Charging compressor fridge at night

[alecturn1]

Have recently changed vans and now have a compressor type fridge so gas is not an option when there is no ehu.
My fridge will be charged by Solar during the day but at night is it possible to run the van off a power station plugged into the ehu mains plug on outside of van ? Or is that not advisable

 

[David M]

A fridge with stuff in uses less then an empty fridge….

Once cold, yes. But it takes longer (and more power) to cool down a fridgeful of food than a fridgeful of air?

 

[Richard n Ann]

I turned our fridge up 2 degrees once last year overnight, helps a lot. That's all night mode is anyway

 

[oldiesontour]

I only partly agree. A Delta 2 is readily available for circa £600-650 and gives you a decent mains inverter capable of coping with surges up to 1800 W and you can add portable solar. I was lucky enough to spot an Ebay sale giving me a lightly used Delta 2 for £400 and bought a pristine supposedly reconditioned 160 W panel for £135. I have zero installation costs. That set up would have cost me over £1,000 to achieve the same objective as a permanent install on the van. True I have to store the Delta 2. That might be a problem for some but not for me. Horses for courses!

The killer for a fixed system. Is Instal cost,I have 640ah lithium m 440w on roof 200w folding,50a B2B 2000w inverter bt shunt and batteries with heaters 100a mains charger self install under £1500.A comparable install to a power pack and 200w solar I guess would be around the same price plus labour

 

[Pausim]

We have found if you turn it to coldest setting for an hour before bed everything stays cold and frozen switching it completely off throughout the night- worth a go with your fridge as a trial because the other Massive Benefit is there is no noise with it switching on and off in the night which wakes us up. Probably would not work so well in much hotter countries eg Spain or Italy though !

Our compressor fridge is much quieter than we expected and doesn’t disturb either of us at night, we don’t even bother with the night mode.

Once cold, yes. But it takes longer (and more power) to cool down a fridgeful of food than a fridgeful of air?

We load up the fridge with cold food and if it does need a bit of extra cooling this happens when we are driving. To test how much power the fridge will use overnight between solar charges will be best done with cold food in it.

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[Bobby-gg]

That should not be necessary except in a vehicle with the smallest leisure battery set up. I've converted a number of VWs and always fitted twin leisure batteries, AGM types in those day, and not had problems with continuous use. Those were always fitted with 65litre Waeco fridges.

It was my old petrol T25 with only the single 50ah leisure battery under the passenger seat, and pre solar, hence switching it off over 3 day festivals to make it last!

Once I'd converted to diesel, with twin leisure batteries and solar, it was fine

 

[rod_vw]

What I’ve done is I’ve been out to the van and switched fridge on gonna monitor it.

If it's empty then you are testing it in the worst case scenario plus the fact that you have switched it on whilst it was at ambient temperature. Had you been going away in the camper the driving time (alternator charging the leisure system) would have cooled the fridge before relying on the leisure battery to hold it cold.

 

[rod_vw]

It was my old petrol T25 with only the single 50ah leisure battery under the passenger seat, and pre solar, hence switching it off over 3 day festivals to make it last!

Once I'd converted to diesel, with twin leisure batteries and solar, it was fine

Yep, been there done that. Those were the days when you had to think much more about the way you did things. We left the Type 25 world back in 1993 when we changed to a T4 albeit with a three way fridge. Since 2006 ours have all been compressor type.

 

[alecturn1]

So tried the fridge on the drive.
Switched it on mid morning (set dial halfway)yesterday the battery was at 13.1v
Into the afternoon,a little bit of sun it went up to 13.5 and fridge was cold inside.switched it off at 10.45 pm last night battery was reading 12.4.
Went to it this morning fridge still felt cold still,switched back on.
I think I could set it a bit lower maybe a quarter of the way

 

[CAB96]

Are you going to try the powerpack as well? Can you run the lead out of a window with a EHU plug adapter?

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[alecturn1]

Yes I will do that as well.

