Inverter-Compressor Refidgerators in the USA

cupcake

Anyone spot any inverter-compressor refirdgerators available to the US market yet? I'm talking about the variable-compressor technology found on refigerators in Australia, Africa, the middle-east, etc...
3rd-world America seems to be blacklisted from this technology thus far...

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVNFYFc9oUw

Mountain Don

Good question and it prompted me to contact LG here in the USA. I'll post a response when I receive it. They do sell some that are listed as having linear compressors. But they do not call them inverter linear compressors.

oil pan 4

I was under the impression that there were inverter based camper/RV refrigerators to be had out there on the US market? (but they are tiny)
The main purpose of these camper/RV fridges is to run off 120VAC at a luxurious on grid camp site with utility connections then 12 volts DC when you are off grid.

That Panasonic has an Ag filter, pretty sure Ag is just Silver.
These Japanese domestic market fridges would be "too small" for most Americans, they are about the size of an apartment sized fridge.
How do I know? I only lived in japan for 3 and a half years.

cupcake

Mountain Don wrote: »

Good question and it prompted me to contact LG here in the USA. I'll post a response when I receive it. They do sell some that are listed as having linear compressors. But they do not call them inverter linear compressors.

Agreed --- I see many LG 'variable compressor' fridges but nothing with "INVERTER" marked on it like their washing machines. I have an LG inverter-motor washing machine and the thing is amazingly efficient... it dawned on me that this technology could/should be used in refigerator compressors -- a quick search revealed that inverter fridges are common in nearly every country except the USA...

Id like to know the response from LG --- keep everyone posted...

cupcake

oil pan 4 wrote: »

I was under the impression that there were inverter based camper/RV refrigerators to be had out there on the US market? (but they are tiny)
The main purpose of these camper/RV fridges is to run off 120VAC at a luxurious on grid camp site with utility connections then 12 volts DC when you are off grid.

That Panasonic has an Ag filter, pretty sure Ag is just Silver.
These Japanese domestic market fridges would be "too small" for most Americans, they are about the size of an apartment sized fridge.
How do I know? I only lived in japan for 3 and a half years.

No - there are no 'official' fridges out there marked as 'inverter' fridges...yet.... I want one becasue my LG washer with inverter drive is simply amazing as far as efficency...
The panasonic inverter fridge sold to the african market is plenty big for me, and varies the compressor speed at all times, and even more at night when it senses you are sleeping, etc... also less surge from the startup of the compressor which has always been a problem with off-grid inverters... these inverter fridges dont have that startup spike... I am disturbed at how the USA market still gets this old technology in thier fridges... I can't import an african/australian/middle-east inverter fridge because they run on 220votls AC..

cupcake

Check out this energy-review of this Panasonic Inverter fridge... 1.5watts in eco-mode...

The man in the video has a 'kill-a-watt' type of device to measure the draw..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_crxXQma7s

Vic

Was at a local HD, yesterday, looking for Inverter compressor Friges. There were two brands, that implied that they were such;
LG, and Samsung.

These are in the fairly large, side-by-side, bottom freezer (IIRC) unit range, that generally consume a bit over 700 Kwh/year. There was one that was in the range of 485 Kwh/year, and a bit smaller. The price sranged was from about $1850 - $2500-ish.

Will search for some of these units, to try to get more specific.

There were NO sales persons in that Appliance area whatsoever, yesterday, for the 25 minutes that I was there, so could not ask any person for any additional details.

Will need to buy something in this category fairly soon, as the present conventional Whirlpool frig is nine years old, and have no backup in case of a failure.

FWIW, some of the above may be inaccurate, will search further. Vic

oil pan 4

My relatively new (2yr old), old tech refrigerator was less than $800 and only uses around 1KwH per day.
Aside from eliminating startup inrush current it doesn't look like they going to save a lot of power.

Vic

I was not trying to say that they saved any energy whatsoever. It IS quite possible when small top-freezer refers. without ice-makers or dispensers with inverter-compressors become available, they will be shown to save energy consumption.

For many, the Start Surge is a fairly big deal, and often dictates needing a 1.5 - 2X larger inverter than would otherwise be needed, just for the start surge, and this can often mean considerably larger idle loss in the inverter.

