Upgrading from 3-way fridge..

[Kodachrome]

Ok, now this all makes sense, I am going to leave well enough alone and just use the method of watching the amps in battery mode. Hopefully other people doing this install will find all my inquiry valuable.

In the mean time, my wife and mother in law and I are somewhat stranded 90 miles away from home at the moment. We took our Jetta on a drive to check out different parts of Colorado, my poor wife hit a racoon and then about 5 minutes later, the radiator light came on. We pulled into a small town ( Paonia ) and found radiator fluid leaking out. So we are hoping it is just a hose on the bottom and can get my Mother in law to her flight on time today.

Anyway, I will update my posts with photos of the panel.

We are still waiting on the damn fridge. Apparently Waeco / Dometic laid off a bunch of people during the economic crash, demand rose for their products in recent times and they are ill equipped to even deal with the orders they are getting now......so the whole premise of this thread is on hold, waiting on the key ingredient for this upgrade...

 

[Kodachrome]

So after being two weeks late, I got my new Dometic CR-1065 AC/DC fridge / freezer installed, the only mod being to cut about 1/4 inch off of the width of the fridge opening using a jigsaw and to leave off the left mount flange to get it past the door jam. I have used the 4 interior mount screws in addition to the 6 remaining flange screws. Wow, what a difference!

As a test, I loaded a tray of ice cubes and two ice cream bars in the freezer and the fridge portion about 1/3rd full of food / beer yesterday morning. It was really sunny out so I just used the 85 watt panel on the roof and left the 100 watt stowed under the cab. I set it at 5 on it's scale of 1-7 and in one hour, the fridge had reached it's equilibrium state. At no time during it's operation did the charge controller indicate the 85 watt panel was no longer charging the battery, so it was doing both efficiently even on a warm-ish day.

So my predictions were correct in that on cloudy Winter days, 185 watts of solar will surely keep us cool, warm, fed and lit. The panel is removable and will be able to be angled directly at the Winter sun with a simple extension of about 10-15 feet. So yesterday I took my stack of yellow Lego like leveling blocks out of the camper and stuck them in the back of my storage unit...I doubt I will ever need them again!

Pics to follow...

 

[Jeff Wanamog]

So after being two weeks late, I got my new Dometic CR-1065 AC/DC fridge / freezer installed, the only mod being to cut about 1/4 inch off of the width of the fridge opening using a jigsaw and to leave off the left mount flange to get it past the door jam. I have used the 4 interior mount screws in addition to the 6 remaining flange screws. Wow, what a difference!

As a test, I loaded a tray of ice cubes and two ice cream bars in the freezer and the fridge portion about 1/3rd full of food / beer yesterday morning. It was really sunny out so I just used the 85 watt panel on the roof and left the 100 watt stowed under the cab. I set it at 5 on it's scale of 1-7 and in one hour, the fridge had reached it's equilibrium state. At no time during it's operation did the charge controller indicate the 85 watt panel was no longer charging the battery, so it was doing both efficiently even on a warm-ish day.

So my predictions were correct in that on cloudy Winter days, 185 watts of solar will surely keep us cool, warm, fed and lit. The panel is removable and will be able to be angled directly at the Winter sun with a simple extension of about 10-15 feet. So yesterday I took my stack of yellow Lego like leveling blocks out of the camper and stuck them in the back of my storage unit...I doubt I will ever need them again!

Pics to follow...


Congrats. I knew you would be happy with the change.
I like camping with friends when it is hot out and reaching inside the refrigerator and pulling out a Dove Bar and chowing down.
Enjoy.
Jeff

 

[Kodachrome]

Ok, so I really put this stuff to the test, set the fridge on 4 out of 7, to it's credit it held a steady 34 F with the thermometer at the front of the fridge, ice stayed frozen the whole time. The specs for the fridge are as follows:

One spec sheet on a sales site says 1.9 amp hours at an ambient of 32 C, fridge at 5 C, 1.6 amp hours at ambient of 25 C, fridge at 5 C.

Most sales sites specs say average power consumption of 3.3 amps, 45 watts, no time line given.

The manual says rated current 5.7 amps, 45 watts average power consumption.

All seemed ok until Yosemite....

