Thinking of turning fridge off for winter .....

[bluegreencanal]

I found it good to put things in cake tins in the bow and trust in mankind not to help themselves, and i would keep a simple clock with a thermometer outside if the weather was warming up too much I would make a decision on whether to put the fridge back on or just to buy 1 pint of milk and use it up quicker. A fridge is best at 5 degrees or below.

 

Thing I liked least about this one was going out for the milk for my first cup of tea in the dressing gown and bumping into dog walkers...like bones I just bought what I needed every day or two.

 

Read a really good post about helping to keep the fridge cooler by putting a small fan into the floor to make use of the cold air from the bilges, liked it a lot, but didnt quite get around to this one.

[Neil Corbett]

For milk, use Cravendale. Having the bacteria filtered out, it keeps a long time without going off even in warm weather. We've used it in a tent in the summer and I can't ever recall it going sour. Tastes nice too.

 

No I don't work for them, or anybody else.

[Leonie]

Turn the fridge off! I've never run one, summer or winter.

[Grace and Favour]

Keep the 'fridge on - - we have ours running summer and winter

[FadeToScarlet]

We turn ours off, and so don't have to run the genny ever, or the engine when moored. We just buy what we need- and waste very little food as a result.

[HappyBunny]

It has been really interesting and helpful to read all the replies

The fridge is off, it usually only contains a jar of hellmans with a smear in the bottom and a jar with six black olives in .....

I think I'm going to have to lift my floor to sort out the damage from a small but long term un-noticed water leak so might try my hand at some underfloor cool storage as my base plate is not easily accessible .... meanwhile the front deck is doing nicely for now ....

 

[Richard Famous]

Like a few others, I switch off the fridge and use the cupboard under the sink. Over winter it rarely gets above 5 degrees.

[Crabtree]

You'll find that if the cupboards are cool during the winter then the fridge won't be working as hard anyway, Locating the fridge backed up to a the cabin sides helps and top loaded fridges are super economical also.

[Phil Ambrose]

Keep the 'fridge on - - we have ours running summer and winter

Likewise also the freezer, both 12v and both full size under counter. Lived on a boat for 13 years and have always said "We may live on a boat but we aint camping"

And as for kitchen cupboards only being 5c whats that all about?, our boat is always cosy and I cannot understand why you would put up with all the hassle of pulling up floors, going outsde or whatever for milk.. I may be getting old but I'm afraid it is all beyond me.

 

Phil

[Captain Zim]

When we moved on we had a mooring and had a double height fridge freezer. Now we cc and try to live on solar as much as possible we can't run both. Instead I have a timer plug which turns the unit on for 20 mins twice a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. The top unit was the fridge. I prop the door slightly and now use this as a cupboard. The bottom freezer section is now the fridge. Hovers around 2 degrees instead of -18. I asked a fridge expert whether it would eventually ruin the compressor and he said it wouldn't make a difference. Overall power consumption has dropped to a seventh of the rated amount. And if it looks like its warming up you just flick it on for five minutes. Did it all last summer and no food poisoning yet.

[mrsmelly]

Always have the fridge on winter and summer always have always will. Life is far too short for warm beer whatever kind it is. And outside in the winter will freeze and ruin food and beer.

 

Tim

[Captain Zim]

Oh, I should've added that, had I realised the freezer would work as a fridge, I would have just bought a single freezer unit. Top loader even better as no air falls out when you open the door.

[Phil Ambrose]

Oh, I should've added that, had I realised the freezer would work as a fridge, I would have just bought a single freezer unit. Top loader even better as no air falls out when you open the door.

No what you should have done was buy a 12volt compressor fridge, assume you are running through a juice sucking invertor.

 

Phil

[sueb]

Or a gas fridge then you would have no problems :-)

[FadeToScarlet]

Or a gas fridge then you would have no problems :-)

...apart from where to get gas, and the faff of getting it every month or so rather than every 6 months.

[Captain Zim]

No what you should have done was buy a 12volt compressor fridge, assume you are running through a juice sucking invertor.