For me, these current models (subject to confirmation), or, those that will probably come to market, soon, will provide an ice-maker, cool water dispenser, and be larger, while consuming somewhat less energy, but will need to study them a bit more.

The present 18 CuFt traditional top=freezer model, circa '05, was rated at a bout 380 Kwh/yr .... not too bad for its vintage, but, have added more PV in the past few years, and energy budgets are larger now ...

Opinions, Vic

Mountain Don

Vic wrote: »

For many, the Start Surge is a fairly big deal,

Right, the start up surge means that a much larger than necessary power inverter is required. The inverter compressor refrigerator gets away from the start surge.

I wonder how quickly these inverter compressor refrigerators cool down a warm box?

Mountain Don

Well I have a response already! I enquired on a specific model that was listed as having a linear compressor on the LG USA website. I applied the energy star filter and was presented with 5 choices. IIRC three of them stated linear compressor in the technical specs list.

Here is their response......

---

Reply to Your Inquiry

---

Hi Don,

Re: inverter linear compressor

Welcome and thank you for using your LG Home Appliance E-mail services today.

I understand your concern, and would like to inform you that your LFC22770SB refrigerator has an inverter linear compressor. An inverter linear compressor is compressor operated with an inverter. In the hermetic type, it can either be a scroll or reciprocating compressor.

LG’s inverter linear compressor technology enables its refrigerators to be the industry leaders in energy savings, longer food freshness, reduce noise levels, and bigger capacity.

I hope I was able to help you with this information. It has been a pleasure talking with you today. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again via LG Email, Live Chat or by calling 800-243-0000.
Thank you very much for your kindness and patience. I hope that I was able to put a smile on your face today! Have a great day ahead and a lovely week.

Mountain Don

So if interested in any of the other ones they list with linear compressors, it might be good to confirm with their customer service that it is true that they are inverter linear compressors.


Looks like their reponse came from WA state, FWIW.

cupcake

Mountain Don wrote: »

Well I have a response already! I enquired on a specific model that was listed as having a linear compressor on the LG USA website. I applied the energy star filter and was presented with 5 choices. IIRC three of them stated linear compressor in the technical specs list.

Here is their response......

---

Reply to Your Inquiry

---

Hi Don,

Re: inverter linear compressor

Welcome and thank you for using your LG Home Appliance E-mail services today.

I understand your concern, and would like to inform you that your LFC22770SB refrigerator has an inverter linear compressor. An inverter linear compressor is compressor operated with an inverter. In the hermetic type, it can either be a scroll or reciprocating compressor.

LG’s inverter linear compressor technology enables its refrigerators to be the industry leaders in energy savings, longer food freshness, reduce noise levels, and bigger capacity.

I hope I was able to help you with this information. It has been a pleasure talking with you today. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again via LG Email, Live Chat or by calling 800-243-0000.
Thank you very much for your kindness and patience. I hope that I was able to put a smile on your face today! Have a great day ahead and a lovely week.

Good job Moutan Godfather........... Do you know if they have a SMALLER fridge with this inverter technology... 22cubic feet is too big for me... looking for like 11 cubic feet...

cupcake

looks like LG only offers inverter compressors on their MONSTER fridges... bummer...

Vic

cupcake,

IMO, this is traditional when companies introduce a new product type to a market. Am not saying that this type of compressor drive is new tech, just in the USA it is new-ish in main-stream refers.

Would expect that, as time passes, there will be more and more models that meet lower price-points.

Just opinions, Vic

lkruper

cupcake wrote: »

looks like LG only offers inverter compressors on their MONSTER fridges... bummer...