Despite asking for a "sunny" spot, our camp site only gave us 2:45 of direct sunlight per day and a ton of pollen. We left the camper parked the entire time, did miles of hikes, at the fridge set at 34F in the front ( a tad cold in hindsight ). We also charged our cell phones, used all four 36 LED lights and would run the heater for about 5 minutes each morning. Outside of the occasional water pump run, that was it. The two panels only showed 15-17 volts in direct sunlight, less in shade as one would expect and quite a bit less than the 18-20 volts at home.
Needless to say, when we got done hiking at sunset it was about 60 hours of the camper not moving, the solar only put out 21 amp hours per day and the battery showed "fair". We took the rig for a drive and charged it back up. For what it is worth, the freezer and fridge have been kept near full.

Now here is what is even more confusing....

With just the 85 watt roof panel out, we logged 5.3 amp hours of solar in one hour at around the noon hour. With both panels out, now at 185 watts, it logged only .7 more amps at 6 amps. The current measured at the connection plug of the slide out 100 watt panel was 20.77 at high noon. The two panels are wired in parallel each with their own sets of wires and connected to the same solar inputs on the charge controller. For the heck of it, I took a reading out of the leads that the panel plugs into on the camper bulked and it showed the same 15.66 volts that the controller showed from the 85 watt panel.......going through the other panel's leads???

So what is really going on here? Why am I getting very little more from a panel that is supposed to have more than 17% more output?

And why while driving the whole 200 miles today, the battery / water level panel never showed "charging" until I just got to our friend's house and plugged into shore power.

I just knocked the fridge back to a setting of 3, both panels are out for the next 24 hours, I need to get this figured out, because so far, the 2 grand and 40 man hours I spent on this upgrade is not working our as well as I had planned in terms of real world use.

 

[K7MDL]

The 100Watt panel should offer no more than 7 or 8 amps. Not sure where your 20amp measurement came from. Wild guess here, but any chance you have one of the panels polarity reversed? Is there any information that shows both panels have diode isolation against reverse current flow? A panel could be turning into a load.

 

[MarkBC]

For reference, FWIW:
On my recent trip to southern Utah I spent a couple of days camped in full sun (no clouds, no shade) with my (detachable) solar panel flat on my roof. It's a 70-watt panel (SunForce CIGS) connected to my camper battery via a MPPT controller. I have a meter that displays current current and voltage as well as total amp-hours (and watt-hours) accumulated.

For the days that the panel was up there running from sunrise to sunset it fed about 25 amp-hrs (about 330 watt-hours) -- each day -- into the battery.
(If I had placed the panel on my movable, adjustable mount -- a spare lounge chair

-- and bothered to move it to track the sun angle and position all day it would have gained quite a bit more -- I guesstimate at least 30%, maybe 50% -- more. Sun-angle matters...which is why I don't have my panel permanently mounted on the roof.)

This sustainable-electrical-power issue matters to me, too, 'cause I'm close to deciding to replace my (dead) 3-way 'fridge with a DC-only compressor fridge. I'm mostly a desert rat (frequent sunshine, infrequent tree-shade), so I'm optimistic that it'll work out for me.

 

[Desert Rancher]

I have a meter that displays current current and voltage as well as total amp-hours (and watt-hours) accumulated.


Mark,

What meter is that?

Thanks~

 

[MarkBC]

Mark,
What meter is that?
Thanks~


DR: It's this one:
"Watt's Up" RC Watt Meter & Power Analyzer WU100 Version 2
See my post #13 here, which shows my "system".

I don't think I bought it from that store linked above, though...can't remember where. It's intended for monitoring power/supply/charging of radio-controlled "toys", it seems...but it's appropriate for my use, too. I had a hard time finding other (reasonably-priced) inline DC meters that had the features that I wanted, so I ended up with that one. Seems to work great.

 

[Kodachrome]

The 100Watt panel should offer no more than 7 or 8 amps. Not sure where your 20amp measurement came from. Wild guess here, but any chance you have one of the panels polarity reversed? Is there any information that shows both panels have diode isolation against reverse current flow? A panel could be turning into a load.


The 100 watt panel is spec'd at 5.7 amps, the 20 reference was to the volts coming off of the panel. There is a slight chance that the leads are reversed, easy to check and easy to fix, I'll go take a look.

