled foods... a string of norms with the RV fridge. Now DW and I are hardly mentioning fridge as we know it's there working for us. Turned it on and forgot since a year ago.

[G Schulz]

I’m not a battery expert but it is my understanding that the 12V RV/Marine deep cycle battery that you have is not a true deep cycle battery. For a true deep cycle battery you need a 6V golf cart style battery. It will hold much more reserve power than what you have now and is designed for true deep cycle use.

[325BH]

Originally Posted by G Schulz

I’m not a battery expert but it is my understanding that the 12V RV/Marine deep cycle battery that you have is not a true deep cycle battery. For a true deep cycle battery you need a 6V golf cart style battery. It will hold much more reserve power than what you have now and is designed for true deep cycle use.

^^^^ What he said.

Best thing you can do is replace your batteries with true deep cycle.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by G Schulz

I’m not a battery expert but it is my understanding that the 12V RV/Marine deep cycle battery that you have is not a true deep cycle battery. For a true deep cycle battery you need a 6V golf cart style battery. It will hold much more reserve power than what you have now and is designed for true deep cycle use.

While the RV/ Marine battery is not a true deep cycle battery, it will still meet the AH rating its designed to meet.

The issue is that it will have about 1/2 the deep cycles as a true deep cycle battery like a Golf Car 6 volt, GC2.

That means that in 2 years of deep cycle use, the RV/Marine battery capacity starts to drop off fast and it discharges faster.

If your jumping from campground to campground and plugging in, they are fine. If you are boondocking most of the time, deep cycle batteries are what you need.

There are quite a few " true deep cycle " 12 volt batteries, but tend to cost more then the very popular 6 volt, electric golf cart, batteries, even though you need 2 to make 12 volts.

Pound for pound, the 6 volt will have more then twice the capacity of a single 12 volt one. So removing 2, 12 volt batteties and installing 2, 6 volt batteries gives you the same or more capacity.

[rarebear.nm]

Agree with ^^. Most folks agree with 4 6volts over two 12 volt batteries. But there are strong opinions the other way too. The most recommended 6 volt batteries are Trojan T105 and Interstate. However, I choose Duracell from Batteries Plus for capacity and price.. I've been using them for a number of years and are very pleased with them. They are really DEKA made by East Penn. East Penn makes many different batterie brands. Check them out and compare.

If you can afford $$$ consider AGM style batteries.

[Steve70605]

Originally Posted by lowryc50

Thank you all for the replies. I'm beginning to understand some and will continue to study and ask questions. I looked again at the batteries and they are NAPA Dual Purpose 12 v batteries. I do have 4 of them. I think they're connected parallel to make 2 12v batteries. According to the NAPA website the only thing that comes close is Marine & RV Deep Cycle - Dual Purpose - Universal Group 27DCM. I really need to research more. I do have auto start but if I'm somewhere where there are generator hours I'm afraid that the generator would start up in the middle of the night. I think I will test it in the RV park before we head out for the summer In the NW. I did see that there is room for 2 additional batteries in the battery bay. Something to consider in the future. If you have any recommendations for upgraded batteries I would be open to hearing about them. Thank you

You should be able to run the refrigerator on battery power through the night without having to install solar or any additional batteries IF your batteries are in good condition and have the storage capacity. Solar only helps during the daylight..... You can run your generator then. It does minimize generator hours though.... Not sure of the payback of installation. Each his/her own on that.

We boon dock often. We run the generator until 9:00 - 10:00 pm to fully charge the batteries. We have a large residential fridge, and a CPAP. In cool weather even run the furnaces with fans. Generator auuto start set at 11.9VDC. Still have 12.1 - 12.2 @7:00AM. I have 4 GC2 batteries.

Dual purpose batteries do not generally have the deep cycle reserve capacity of GC2's. Also, do not assume that because the coach is "new" the batteries have not been abused. They are often not maintained while sitting on a dealers lot (learned that lesson the hard way). You can test the batteries with a load cell and also check specific gravity of each cell to determine the state of the battery.

FWIW

[Dutch Star Don]

"lowryc50"....Solar is nice, but expensive. You say you intend to boon dock, but don't say how often. If your plan is to live off the grid for long periods of time, do all the math and buy solar panels. If you plan to only boon dock on occasion, your set up is fine.

Typically, those who have residential refers find that two hours of generator operation in the morning during showers and breakfast and two hours at night during dinner preparation will keep you sufficiently charged while boon docking.

Keep in mind that solar is expensive and you can buy a lot of fuel for your generator with the money you save on solar. If you're just looking for a little more power while boon docking, add two ore batteries for $200.00 and be done.

[lowryc50]

These are all great comments and suggestions. We don't plan a lot of dry camping but just want the option and know we can get through each day and night. I am a little familiar with AGM batteries with my previous 5th wheel. I figured the manufacturer wouldn't put expensive batteries in the coach but thought since there are 4 12v batteries connected as 2 12v that would be sufficient. I will look at upgrading the batteries and going to 6v. There's a lot of room in the battery bay for at least 6 batteries. I was thinking about investing is enough solar to assist with keeping the batteries up during the day to cut the gen time. Thank you