 

Phil

How much does a 12v compressor fridge cost then?

[Phil Ambrose]

How much does a 12v compressor fridge cost then?

Now there's the rub, again a question that will raise a storm. Yes they are more expensive but I have never seen the point of taking perfectly good 12v electricity and pass it through an inverter at a loss to produce 240v electricity, also if your inverter dies on you so does your fridge.

Living on a boat has taught me to have as much 12v kit as possible that way as long as you have batteries and an engine you are sorted. There are others that will disagree and by the same token there are an equal number who will agree with me.

 

Phil

[FadeToScarlet]

How much does a 12v compressor fridge cost then?

£400 if you buy a Shoreline type from Midland Chandlers on their 20% discount day.

 

Fairly expensive but with a decent amount of solar, completely self sufficient and no need to faff with gas.

[Captain Zim]

How much power does a shoreline use?

[onionbargee]

most of the old boatmen kept their stuff under the back counter as its naturally cool there

it's good all autum / winter, but not in the summer , the milk still goes off in there

[Phil Ambrose]

How much power does a shoreline use?

Power consumption of course varies from model to model, ours is a regular sized undercounter model, 100ltr capacity and if i recall correctly it averages out at about 1.4amps an hour. Shoreline have a website which gives power consumption figures along with dimensions etc etc of their range.

The reason why they are more expensive is because they buy in 240v fridges and rework them ie rip out all the 240v stuff and replace with 12v, they use Danfos compressors which are the bench mark ones to have. The obvious second reason for the higher cost is volume of sales, there is nothing like the demand for 12v fridges as opposed to 240v fridges.

 

Phil

[Phil Ambrose]

most of the old boatmen kept their stuff under the back counter as its naturally cool there

Worked quite well for a lot of the time but they did'nt have any option like wise we used to row across the Channel but now go by Sea Cat, the World and technology have moved on

 

Phil

[JDR]

Turn the fridge off! I've never run one, summer or winter.

 

I've only got two leisure batteries so I did the same.If the most efficient 12V fridge uses 1.4Amps thats 33.6Amp hours/ph over a day or 12264 Amp hours/ph I need to put back into the batteries over the course of a year. Being conservative and suggesting I need to generate power used +30% that is 16352 Ah/h to replace the energy used. That's probably double the power I use over the course of a year. I know this is worst case and friidges can be turned off at night and over winter but for me the sums didn't add up.

[mrsmelly]

How much power does a shoreline use?

 

Hi

 

I have had gas/12volt and mains fridges. By far the best option is gas. If going electric then its mains fridges through a good quality inverter. I have just sold a perfectly good 12 volt fridge and bought again a mains one. The consumption even through the inverter is only about 10 percent more than the 12 volt one was.

Get a bit of solar and that helps.

A good bit of advice from Phil although I totaly disagree with him re fridges is what he says about keeping leccy simple. 12 volt without inverter is definately the way to go if you can and then I wouldnt buy a mains fridge, but if I had inverter I would buy mains fridge

It is possible to live very comfortably on a boat without mains leccy.

 

Tim

[Phil Ambrose]

I've only got two leisure batteries so I did the same.If the most efficient 12V fridge uses 1.4Amps thats 33.6Amp hours/ph over a day or 12264 Amp hours/ph I need to put back into the batteries over the course of a year. Being conservative and suggesting I need to generate power used +30% that is 16352 Ah/h to replace the energy used. That's probably double the power I use over the course of a year. I know this is worst case and friidges can be turned off at night and over winter but for me the sums didn't add up.

Not wanting to get into a fight but as others have said in other threads on this topic, you need a better power arrangement, a more sensible bank size and a better charging regime. Have a few bells and whistles helps ie advance alternator control of some sort, a bit of solar, etc etc Of course live aboard use and casual use does influence your needs as does your location. If you live aboard and moor near shops not having a fridge is possible but if you live out in the sticks its not practical and a fridge then becomes a necessity.

 

Phil

Just seen Tim's post and heartily agree with his comments and my choice of going for as much 12v kit is purely a personal thing.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Phil Ambrose