 

[TonyW56]

Yes I can try it on my drive.
Although my original post was asking about using a powerstation to power the van.Didn’t want to plug it in and damage something

I use a powerstation by running the EHU lead in through the passenger door and conneted with a 3 pin adapter. The door does not compress the cable too much when shut and the whole thing works a treat.

 

[Orion]

So tried the fridge on the drive.
Switched it on mid morning (set dial halfway)yesterday the battery was at 13.1v
Into the afternoon,a little bit of sun it went up to 13.5 and fridge was cold inside.switched it off at 10.45 pm last night battery was reading 12.4.
Went to it this morning fridge still felt cold still,switched back on.
I think I could set it a bit lower maybe a quarter of the way

Will you try leaving the fridge switched on overnight and take a battery reading before and after?

 

[fishplug]

Do you have a freezer?

When my battery bank was undersized I used to pop some of those cooler blocks into the freezer during the day when the solar was putting power into the system, then take them out and pop them in the fridge overnight.

This not only kept everything cold all night but had the added advantage of reducing the number of times the compressor would kick in...

 

[David M]

I use a powerstation by running the EHU lead in through the passenger door and conneted with a 3 pin adapter. The door does not compress the cable too much when shut and the whole thing works a treat.

I can see that that would work, and (since I’m thinking of getting a powerstation) am thinking of doing the same. I’m wondering though: does the powerstation not spend a chunk of its energy on charging up the leisure and vehicle batteries, as an ordinary hook-up would do?

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[Pausim]

I can see that that would work, and (since I’m thinking of getting a powerstation) am thinking of doing the same. I’m wondering though: does the powerstation not spend a chunk of its energy on charging up the leisure and vehicle batteries, as an ordinary hook-up would do?

Yes but it is not a very efficient way of charging the other batteries because the power is being inverted to AC and then turned back to DC before it reaches the batteries. I have done it when in storage and it works reasonably well but it would be more efficient to use the power pack to run the fridge or whatever more directly.

 

[Happy Jack]

Have recently changed vans and now have a compressor type fridge so gas is not an option when there is no ehu.
My fridge will be charged by Solar during the day but at night is it possible to run the van off a power station plugged into the ehu mains plug on outside of van ? Or is that not advisable

Methinks gas is not an option even when there is EHU.
What other power usage have you got, what size batteries do you have, how much solar, what power does your fridge consume.
Answer those questions and you will get some good advice.

 

[David M]

Yes but it is not a very efficient way of charging the other batteries because the power is being inverted to AC and then turned back to DC before it reaches the batteries. I have done it when in storage and it works reasonably well but it would be more efficient to use the power pack to run the fridge or whatever more directly.

Yes, I understand the inefficiency of charging leisure and vehicle batteries that way … but I wouldn't want to be charging those batteries. My point was about whether connecting to a powerstation (eg in a layby, to run the coffee machine) was ineffective, since too much of the available power might be redirected to charging the mh’s batteries. (I can force the fridge and heating to “gas”, but I can’t turn off the chargers.)

 

[gus-lopez]

Yes, I understand the inefficiency of charging leisure and vehicle batteries that way … but I wouldn't want to be charging those batteries. My point was about whether connecting to a powerstation (eg in a layby, to run the coffee machine) was ineffective, since too much of the available power might be redirected to charging the mh’s batteries. (I can force the fridge and heating to “gas”, but I can’t turn off the chargers.)

just plug the coffee maker directly in to the power bank?

 

[helzie2020]

We always turn our compressor fridge to quiet mode overnight. It’s quieter and uses less power but our main reason for doing so is that it helps to prevent items which are touching the back wall of the fridge from freezing.

I don’t know if all compressor fridges have the same issue but the back of our Dometic is colder than the front near the door: if we adjust the temperature control so the back wall doesn’t freeze, the front is too warm. Anyway, quiet mode helps with that.

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[David M]

just plug the coffee maker directly in to the power bank?

Yes, looks like that’s the best answer, thanks. (It's not as simple as it sounds, as I spent a while ensuring that the coffee machine cabling is nicely hidden …)