MSW inverter and heating element

Re: MSW inverter and heating element

Hey guys,

No, this is really a solution in search of a problem. The Dometic works great, and we burn ~8-10 gallons of propane per month for all uses,, stove, fridge, hot water, so the expense is not that great. It is just that the fridge has an onboard 120vac heater and the capability to automatically detect when 120vac is available. My thought was to use the load controller from the charge controller such that when the panels had extra capacity, the controller could trigger a cheap msw on the fridge. I wouldn't expect to save very much propane but the idea of having PV go to waste irks me. ( and to tinker with the idea for future projects) The folks at RV mobile in Everett WA, who are, IMHO the best experts in gas fridges in N. America, suggest that the fridge came with a 325 watt 120vac element, and the 3 ways fridges had a 220 watt 12vdc element. I am going to change mine to a 220 watt 120vac, (Mine is a 2 way,, no 12 vdc system, and it is too expensive to change it or I would try to run it off 12vdc!) The idea is that the run time would be longer with the smaller element but it "might" work fine.

As for different freezer/fridge combinations. The problem is outside only works as a freezer, not as a fridge. We could build a root cellar, and in fact had one years ago when we had an ice house, but then we would have to shovel it out all the time. (The ice house was great! We (not really we,, I was just a kid when we stopped cutting ice) would cut ice in March, after keeping the ice free of snow all winter so it would freeze well. Hauled the ice blocks out of the water, up the skid rail buy hand, stacked 10 deep, (2'x4'x~3' blocks depending on how deep the ice froze,, 24-36") all sitting on a layer of dry, fresh saw dust, then buried under a couple of feet of dry sawdust. The walls were 2' thick with sawdust lining. Every fall we would have to shovel out the ice house and dry the sawdust, as new sawdust was hard to get where we were. All summer long, shovel the sawdust off a block, grab it with the tongs, swing it out, hose it off, and then into the cold room. We would have fresh ice as late as the first of October. Few people cut ice these days. It was a great place for kids to play on a hot summer day,, hiding in the icehouse in the cool, damp sawdust! I did a bunch of work last winter, and I planed thousands of feet of boards, with the planer shavings piling up on the snow, several feet thick. On a whim in August, I dug into that shavings pile, and there, as fresh as it had fallen yesterday was the snow!). Sorry for the ramble!

We are so well stocked with fridges that we certainly don't need to go getting any more. We used to have a outdoor winter freezer box, but the foxes liked it a bit too much. What we do during freeze up and breakup is fire up our smallest undercounter Dometic,,~4 cuft, turn it up full, and turn it into a deep freezer. It works well, keeping things ~0f, and once it is cold, and full, it burns about 2 gallons per month. We usually get to town every 2-3 weeks, so freezer space is only an issue during freeze up and break up, where we could be stranded for 4 weeks. Last spring it felt like months!

As I said before, were to do it over again, I would buy a good compressor fridge, but since, as I said I am well stocked with Dometics I am going to stick with the program. I have found over the years that they are VERY RELIABLE. I have had one fuse failure in 12 years with one, and no trouble with other other in 6 years. I have a smaller 6cuft, no electronic standing flame that we seldom use, but it fires right up and gets perfectly cold. It must be 25 years old.

Tony

PS I do disable the auto defrost element on the Big ones. If memory serves it has a heating element that just heats the freezer door closing area. We don't suffer from high humidity very often, so defrosting is not a problem once or twice a year.

Re: MSW inverter and heating element

CC,

Why doesn't everyone care what you think???

T.