Should be available when we can buy a 100% electric 30K Tesla

cupcake

Bugs me that these inverter fridges are in North Vietnam, but not the U.S.S.A. yet..... not surprised though

cupcake

Check it out:

Lesser known benefits of Inverter Technology

• Regular motors need 3-4 times more current (more than running current) at startup. So the inverter/generator size needed to run any AC or Refrigerator increases significantly. But Inverter Technology air conditioners and refrigerators have variable speed motors that start up gradually needing much lesser current at startup. Thus the size of inverter/generator required to startup is less. For e.g. A 1.5 ton fixed speed AC that runs at about 10 Amp current may need up to 30 Amp current at startup and thus a 5 kVA inverter/generator. But an inverter technology Air Conditioner needs about 6-7 Amp current and not much more at startup and thus a 1.5 kVA or 2 kVA inverter/generator is good enough to support it.
• Regular motors have much lower power factor. In commercial and industrial connections there is penalty for low power factor and rebates for higher power factor. An inverter technology motor will have power factor close to unity (or 1) which not only results in lesser electricity consumption but also help get rebates on better power factor.
• If you are planning to use Solar PV for air conditioner, then it is the best to use inverter technology air conditioner or refrigerator as it not only reduces the size of PV panels because it consumes lesser electricity, it also reduces the size of inverter to be put along with the PV panel.

SOURCE:

https://www.bijlibachao.com/refriger...ectricity.html

cupcake

And: [h=3]How does a compressor in regular refrigerator work?[/h] Most compressors in regular refrigerators are single speed refrigerators. They are either “on” or “off” based on the temperature in the refrigerator and the setting in the thermocouple. Most compressors are designed to handle peak load conditions (for high temperatures in summers), which means that they run at peak load even in winters when the cooling requirement is less. Every time the refrigerator door is opened, heat enters the refrigerator and the compressor has to take care of this load as well. So most regular compressors are built to take care of peak load plus the “door open shut” load which during most of the year is much more than the actual requirement. [h=3]How does a compressor with inverter technology work?[/h]

A compressor with inverter technology works very much like a car accelerator. When the speed required is more, the acceleration is more, and when it is less, and then the acceleration is less. This makes sure that during summer months when cooling load is more, the compressor works at peak capacity taking more electricity. But during winter months when cooling load is less, the compressor works less there by consuming less electricity. Even in summer month, the night temperature is less than the day temperature and thus electricity savings happen in night when compressor can run at a lesser speed.
This kind of compressor never switches off even when the temperature stabilizes, but runs at a slower speed maintaining the temperature inside the refrigerator. The benefits are:

• In an “on” “off” cycle of a regular refrigerator, inside temperature varies throughout. But in case of inverter technology, temperature is more stable.
• The amount of noise made by the refrigerator is much less in refrigerators with inverter technology as compared to the regular ones.
• Energy or electricity consumption is much less when the temperature stabilizes.

vtmaps

cupcake wrote: »

Regular motors have much lower power factor. In commercial and industrial connections there is penalty for low power factor and rebates for higher power factor. An inverter technology motor will have power factor close to unity (or 1) which not only results in lesser electricity consumption but also help get rebates on better power factor.

I am not convinced that just because it is an inverter fridge it necessarily has a good power factor. Some electronic devices create DC with very non-linear loads on the AC waveform.

Also, low power factor motors may draw more current, but they do NOT draw more power. In the US, a residential customer does not pay extra for using a low power factor motor.

--vtMaps

cupcake

vtmaps wrote: »

I am not convinced that just because it is an inverter fridge it necessarily has a good power factor. Some electronic devices create DC with very non-linear loads on the AC waveform.

Also, low power factor motors may draw more current, but they do NOT draw more power. In the US, a residential customer does not pay extra for using a low power factor motor.

--vtMaps

The issue for off-gridders is the redicoulous surge that fridges with AC-motor compressors give off ... especially during the nighttime... Sometimes my [ac compressor] fridge kicks off the low volt alarm on my inverter due to the spike/surge when the compressor starts up... These 'new' DC-motor inverter fridges have a variable start-up that virtually elminates the surging... then during operation they are variable... DC motors in appliances are the new thing comin' and these are GREAT for off grid PV systems, as ac motors have a redonuklous startup surge and are less effcient when compared to DC motors...

I have a LG inverter washing machine... no start surge when the motor comes in.. it varies its speed unlike the old school washers that simply slam on full blast and slam off repeatedly...

There are already DC motor celing fans that use 14 watts on 'high' when a standard AC motor ceiling fan would run at 75-80-100 watts.... there are even DC motor pedastal fans, bathroom and attic ventalation fans... and as you know the mini-spit systems use DC motor technology...

any aplliance that uses a motor should be upgraded to a dc-motor appliance if you live off grid... it solves alot of problems that off gridders have with such appliances such as starting surges... plus the variable speed ability just makes more sense..

