Running a fridge on the leisure battery

[tricky0897]

Hi all,

I've just upgraded my leisure battery to 200Ah.
My motorhome fridge freezer will only run on 12v when the engine is running and then draws power from the starter battery.
Is there a reasonably simple and inexpensive way to run it from the leisure battery or will I be easier / cheaper to run it on gas when I'm parked up with no EHU?

Thanks,
Richard

 

[funflair]

Unless you have masses of spare solar I would just stick with gas to be honest, on our last van I set it up to run from the solar AES signal from the Votronic regulator, it switched the fridge over via the D+ but still ran off the leisure batteries (just the way ours was wired) on this van I haven't bothered but can select 12v manually if I fancy.

 

[RedFrame]

Assuming it's an absorbtion unit, I found that it was possible to run the fridge on 12v off the leisure when the solar was able to produce 20A +, I set mine up with a timer so that it never ran for more than 4hrs, before returning to gas without intervention from me. It worked well when the sun was shining, I wouldn't recommend running it off 12v when static if you've not got the solar to support it.

Cheers
Red.

 

[tricky0897]

I've put 200w of solar up top but I also have a 2kw invertor for the heater, microwave and espresso machine (not exactly roughing it!)
Suspect gas may be the better option given the lack of sunlight in the north east of Scotland usually!
I'll stick with it this year and might rethink things next year.
thanks for the input!

 

[Landy Andy]

I think if you want to run a fridge via 12v then you would be better to swap away from a 3way fridge and go for a 12v compressor fridge. Much better power consumption.

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[Lenny HB]

We too have a Votronic regulator that tells the fridge to run on 12v when the batteries are charged. It does it it in ½ hour blocks so as not to overlaid the batteries.
Get a couple of hours a day of the fridge running on 12v.

Providing you have plenty of solar 300 - 400 Watts it will work for two or three hours a day, while you have full sun.

 

[autorouter]

A 12V compressor fridge uses about 30 to 40Ah per day, which is reasonable if you have 200W or more of solar panels. An AES fridge on 12V can draw 14A, and most of them don't have thermostatic control on the 12V element, so it will run 24/7. Over 24 hours that will use 14 x 24 = 336Ah, so not feasible to run off solar unless you have over 1000W of panels.

 

[Lenny HB]

An AES fridge on 12V can draw 14A, and most of them don't have thermostatic control on the 12V element, so it will run 24/7. Over 24 hours that will use 14 x 24 = 336Ah, so not feasible to run off solar unless you have over 1000W of panels.

I think most 3 way fridges from around 2005 I think Dometic 7000 series on have a thermostat our first van was 2008 that had one.

 

[Reallyretired]

I ran my 3 way fridge on solar for a few hours each day with just 200w of panels once the batteries were fully charged, by about 9am in mid Spain. Saved a bit of gas probably.