A Win Win Situation

Although smaller than the previous units, the new freezer and fridge are very energy efficient.

     It's been a little less than a week since the new refrigerator and freezer have been put into service, and the preliminary data on battery usage is exceeding my expectations.  The old units were energy hogs.  On a typical day, they would consume 400+ amp (12VDC) hours between charges while we were on the hook.  To recover those hours we would run the diesel generator to create 120VAC power to operate the 12VDC chargers.  Charging the batteries each day while on the hook would take 6 hours.  The problem with the old units is that they were 110VAC that were powered by 12VDC batteries through an innverter.  It takes 10 amps of 12VDC power to produce 1 amp of 120VAC power.  The old freezer ran 24/7 and the old fridge ran 16/7, but between the two, consumed on average 2.5 amps of 120VAC per hour or 25 amps of 12VDC power. So, recovering 425 amps hours became an expensive proposition when diesel fuel is in the $3.59+ range.

     Now, the new units, which are dual electric (12VDC & 120VAC) and being operated on 12VDC power, consume less than 50 amp hours overnight.   The old units would consume 200 amp hours (12VDC) in the same time frame.  Since the units have been installed we have been moving the boat everyday and the batteries have been charged by a dedicated alternator on the engine.  Today,  Big Run is staying on the hook and not running the generator to charge the batteries.  We can also operate the TV or watch a DVD without placing a large deficit on the 12VDC amp hours.  Also, something that was not notably beneficial with the old units was our wind generator.  The wind generator could not keep up with the energy consumption.  We could not see the benefits of the wind generator, although it was producing power.  Today, when the new freezer and fridge are temperature satisfied and in the standby mode, we can actually see that the wind generator is charging the batteries.  This has turned into a win win situation.