Dave Angelini

While I understand your concern for the surge I have to say that after you have lived offgrid for many years you probably will obtain an inverter/battery system that will not have the problems you are having with electrical surge. None of the 80 offgrid systems I have consulted on have this issue. The appliances seem to last forever as they are not "seeing" the surge and the biggest reason they last is that they are not seeing the utility surge that grid folks are subjected to.

lkruper

Dave Angelini wrote: »

While I understand your concern for the surge I have to say that after you have lived offgrid for many years you probably will obtain an inverter/battery system that will not have the problems you are having with electrical surge. None of the 80 offgrid systems I have consulted on have this issue. The appliances seem to last forever as they are not "seeing" the surge and the biggest reason they last is that they are not seeing the utility surge that grid folks are subjected to.

I have only heard about surge in the context of a spike in the power draw of an appliance (like a compressor) at start up. What is the utility surge to which you refer?

softdown

I'm no expert but some utility companies are not able to deliver what might be called "quality power." In other words, there are way too many power outages and the power supply can be a bit irregular. May be 110 volts. May be ~125 volts...I think ~120-122 volts is considered ideal by many standards. May be spikes that are known appliance killers.

There will be very high quality power where the utility company CEO lives. Where the people are poorer and more sparsely populated? They get what they get. Capitalize the sparsely populated. Some people go solar because the utility delivers such poor service.

lkruper wrote: »

I have only heard about surge in the context of a spike in the power draw of an appliance (like a compressor) at start up. What is the utility surge to which you refer?

Mountain Don

softdown wrote: »

There will be very high quality power where the utility company CEO lives

Off grid system owner = CEO = place with high quality power... assuming a well designed and constructed off grid system.

Johann

softdown wrote: »

I'm no expert but some utility companies are not able to deliver what might be called "quality power." In other words, there are way too many power outages and the power supply can be a bit irregular. May be 110 volts. May be ~125 volts...I think ~120-122 volts is considered ideal by many standards. May be spikes that are known appliance killers.

There will be very high quality power where the utility company CEO lives. Where the people are poorer and more sparsely populated? They get what they get. Capitalize the sparsely populated. Some people go solar because the utility delivers such poor service.

I am the last customer on the road and the power grid.
When I turn my washing machine on at night, I can see the power pole light go bright and dim with every stroke of the wash machine.

That is one of the reason I started to get solar panels and battery besides of all those times I lose power. I got tired of burned up devices.
Little by little I get all the of the system together.

Johann

cupcake wrote: »

The issue for off-gridders is the redicoulous surge that fridges with AC-motor compressors give off ... especially during the nighttime... Sometimes my [ac compressor] fridge kicks off the low volt alarm on my inverter due to the spike/surge when the compressor starts up... These 'new' DC-motor inverter fridges have a variable start-up that virtually elminates the surging... then during operation they are variable... DC motors in appliances are the new thing comin' and these are GREAT for off grid PV systems, as ac motors have a redonuklous startup surge and are less effcient when compared to DC motors...

I have a LG inverter washing machine... no start surge when the motor comes in.. it varies its speed unlike the old school washers that simply slam on full blast and slam off repeatedly...

There are already DC motor celing fans that use 14 watts on 'high' when a standard AC motor ceiling fan would run at 75-80-100 watts.... there are even DC motor pedastal fans, bathroom and attic ventalation fans... and as you know the mini-spit systems use DC motor technology...

any aplliance that uses a motor should be upgraded to a dc-motor appliance if you live off grid... it solves alot of problems that off gridders have with such appliances such as starting surges... plus the variable speed ability just makes more sense..

Did you ever try to use a super capacitor pack? Hook it up on the dc side of the inverter parallel with battery wires. Batteries are slow to give power to a device since it is depending on a chemical reaction. A capacitor pack may help to over come this problem since it will respond way faster than a battery.

westbranch

softdown wrote: »

some utility companies are not able to deliver what might be called "quality power."