 

[Kodachrome]

For reference, FWIW:
On my recent trip to southern Utah I spent a couple of days camped in full sun (no clouds, no shade) with my (detachable) solar panel flat on my roof. It's a 70-watt panel (SunForce CIGS) connected to my camper battery via a MPPT controller. I have a meter that displays current current and voltage as well as total amp-hours (and watt-hours) accumulated.

For the days that the panel was up there running from sunrise to sunset it fed about 25 amp-hrs (about 330 watt-hours) -- each day -- into the battery.
(If I had placed the panel on my movable, adjustable mount -- a spare lounge chair

-- and bothered to move it to track the sun angle and position all day it would have gained quite a bit more -- I guesstimate at least 30%, maybe 50% -- more. Sun-angle matters...which is why I don't have my panel permanently mounted on the roof.)

This sustainable-electrical-power issue matters to me, too, 'cause I'm close to deciding to replace my (dead) 3-way 'fridge with a DC-only compressor fridge. I'm mostly a desert rat (frequent sunshine, infrequent tree-shade), so I'm optimistic that it'll work out for me.


With just my 85 watt panel on the roof, I logged 36 amp hours yesterday while driving, only one hour was the other panel out and it just did not log that much.

Ok, I think I probably found the problem, I removed the leads from the controller to check the voltage and low and behold, NO voltage at all from the 100 watt panel. I then unplugged the panel from the camper and sure enough, 20.77 volts from the panel leads. So I traced the short to a bad connection in the nifty weather resistant plug, spread the male ends out a bit and bingo, full 20.77 volts to the controller. I can only hope this was the culprit.

I plan to make a 6 foot extension for it so I can angle it in Winter, I will make sure the plugs on those are good too...

 

[MakersTeleMark]

Upgrading to a 3-way fridge.

Dan:

Spent 29 continuous hours installing your 3-way. Ripping out the old cabinetry, building a new one, plumbing propane and wiring, cutting the vent holes and installing and sealing the vents was a real chore. Needless to say, I had to make up for the delirium by napping heartily this weekend.

Spent 4 nights in the camper up on Indy Pass and the fridge worked flawlessly, both in DC mode while driving, and on propane mode while boondocking. It got really windy at times, and the flame never blew out. Maybe my venting and duct work solved the problems you were having with it.

Anyway, just wanted to pass on the news that your old fridge has found a new life for a long time to come. I have to say that the fridge is a real game-changer compared to the original icebox. Thanks, and happy travels.

Finally, my 85w panel provided more than enough power. Even with the 800w amp crankin' the tunes, the battery was still reading over 14 volts all throughout the trip.

 

[Kodachrome]

Awesome, I bet the vent and duct work would help out a ton with the flame blow out issue. Did you install the re-lighter?

Our fridge is great too. Once I figured out that our 100 watt panel was not even hooked up right, it all worked out great.

Cheers,

Dan

Upgrading to a 3-way fridge.

Dan:

Spent 29 continuous hours installing your 3-way. Ripping out the old cabinetry, building a new one, plumbing propane and wiring, cutting the vent holes and installing and sealing the vents was a real chore. Needless to say, I had to make up for the delirium by napping heartily this weekend.

Spent 4 nights in the camper up on Indy Pass and the fridge worked flawlessly, both in DC mode while driving, and on propane mode while boondocking. It got really windy at times, and the flame never blew out. Maybe my venting and duct work solved the problems you were having with it.

Anyway, just wanted to pass on the news that your old fridge has found a new life for a long time to come. I have to say that the fridge is a real game-changer compared to the original icebox. Thanks, and happy travels.

Finally, my 85w panel provided more than enough power. Even with the 800w amp crankin' the tunes, the battery was still reading over 14 volts all throughout the trip.

 

[Kodachrome]

So I took a bunch of pics, but since I can't post them here, I did a blog post on my Kodachrome site:

http://kodachromeproject.com/blog/

Love the fridge, new solar, so far so good!

 

[Jeff Wanamog]

Dan, I swear I have never seen pictures of the back of your rig. Great minds must think a like. (fuel can)

Jeff




So I took a bunch of pics, but since I can't post them here, I did a blog post on my Kodachrome site:

http://kodachromeproject.com/blog/

Love the fridge, new solar, so far so good!

 

[Kodachrome]

Dan, I swear I have never seen pictures of the back of your rig. Great minds must think a like. (fuel can)

Jeff


Lol....Jeff: BFG AT/KO's?