Hi guys, I have loved reading your articles and have picked up some good tips. Information I'm after is regardinga 240v fridge-freezer on boats. I am currently building a 50ft powercat – long, light and low-powered – in Australia, and want around 250 liters of fridge and 100 liters of freeze. I have had small 12v fridg- freezer in past boats and while they were great , the bigger setup seems to be a bit cost prohibitive. This boat won't be attached to shore power and I didn't really want to have a genset on board. I have seen high output alternators, great while moving but don't really want to have to run motors just to charge batteries if on the hook for a week. I do plan on having 4 X 100 watt panels to help things allong. Can domestic refrigeration be a viable alternative or should I stay with the way expensive 12v? Any advice would be appreciated
Based on our recent experience, if you don't want to be tied to a genset or a huge solar array, the best thing to do is use the Frigoboat type of system with evaporator plates and Danfoss compressor, with keel cooling. Cost and power efficient. You do need to build a well insulated box, if you want to keep the power consumption down. House systems are efficient on AC power - new models anyway - but the boxes themselves are very short on insulation. Regards – Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
