With solar panel prices falling to unbelievable levels the last 3 years its easy to be able to run a full size fridge now. What was once expensive is now cheap(er). So you might wonder why bother to build/modify anything....the answer is because you can, and using just whats needed and not being energy wasteful is still important to some, so with regard to that this is the start of a experiment....This upright frezzer was bought Saturday, from Princes auto..
This looked like a good candidate. small, roughly 8.5 cuft, and it has the coils on the back rather than as part of the skin of the cabinet so more insulation can be added. I think the specs were 328kwhrs a year or roughly .9 kwhrs a day when operating as a freezer.I know it takes roughly 45 watthrs per cuft to set up as a fridge (worst case) , so that has me thinking it would be at worst a .4kwhr a day fridge (400whrs). I think I can do even better with this one, I suspect under 300 watthrs a day. I will set my goal at 275whrs a day, just a WAG.So lets see how low we can go.....
got to stop..my pic's arnt coming through...file size to big...hmmm got to figure this out first
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Fast and easy way to fix photo size: open it through paint and change the size or resolution there.
Or, copy a thumbnail instead of using the full image.
On efficiency...
Chest freezers are a little better than uprights in many cases. Cold air falls. When you open the door, you lose less cold air and replace it with less warm/room air from a chest freezer than an upright.
One of our guys modified a couple of our freezers to run on a timer, like is used for watering, lights, that kind of thing. When it's not being opened much, even the power draw from the thermostat is unnecessary. Like a lot of electronics, the fridge and freezer are pulling power even when they're not actively running fans or coolant.
By setting it up to run 6-10 hours a day, spaced out through the day, and shutting off at a master switch, he cut that extra draw power. It's not an enormous savings on its own, just 5-10% depending on the original efficiency of the device, by it's something and might help you get over that little hump.
If you're interested, I can try to get him to explain it to me (again) and see if I can remember enough to get it to you (electronics and power are not my thing; I have math and number paralysis and electricity shut-down).
You can also save a tiny bit by raising the temp some.
There's a balance to be struck there, especially when adding room-temp items instead of cool or cold items (freezer sections, fridge pre-cool) and when using it in an on-off mode.
Still, most freezers stay set at 0*F/-18C. You can get away with raising that to single-digit or teens F, even when you're working with mostly just-cool or room temp items, and still handle running it for only 8-10 hours a day without ice cream getting gunky or crystallized.
It passes the water bottle test (freeze a half-filled bottle on its size, then stand it up on end; if it's melting, water will pool to the bottom and refreeze there).
If it's a freezer getting repeatedly opened for ice through the day, in addition to the "regular" use of poking in for ice cream and veggies and meat for a day or two from now, it has to be run more frequently or at colder temps.
That adds to the "fiddle" issues for figuring out the timers and temps, and whether you want to eat a little extra power through some seasons and just leave it at one setting all the time, or if you want to change it seasonally for use frequency and external temps.
Fast and easy way to fix photo size: open it through paint and change the size or resolution there.
Or, copy a thumbnail instead of using the full image.
Easy for you maybe, I need a bfh when working on computers, I will try that, but turkey dinner and chores are now eating up my time.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
well I was able to open the pics in paint, I think under the atributes tab, I cant seem to resize them...I will keep working on it. in the mean time I threw in 15 l of water and pluged it into the kw meter to see if it comes close to its energuide rating...I trust those energuide ratings about as much as a used car salesman....a couple things I have already found and dont like...I think this model has door gasket heaters, I can feel the heat at the door frame edge and my IR probe confirms the temp at the edge is 22c and the other external surfaces are 17-18 c with room temp being 19-20 c. So it looks like I will have to defeat the door heaters...and I dont understand this and I swear I was not drinking but when the door is closed the thing sounds like Darth Vader inhaleing for about 6 -7 seconds, and some type of suction is being generated as you cant open the door until this sound stops...I have no idea whats going on with that but it must take energy, and is annyoing as hell so I will have to do something about it. anyway sometime this afternoon I sould have a 24hr record of the energy used.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I ran the unit for 24hrs.....1.2kwhs. .89 kwhs is what it should have been, what a surprise a energuide label thats out by 25% 😮 there getting better! Well that my starting point. I did figure out that darth vadder sucking sound, it seems when I opened the door warm air rushed in and when I closed the door that air was cooled so fast it actually sucked the door tight and pulled in air past the door seal...interesting, I learn something new every day, and with out utube.
