CaneyJ

I've tried loads of options including plungers, wash bags and a twin tub and now I swear by this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Sports-Outdoors/Brunner-29691-Wonder-Wash/B0076U5VEM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497872492&sr=8-1&keywords=wonderwash followed by this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Knight-Spin-Dryer-28009B/dp/B01MZ8Q91F/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1497872503&sr=8-2&keywords=spin+dryer The wonderwash can be used in the sink or shower tray and just takes 2 minutes to tumble wash 2-3kg of clothing at a time and uses much less wash water than a twin tub for the same amount of clothes plus it's faster as it also adds water pressure to speed up the clean. A machine-assisted bucket washer usually takes 15 minutes and needs 20-30 Litres of water. This only uses 8-10 litres of hot water to do a 2-3kg load. The full-size spin dryer is filled up by a single wonder-wash load and spins faster and is more effective than the baby twin tubs. I do a quick 20 second spin before stopping it and pouring in a 2-Litre jug full of rinse water with a small bit of conditioner before finishing on a 3-minute spin dry. Acrylic and woolan clothing can be worn instantly. Cottons and polyester items can be hung on a rack in the shower area or on a line or by the fire for an hour or two and they will be dry with minimum power and water requried. The wonder washer can be stacked on top of the spin dryer on a square board to save space.

OK; I came across wrong when I said about closing it down. When the ash door is screwed down tight the fire will indeed go out so I guess there are no air leaks on the rope seals. I replaced my ash door seal only last week but that won't help my current wood burning issue. Maybe the ash door screw is just super sensitive. I'm mindful about adding too much fuel to the fire overnight but I guess this tends to not be enough as it is fully burnt down by the morning. Anyhow; my focus is on latent heat retention and whether this method would allow a couple of hours extra radiant heat in the morning or should I just line out the stoves interior with another layer or fire brick?

I have a 23ft narrowboat which comes with a Villager Heron 5Kw Multi-Fuel stove. I’m limited to mainly burning smokeless fuels to minimise the stove’s heat output since it only has lower airflow control, it tends to be a blast furnace when using wood. I’m yet to master keeping the stove going until the morning and it starts getting a bit chilly waking up in the mornings. If I bank the fire up before bed; even if I close it right down, the heat can get overwhelming. I used to live in a flat fitted with storage heaters which got me looking at trying out a crude form of thermal mass storage using clay bricks or concrete paving slabs laid up against the stove’s sides and back wall. Has anybody tried this method? I’ve heard of adding another thin layer of fire bricks inside the grate but I was more thinking the outside since the firebox is already quite small. Would insulating the stoves heat from the outside cause issues with the steel body? I have about 10cm of clearance all around the stove but also have a concern that the weight of bricks quickly adds up to being the at least the same weight again as the stove and could cause issues with the supporting hearth? I guess my main question is; would a dozen or so bricks on the stoves top and sides release the heat slower and store enough heat for a couple more hours of warmth in the mornings?

Definitely fake. The best affordable ones I've seen are these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-20A-MPPT-charge-controller-Tracer-2210A-20-Amp-EPSolar-/152238845429?hash=item2372246df5:g:30UAAOSwyjBW4D8xwhich are offered in 10A - 40Amps. Anything cheaper is a fake PWM.

I have the older Electrolux version off this which I can run from a 600W inverter. Very good suction and coming up to 10 years old now. I can use normal vacuum heads on the hose extension and have even abused it hoovering up stray stove ash. Just wash the cloth filter off once a month if under heavy use and is great, The motor driven brush is great for carpets and optimum for an area the size of a boat. https://www.amazon.co.uk/AEG-AG71a-RapidClean-Handheld-Cleaner/dp/B00F3U1R4A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462948220&sr=8-1&keywords=Stair+and+Car+Handheld

This looks to be better than the Kildwick Kraft 380; cheaper too but a little longer. http://www.simploo.co.uk/product/simploo-waterless-composting-toilet-compost-toilets-eco-loo/

Best budget MPPT you can get at the moment is this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-40A-MPPT-charge-controller-Tracer-4210A-40-Amp-MT-50-Visual-display-Unit-/152042779821?hash=item236674b4ad:g:YRsAAOSwFMZWsGKG Is of the Tracer brand of MPPT controllers but compared to their main model of controller, this cheaper vesions only difference is that it's maximum panel open voltage rating is lower but is still 100V instead of the 150 Voc rating found on their main line converter found here: http://www.bimblesolar.com/offgrid/mppt/Tracer4215BN Tracer are a proven brand for the budget conscious but 40-Amps is their maximum for these types.

