New Travel Trailer with Residential Refrig.

[bowhunt716]

We were out looking at some new travel trailers tonight and several had 10.7 cu residential refrigerators. I was hoping some of you could provide feedback as to how they like this set up while staying off the grid. We were told it would run 8-10 hrs on two batteries. They did not say what size of battery. Just peeked my interest as to what battery option would work best for this option. We normally run a generator during the day. Just wondered if there is a set up that would give you 12 hrs without running generator with minimal electric use from other devices.

[bobndot]

Captain Happy, They have been working well in TC's over the years.
That 1.5 amp is not all the time, it's on/off as needed . Now you are even more happy , Captain . :B

[rbpru]

My personal opinion is I would be hard put to go off grid with anything but a 2 way propane/electric refrigerator.

Even with a generator, battery power is at a premium off grid.

Good luck

[Captain_Happy]

Just something to think about.
I've got one of those big side by side 2 way RV refrigerators in my 15 year old 5th wheel I bought to put on my RV lot for a home base. Anyway, Yesterday the temp went up to the mid 40's, almost 50 degrees. So I figured the frig is on it's last leg. So off to Home Depot to find a residential unit to replace it with. But before I went off to the store I checked the 120 volt heating elements in the frig to make sure one of them hadn't burned out. No, thee both still good. Took an amp reading of the 2 elements, 1.56 amp total. So off to Home Depot I go, found one 10 cubic foot frig that would fit in the opening. Looked at the FLA amps on the spec tag, 1.55 amps. I really couldn't believe it.

Go up this morning, frig temps back down into the refer range. So I'm going to hold off a little longer until the temps here in southern Nevada get below 90 before I have to pull the old unit out. Fingers crossed.

[kerrlakeRoo]

It should, but it will depend more on the furnace than the fridge, since in cold enough temps the furnace could run continiously.
You likely could use two GC-2 batteries wired in series and have a more economical and durable solution.
2 wired in series would give from 205 too 225 Amp/hrs and as true Deep cycle batteries you can draw them down a little harder before you start damaging them.
Prices are not that bad either, Sams Club, Costco, or batteries + around $100 each.

[bowhunt716]

Thank you for all the answers so far. I was able to find some batteries with high amp hr capacities. I found one that had 187 amp hr capacity. I am thinking with 2 of those it should last all night running the refridgerator and also running the furnace off and on at night in the fall.

[mike77leprechau]

I just bought a trailer with one I was told 8-12 hours.

[westend]

Most 120V refrigerators have a yellow sticker that estimates the yearly energy use. You can divide that number by 365 to estimate daily electrical power consumption.

It's typical that a larger 120V fridge will consume 1 KW/day. That transposes to 80 amp hrs/day. Larger 12V batteries, two in parallel, will have 200+ AH of battery capacity. If you follow the mantra of only using half of the battery capacity (standard behavior), your fridge should run for at least 24 hrs on the two larger 12V batteries, along with the other typical 12V draws. If you decide to use two 6V golf cart batteries in series, you would have the same or a bit better capacity. The 6V batteries offer better durability, also, IMO.

[coolmom42]

Somewhere on the refrigerator there has to be a tag that tells amps at 120 V. Find that, and multiply that number by 10, because you will pulling from a 12V system. That will be the amp load on your batteries. Now that will be the MAXIMUM load that occurs only briefly when the compressor starts. Routine running is more likely to be 2-3 amps for a fridge that size.

Assume a 50% duty cycle, so the refrigerator is running 50% of the time. (It could be more in really hot weather or when you are opening the door a lot.) So every 24 hours your refrigerator will actually be running 12 hours.

Say it's normal load is 2.5 amps at 120V, it will pull 25 amps to get the same power from your 12V battery. At a 50% duty cycle, that is 25 amps x 12 hours/day = 300 amp-hours from your battery in 24 hours.

The best way to find out its true amp draw is to put a kill-a-watt meter on it, but start with an estimate.

[Merrykalia]

We have a large, LG residential French door in our fifth wheel. We have two batteries and our fridge will run for a little over 24 hours on the two batteries. I realize ours is different, but that may give you some hope.