Running fridge from leisure battery (1 Viewer)

[Mags52]

Hi All, We're getting a solar panel fitted shortly and intend to tour the Western Isles for a month in June. Last time we camped without hookup we found our gas ran down in a few days using it for fridge and cooking. We're travelling with friends in a car with tents so we don't intend to drive every day. Is it possible (and advisable) to run the fridge from the leisure battery to save gas? At the moment it seems to run from the vehicle battery as it only works when the engine is running.
If it's possible to change it over how is it done?
Thanks
Mags

 

[Snowbird]

Sorry but you are looking for the holly grail with that one. Even with a roof full of solar am afraid you would not be able to run a fridge on 12 volt for very long. Get a bigger gas bottle is the answer.

 

[scotjimland]

Possible .. yes.. advisable No .. even with a solar panel, the fridge will kill a 85ah battery overnight..

why you ask.. the 12v element is not on a thermostat , so runs all the time.. and as it draws roughly 9amps. x 24 hrs =

as per Dave's reply.. get a bigger gas bottle or take two

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[Mags52]

Thanks folks. I rather feared that would be the case but hope springs eternal. We're on Gaslow but only have one bottle. Maybe this is the year to bite the bullet and have a second one fitted.

 

[scotjimland]

Thanks folks. I rather feared that would be the case but hope springs eternal. We're on Gaslow but only have one bottle. Maybe this is the year to bite the bullet and have a second one fitted.

if you have space, why not fit a Calor bottle along side the Gaslow.. ?

best of both worlds.. and Calor is a easier to find than Autogas in remote areas

 

[Mags52]

if you have space, why not fit a Calor bottle along side the Gaslow.. ?

best of both worlds.. and Calor is a easier to find than Autogas in remote areas

I don't think I would do that Jim as it defeats the purpose of having the Gaslow fitted in the first place. We're two women of a certain age and lifting bottles had become difficult.

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[scotjimland]

I don't think I would do that Jim as it defeats the purpose of having the Gaslow fitted in the first place. We're two women of a certain age and lifting bottles had become difficult.

I understand..

but I'm sure you could find a strong gentleman when you need to exchange..

unless you visit our local sub Post Office where we have the most unhelpful sod you could find ,..

 

[JeanLuc]

That seems quite a lot of gas usage. Admittedly we have 2 x 11 kg Gaslow bottles, but in the summer we use at most, one full bottle in a fortnight. We rarely, if ever, hook up to mains and even in mainland Europe with temperatures in the high 20s - low 30s with the fridge running flat out to keep cool (on gas) our we have not used more than one bottle in two weeks. Also, most of the time we use aires, or often wild camp in Scotland so run gas for water heating to shower and wash-up etc. Might some of your gas appliances need checking for correct combustion perhaps?

 

[Wildman]

Hi Mags the other alternative is a fixed gas tank of a decent size. Ours will last for at least a month in the summer with fridge on 24/7 we never bother to change over to 12v when driving.

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[maz]

Hi All, We're getting a solar panel fitted shortly and intend to tour the Western Isles for a month in June. Last time we camped without hookup we found our gas ran down in a few days using it for fridge and cooking.

As others have said, forget about powering the fridge from the leisure batteries. Like JeanLuc, I'm off hook-up a lot of the time in summer and my usage is similar to his. Maybe it's the cooking that's using the bulk of the gas? Good excuse to eat out.

 

[pappajohn]

just a thought but the gas thermostat may be faulty and the fridge is running all the time

 

[Terry]

just a thought but the gas thermostat may be faulty and the fridge is running all the time

The gas is lit all the time when on gas :thumb: The little gas flame that lot's refer to as a pilot light is IT no bigger burners to light and go on and off simply the small gas jet is enough to keep fridge going all the time.It does not even go on and off automaticaly simply stays lit
terry

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[scotjimland]

The gas is lit all the time when on gas :thumb: The little gas flame that lot's refer to as a pilot light is IT no bigger burners to light and go on and off simply the small gas jet is enough to keep fridge going all the time.It does not even go on and off automaticaly simply stays lit
terry

That's true Terry.. the temperature is determined by the flame size, which is determined by the setting on the dial..

but not true if you have a large fridge such as the Norocold that was fitted to my RV ..

it has a thermostat with an electronic igniter, the gas is ignited and extinguished as required to maintain the temperature.. It has no pilot light.

 

[Mags52]

A 6kg bottle is only a little more than half the size of 11kg so that might explain the fact that we can use a tank in a week when using it for everything. I don't know why the fitters didn't put an 11kg in when we asked for one bottle - I'm assuming it's because there wasn't room.
Will investigate further with a local dealer.
Thanks all.
:thumb:

 

[Spidermonkey]

Would agree with jeanluc - our 6kg gas bottle lasts us nearly 3 weeks using it for cooking, fridge and showering.:Nowink:

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[oldun]

The 12V electric power is not thermostaically controlled, at least it wassn't on my htree way fridge.