Ok seriously people need to stop mentioning LiPos. They are great for maximum power to weight ratio in small electronics but they will blow up when abused. The Lithium battery that should be talked about here is LITHIUM IRON PHOSPHATE [LiFePO4] It has a slightly lower power to weight but will not violently explode. Here's an example video on a LiFe cell and what happens when you abuse one: Plenty of videos showing a comparison of LiPo cells exploding as a comparison. Bare in mind lead-acid batteries can also explode. As for the Twizy argument, that again uses a third lithium technology called Lithium-Ion which can be charged at sub-zero temperatures. LiFePO4 is the battery to use in our situation but it can't be charged at sub-zero.

I wanted to design a small LIFEPO4 system that is as basic and cost-effective as possible. Whilst it’s still theoretical, it should work and I will try to break it down based from what I’ve taken from the articles wafflings. To start with; my boat is small and for leisure use only. I’ve calculated I just need a 90AH ‘Balanced’ Dumb LIFEPO4 pack [about £490]. This is about equivalent to a 135-150AH lead-acid battery [when used very conservatively in its 15%<->90% power band] and can power constant 1KW sustained loads such as a Microwave and small hair dryer. The pre-built packs I’ve linked to before are ‘pre-balanced’. In theory; if you don’t over-charge or discharge a LIFEPO4 pack you don’t need a BMS [internal control electronics] which makes the system a lot easier to manage. BMS PCB’s can fail and the ones I’ve looked at cannot handle high charge and discharge currents beyond 90-Amps constant. The first part of my planned setup is a standard arrangement of having the alternator connected to a starter battery with a VSR connecting the starter battery’s positive to the service batteries. My system simply uses 2x voltage monitors which each control a high-amp ‘normally-open’ 12V relay. One controls the incoming charge current from the VSR and cuts it when the voltage monitor reads a pack voltage of over 14.1V and requires a manual reset. The other relay goes on the master load output cable and cuts the load output when the pack goes below 12.6V and re-enables load when pack voltage recovers through charging to 12.8V+. Keep a pack within that voltage range [12.6V-14.1V] and you should be gravy. Bare-in-mind there is no voltage sag with LIFEP04 so straight-up voltage monitoring is easier. An Amp-Hour counter is also good due to the flat charge curves allow you can simply add more-or-less what you took out. A fully charged LIFEPO4 pack tops out at 14.4V but if one of the 12V packs 4 cells is out of balance a long way [+0.3V] and hits 14.7V, that cell will eventually die. Keeping the pack at 14.1V [which is still at a 90-95% complete charge] keeps all unbalanced cells below that critical 14.4V mark. In the same way, taking cells below 12.2V is even worse and will kill them within an hour if left that way. Cutting a load draw when at 12.6V is around 10-15% of a packs final capacity and allows for lower balanced cells to not drop too low. A BMS allows a pack to have a wider range being able to go down to 5% capacity [12.2V] to 100% [14.4V with a charge set to 14.6V] If float voltage can’t be avoided; it should be at 13.2V and for no more than 2-3 hours.

I’ve looking into the logistics of retrofitting lithium batteries and they are viable. The ones to go for are the LIFEPO4 variant as they are non-reactive and almost as safe as lead acid. Major advantages of lithium for us are greatly reduced charging times as it’s basically a flat charge curve with next to no Peukert effect so if you take 50AH out you can put back 50AH in an hour with a 50A charger with hardly any current taper. They can also handle massive sustained current so you could even run fan heaters, electric cookers, microwaves, washing machines etc. [assuming you have a good inverter] without damaging them. You could even use them in a multi-function setup to crank start you engine no problem. Another big advantage is energy density needing less physical space to mount them. Weight saving is a non-issue for narrowboats so this advantage is a non-issue. One major thing to consider is you cannot charge them in sub-zero temperatures so they need them to be inside the boat and the stove needs to have warmed the boat up to keep them warm before any charging takes place. They don’t gas so are safe like AGM. The batteries also don’t like being fully charged or discharged below 20%. They are best stored in a state of partial charge from 20-80% but are safe to leave in that state and don’t discharge. They also don’t like being held at float voltage as they will overcharge so you need a way of cutting the voltage and that can be complicated with solar setups. They are also difficult to measure the state of charge as they basically hold their voltage at 12.8V until they suddenly drop and if you are not quick you can over-discharge. Some good reading can be found here with relation to boats. http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/lifepo4_on_boats And here’s a good place to buy LIFEPO4 packs http://www.ev-power.eu/Winston-40Ah-200Ah/

Which is why I specified the Tracer with the MT-50 input controller. It allows seperate adjustable absorption, equalize & float ratings between 9V to 17V in 0.1V increments using a custom charge profile. It also allows adjustable timing on how long it remains in absorption phase from 10-mins up to 3 hours. I'm guessing with deep cycle you need to be 7+ hours before float? There is no shut-off once it reaches float but that is usually when you shut-off the generator anyway or simply set the float to 13.2V for Trojans to leave in storage.