And even here in BC we have some areas where the power is 'unbalanced' especially on 3 phase lines, where houses get power off of 2 of the 3 and someone forgets to alternate the connections.. I am #2 from the end of a 'spur' line and have an imbalance on one of my 120v feeds... it can happen anywhere.. the 'can' serves 3 houses...

BB.

Johann wrote: »

Did you ever try to use a super capacitor pack? Hook it up on the dc side of the inverter parallel with battery wires. Batteries are slow to give power to a device since it is depending on a chemical reaction. A capacitor pack may help to over come this problem since it will respond way faster than a battery.

iat frequency and below (that is the normal current draw on the DC bus, a 120 Hz "sine squared" current wave form).t

Hmm... See that typing/post went south. See if I can guess what I intended here. [BB. 1/17/2022 edit]

The "frequency" of the "pulse train" from a 60 Hz AC inverter on the DC Bus input--the normal current draw on the DC bus, a 120 Hz "sine squared" current waveform. More or less, the AC inverter pulls "peak current" when driving the "peak of the 120 VAC sine wave" and near zero current when the 120 VAC sine wave is "crossing zero volts".

For batteries... You have a choice of "float voltage" setting--Keeping the battery charged with "self discharge" and your DC loads (and DC current to AC inverter loads).

For "pulse train" current (typically 120/240 VAC AC inverter's DC input current", the battery will "act like a capacitor" and help supply the "ripple current" (more or less, the battery bank is want control's the battery bus voltage).

With a "pulse train" DC current... You will have an DC Voltage "ripple" too. Say your "ripple voltage" is ~0.5 volts. And for FLA battery (room temperature) resting voltage is ~12.8 volts (12 volt battery bank). Below 12.8 volts, the battery is discharging. And above ~13.6 volts, the battery is floating/charging...

If you have your charger voltage set to 12.8 volts--For 1/2 a cycle is drops to (0.5 volts) to (12.8-0.5= ) 12.3 volts to 12.8 volts (discharging).

Or if you have 13.2 volts float--Then you have (13.2-0.5) 12.7 to 13.2 volts or "micro cycling" discharging/charging the battery bank.

If you float at 13.6 volts - 0.5 volt ripple = 13.1 to 13.6 volts charging... And you are not "micro cycling" or micro discharging because of the ripple current.

Also, make sure you read about super capacitors and their specifications... Their voltage range may be less than the typical lead acid peak charging/equalization voltage. And true super caps may have life in the several year range.

Lastly, a super cap can feed ungodly amounts of current into dead shorts. That makes the risk from short circuits and even the ability of fuses/breakers to reliably interrupt surge/short circuit current questionable too.

-Bill

animatt

I have an inverter refrigerator. Samsung. Medium size. And have run it off a suresine inverter(300w) . runs fine with peak draw around 140w. Peak does not happen at startup. First controller wakes up. The compressor slowly ramps up.

Main point of this post is PF is not close to 1. Low draw like 50w PF is like .6 .
High draw around 140w PF was close to .7.

I post this from memory. Exact numbers I believe are in an older post of mine.

softdown

It is possible there is a heavy user "upstream" from you. If so...perhaps you can find their typical times for peak usage. The conditions that you are describing would be extremely hard on most of your equipment.

I knew a guy who worked for a power company. He advised that sometimes one may have to "get angry" to get results. I had service that was well beyond terrible. I called the neighborhood "generator alley" because almost everyone had to get a back up generator. Well....I did get mad one night. They knew exactly where the fault was and would even point at it when out. They were out pretty often. They just didn't want to fix it because it was under the road I think.

They fixed it after I got mad. But I also got a friendly visit from the sheriff. Seems that one of the utility workers was brand new and wasn't used to people getting mad. He called the sheriff on me. The other utility workers informed the sheriff that I was nothing they were not used to. So everyone brushed it off.

I took one for the team. Diplomacy is a fine art.

Three hour power outages in the dead of winter are kind of rough. Four hours gets intolerable.

Johann wrote: »

I am the last customer on the road and the power grid.
When I turn my washing machine on at night, I can see the power pole light go bright and dim with every stroke of the wash machine.

That is one of the reason I started to get solar panels and battery besides of all those times I lose power. I got tired of burned up devices.
Little by little I get all the of the system together.