Get a 12v compressor fridge if you must use 12V.

 

[Stephen & Jeannie]

if you have space, why not fit a Calor bottle along side the Gaslow.. ?

best of both worlds.. and Calor is a easier to find than[HI] Autogas in remote areas[/HI]

Available in Stornoway !!!:thumb::thumb::thumb:

 

[scotjimland]

The 12V electric power is not thermostaically controlled, at least it wassn't on my htree way fridge.
.

as I mentioned..

the 12v element is not on a thermostat so runs all the time.

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[Minxy]

Have you thought about not using the cooker so much and doing more BBQ'ing instead, either using charcoal or a disposable canister type BBQ? You could also get a gas canister type hob too, again to use outside and minimise your on-board gas usage.

We have one of these for BBQ'ing:

Link Removed

Link Removed

And one of these (different make) for cooking:

.

 

[knokinonabit]

Tried running my fridge off the leisure batteries after reading this thread.
It definately won't let me. Even with the engine off, if I manually select 12 volt, or let it select 12 volt by itself, it works off the vehicle battery.
Checked it by watching the voltage drain on the display panel.
The solar panel didn't get anywhere near keeping the battery topped up.

 

[Hayleylulu]

Well why do some vans only have 240 volt and 12 volt

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[cmcardle75]

Well why do some vans only have 240 volt and 12 volt

If you mean why do some (very few) vans not have a gas installation? It is because they are intended for EHU use only and reduce purchase and servicing costs by not having an expensive gas system.

 

[scotjimland]

Well why do some vans only have 240 volt and 12 volt

because they ran out of LPG ....

 

[Sidney]

18 grammes per hour

That's the figures for a typical under cabinet fridge running on LPG.

So that's 55 hours use from 1kg of gas.

Thereby 7kg butane would last 388 hours (16 days) & 6kg of propane would last 333 hours (13 days)


Are you sure the bottle was full?

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[Sidney]

It must be said I don't know much about how refrigerators work on gas. The 18 grammes p/h figure came from the Dometic catalogue.

I'd have thought that if gas consumption is based upon thermostat setting that a fridge running on butane would use less gas per hour than one running on propane due to it's higher burning temperature :Blush:

 

[oldun]

as I mentioned..

A very good post - keep up the good work!

You are going to have your work cut out remonstarting against every poster who repeat information in previous posts.

 

[Snowbird]

Ooops again

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[SUGGY]

You could turn the fridge off at night then turn it on when you get up , you should not loose a lot of the cold as you are not opening the door ... :thumb:

 

[Mags52]

18 grammes per hour

That's the figures for a typical under cabinet fridge running on LPG.

So that's 55 hours use from 1kg of gas.

Thereby 7kg butane would last 388 hours (16 days) & 6kg of propane would last 333 hours (13 days)


Are you sure the bottle was full?

Last year in France, before we stopped using hook up we'd only boiled the kettle a few times on gas from full. We then were without hook up for 7 days and by the end the bottle was empty. We ran the water heating for a while each day and also used the cooker so it isn't all down to the fridge. Some mornings we had the heating on for an hour or so. It was not a problem in France where there are plenty of LPG stations but this year we intend to travel through the Outer Hebrides and there are no LPG stations in the Uists or Benbecula. it could well be pretty cold too if the wind gets up so we'll need to use the heating.
We'll definitely have the gas system checked but we have had the MH regularly serviced. I think we need to get a second bottle.
Thanks for all the discussion and problem solving. :thumb:

 

[sedge]

Well I'm glad of this thread anyway Mags because we seem to use a lot more gas than most people report doing on here (although it's never left us in dire straits) and I have to say Pete's often wondered if there's summat not quite right somewhere.

However, thinking of the answers on this thread I'm now wondering if I'm too wasteful of gas as far as the stove is concerned. Neither of us are great fans of the BBQ - fun occasionally when there's a lot of you but not otherwise - so absolutely everything is cooked on the cooker. And we eat in usually as we tend to go places that are a bit 'quieter'.

For instance I'll do exactly the same in the van as I do in the house - stick the spuds on and they've boiled over cos I didn't go and check and turn em down cos I'm eg on this or that forum or have my head in a book/TV prog or am doing a crossword. Slightly cremate the chops one side under the grill ... etc etc - even though I'm only 3ft away, in the van. And scarcely ever have internet and we don't have a TV. I can't stand, standing over stuff waiting for it - OK if it's labour intensive like frying an egg or making a sauce with a roux because you HAVE to - but if it can be left, I most certainly leave it. And he has to scour the burnt off the pans ...... again. Fortunately we are both great believers in solid-bottomed stainless steel pans !

School reports all those years ago spring to mind - if Jennifer spent less time doing blah blah and more time on her studies, she'd get better results .......

Incidentally we could get 2 x large Gaslow bottles in our locker and that was The Plan. Except the door isn't wide enough to get em in - so we had to have 2 x 6kg bottles .....

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