I have to add that I turned the temp setting to its lowest point, in fact a mm lower and it wouldnt turn on.....had I left it at the mid point I suspect it would have come in around 1.7 kwhrs or almost double its energuide ratting...inother words energuide rattings are somewhat relative with respect to each other but completely bs other wise.......though I once found a GE fridge bang on, and one model of a Danby freezer bang on....must have been by accident...but you all know that right? you have killowatt meters?...or are you those preppers that have badges instead? decoder rings? braclets? just seen killowatt meters for under 20 bucks....whats that two packs of smokes...no excuse...none
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Ok this is the control I bought today to mod my upright feezer into a fridge. Note no digital display...no buttons... no flashey lights, it does not take any power, will switch on true sign wave or mod sign no problem, will handle voltages greater than 240 vac though we only need 120 for a fridge....
pic didnt turn out good
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I wired up the control..drilled right through the side of the freezer to insert the bulb, a super easy install. I placed the water jugs back in and a dish with a little water in it on each shelf. I first had the control set a little cool and it froze the water on the dishes. bummped the temp up and I seem to be bouncing around the 2 C mark 1 c in places. I opened the door many times shooting the inside with my IR gun to check on things but its looking good, its only been 12 hrs but I have used .17kw in that time so x 2 would be340 watthrs a day...thats not bad so far and I havent even done any real mods yet like defeating the gasket heaters, adding insulation, adding internal doors...looking good so far.
bulb is the copper thing at the left side very back
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I just figured out resizing my pics and now I am getting a " board attachment limit has been exceded".
Anyway I stayed up late to see the result after 24 hrs, now I have opened this door maybe 15 to 20 times checking things during this test...so drum roll please.....290 watt hrs in 24hrs... inside temp 34 F, even better than it was looking at the 12 hr mark, as I think it used more power during the first part of the test to cool down the water jugs. I am surprised, its just a cheap made in China Dandy bought on price not performance. Now that I am getting a better idea of how its performing, I think I can get this down to a little above 200 watt hrs, maybe 200. somewhere in there, Thats damn good for a roughly 8.5 cuft upright
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
You have some good ideas there peppercorn. And refrigeration is a definite power draw on a grid. I'd like to see what kind of controller you are talking about so please post the pics. Is it a temperature control timer like this one? (less the digital aspect) http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/General-Household/Temperature-Control-Timer/8527921.p
Has anyone experimented with adding further insulation onto the sides and door to see the effects? You know, like 1 " styrofoam. Is it worth the effort? just asking cause you already have most of the setup and the curiosity to boot... maybe even just the sides as one could hide such mods with walls and yet the back breath still.
I enjoyed your thread and it's such as this I like to see when I come to a website. The proving or disproving a theory and an explanation shared with all as to one's conclusions. Your efforts in turn save many others having to rewalk your steps as you explain your results. They in turn can then even try another path and see if theirs is a better choice or not. It's sad that we have to improve upon something that a manufacturer should have perfected for us but it is great that we still try to improve such things anyways. Good job and i hope you do more of these!
~Knuckle~
No absolutley not that Princess auto one, it was surplus stock, havent seen them in a few years...cant post any pics knuckle...I put up two and now I just get "board limit exceded" or some such error...maybe I broke the board with my pic's 😆
Well I let that fridge run for another 10 hours while I slept and without me opening the door a couple dozen times it came in at 340 watthrs over 32 hrs, so thats a average of 10.6 watts perhr or would be .254 kwhrs a day. or as they rate fridges by the year that would be 92.1 kwhs a year, and I still havent done anything else to it yet....I am not easy to impress but I am by this unit so far...I then unpluged the fridge, I did open it a few times, to shoot the temp, and after 24hrs unplugged this thing is at 39 f on the top shelf 37 on the next shelf down, and 35/36 on the shelves below that...pretty damn good if you ask me for not having any power and only about 15 liters of water in it.. I am certain to hit 200 whrs a day when I do more.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Well I need to give a update on this as its been in service now for a few months and there is a unexpected issue...
first its been working great electricaly, been told its doing a little over 200 watthrs a day, and that's good for 8.5 cuft....but it seems that the second shelf down from the top, cools way faster than the others, I noticed it when I was testing it. This shelf cools so fast that the water in the air condenses on the shelf, over time little drops form and drop down onto the other shelves below,not a serious problem but annoying... I reread the manual and it looks like it was designed this way as that shelf is for fast freezing when used as a freezer...hmmmm....so if you do convert one read the manual it comes with you don't want that feature...anyway been asked to see what I can do with another, this time a Dandy 10 cuft fridge/ freezer combo..I love getting to experiment when others are buying....Not much interest by the looks of it, so I wont bore you with posts on it, just know you can improve most anything...all you have to do is try, and that's where the learning and fun begins.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
No, please keep posting.
ya, what he said
Yes keep posting please.