Residential Fridges & solar

Froggy1936 · August 03, 2019, 05:38 PM

If the unit is running on propane the operating fire will not go out except when the control panel says no more refrigeration is needed ! So it will ignite the hydrogen ! if there is a leak . Frank

Rickf1985 · August 04, 2019, 11:10 AM

This is kind of true. Hydrogen is much lighter than air so it will rise quite quickly out the top and the flame is on the bottom so unless the leak is at the bottom you will not have a fire but again, even if you do the hydrogen will burn off in seconds and as long as there is nothing loose in there for it to set on fire then that will be the end of it. The propane pilot will just keep burning and maybe the main burner but that is all inside the burner tube. Most RV's from about 1990 on up have auto shut downs on the propane for excess flow both on the tank and also electrically. They can be a real nightmare to reset.

tmsnyder · August 05, 2019, 07:00 AM

Ammonia is in the absorption fridges, not hydrogen I believe.

Rickf1985 · August 05, 2019, 10:20 AM

The ammonia is the refrigerant and the hydrogen is the gas that isolates the system. I do not remember why it is that they used Hydrogen, they have moved to helium on newer units. I learned about absorption units waaaaay back when I was taking my refrigeration certs but we did not dwell on them since they were mostly used in the RV field and the far northern regions where there is no power grid. Neither of which pertained to us.

If you do a Google search for "Ford's refrigeration" you will find a lot of info on our refrigerators that debunks a lot of the myths that are spread out there.

ClydesdaleKevin · August 05, 2019, 07:24 PM

Quote from: tmsnyder on August 05, 2019, 07:00 AM
Ammonia is in the absorption fridges, not hydrogen I believe.

The ammonia is in liquid form, and then it is heated (either electrically or with flame) and it turns to gas and rises up in the coils. When it mixes with the hydrogen gas, it causes a super cooling effect. When it cools, it turns back to a liquid and drips back down in the reservoir at the bottom of the fridge. I imagine it works the same way with helium, but have never heard of that before until Rick mentioned it.

Kev

Froggy1936 · August 06, 2019, 05:17 PM

The first replacement cooling unit i bought , I paid an extra $100.00 for a non flammable gas , I don't know why they dont use such in all units . The units are so expensive now another $100.00 is not a big deal ! Compared to the fire danger ! Hm?

khantroll · August 26, 2019, 08:23 AM

One option is retrofitting an existing absorption fridge with a helium based cooling unit. There is at least one place here in Arkansas that does it, and that "amish" place carries retrofit units for many popular models. They cool better then the ammonia based ones.

Rickf1985 · August 26, 2019, 09:55 AM

They all use ammonia as the refrigerant, the gas is the only difference.

khantroll · August 30, 2019, 01:22 PM

I stand corrected

BamBam · August 31, 2019, 02:34 PM

Quote from: khantroll on August 26, 2019, 08:23 AM
One option is retrofitting an existing absorption fridge with a helium based cooling unit. There is at least one place here in Arkansas that does it, and that "amish" place carries retrofit units for many popular models. They cool better then the ammonia based ones.

Which this has nothing to do with what this topic was originally intended to be about!

Rickf1985 · August 31, 2019, 03:44 PM

So? I think everything that was going to be said has already been hashed out on that part of it. Does that mean we just completely stop posting on it/ Or do we continue to contribute bits and pieces. A lot of the information posted was inaccurate anyway. everyone reads it all and takes away from it what they want.

khantroll · September 26, 2019, 06:56 PM

Quote from: BamBam on August 31, 2019, 02:34 PM

Which this has nothing to do with what this topic was originally intended to be about!

While I do have a reply I'd like to use here, I'll just answer you with the information you requested:

I currently use a 110v, .75a 3.3 cubic food refrigerator in my RV. I do not currently have solar (though I did have a small amount of solar at one point). As my rig is being repaired right now, it is always plugged in. Before I parked the rig again, we kept the door shut while traveling.

If one wanted to run it off of solar, it's power consumption would be in the neighborhood of 680-700w of power per day after account for losses and start up spikes (and a little rounding). Assuming you were camping in my area, and you had perfect sun, you'd need roughly 250w of solar just to feed the refrigerator each day. This is based on the fact that we get about 3 hours of prime solar time per day. However, solar panel efficiency is affected by multiple variables, so you would mostly likely need more then that. [size=78%] [/size]