Ok; my crude understanding was that a solar charge controller was basically a DC-DC step-down converter with a multi-stage output behaving like a charger that just so happens to run on a wide-VDC input. The Tracer-A manual says that so long as the input voltage is +2V above the battery charging voltage it should work. In the case of charging traction batteries in cold weather, that means it needs a bare minimum of 18-19V. The manual for the controller also shows efficiency curves that show whilst an MPPT can take higher voltage; like a PWM; its peak efficiency is actually best at lower input voltages closer to the battery which makes sense as the less-extreme a DC-DC conversion, the more efficient it is though there is only a tiny % efficiency difference between 17V and 68V input. I know that the higher voltages are great for long cable runs and that you can use the cheaper high-voltage 250W house panels over the expensive 100-Watt 18V caravan ones. Indeed some MPPT controllers can only operate up to 50V VoC max like the EcoWorthy 20-Amp controller. Switching power supplies can also be bought cheaply in the 600-Watt ratings which have 36V & 48V outputs should there be a need to supply a 24V battery bank. I’ve seen controllers that are rated upto 100-Amps. If they are supplied with enough watts input, how are they gentler on the batteries when supplying the initial full bulk charge?

I currently have a CTEK M200 15-Amp marine-charger hooked up to a pair of sealed 85-Amp batteries in parallel. I want to upgrade these to a pair of Trojan T105 batteries as well as installing around 400-Watts of solar panels. The current CTEK shoreline charger cannot charge these future Trojans to a decent voltage nor do proper equalisation so it will also need replacing. I’ve done some research and I’m looking at getting one of the newer [and cheaper] MPPT solar chargers, the Tracer A-series rated to 100VoC. Complete with an external MT-50 digital controller; the 30-Amp version only costs £127. I was also eying up a Victron Bluepower IP22 30-Amp mains charger but then had an alternative thought. Why not combine the two devices to work as one by providing an alternative AC-DC converted source and feed it as an alternative DC-Input into the MPPT controller via a 3-way isolator switch to swap between either the solar input or a generator’s input in winter? A 600-Watt rated 24V switching AC-DC power supply can be had for quite cheap. An example on the amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/AC110V-DC24V-Switch-Supply-Driver/dp/B019RNKV5E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456146216&sr=8-1&keywords=600w+24v+power+supply is only around £34. Switching power supplies usually aren’t too picky about the quality of the AC input so it can be run from a basic 700-Watt rated generator like the Honda EX1000 or smaller Screwfix Impaxx 800. This would cut down on wall-mounting two devices as space is limited and will only require connecting the switching supply via an Anderson plug only when needed and save on costs as the Tracer charger offers much more in terms of custom charge times and voltage adjustment than most budget shoreline chargers. The specs state that the MPPT controller can handle panel ratings up to 390-Watts so I assume there is a point where there is current limitation of some sort so it shouldn’t overload a 24V, 600W supply? 1-2 hours of basic bulk charging will be done first by the engine’s 65-Amp alternator by which point; the input current will have dropped to around the 30-Amp mark and the MPPT charger can then be left take over. This setup should turn-out to be cheaper, have less cabling and be more compact having only the MPPT unit being permanently wall-mounted. Thoughts?

Victron do a budget Charger the Bluepower IP22 which can do 30-Amps, charge to 14.7V on high setting and offers 15+V on a re-condition charge mode and only £160. Can get it with single or triple outputs. Don't know what it's power factor is or it's startup surge if any so don't know if 650-Watts AC is enough. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VICTRON-BLUE-POWER-12-VOLT-IP22-BATTERY-CHARGER-15-20-30-A-1-FREE-EU-Delivery-/301578475523?var=&hash=item46377a5803:m:mqjC6cH21BcYPcEKfYD4JjA

The maximum output of the B2B Charger is 30-Amps and the alternative input AC-DC switching power supply I suggested was rated at 33-Amps but they also offer 500-watt and 600-Watt (50A) versions for not much extra cash and there must be a cutoff on the maximum input. I'm more interested in top-end multi-stage voltage output than raw amps in the first hour of charging or I'd get a volt-sebsitive relay.

My current boat is small in size and currently has a small starter battery fed from a Beta 28 engine driving a 65-Amp alternator. It manually splits to a pair of 85AH leisure batteries in parallel via a rotary selector switch. The leisure batteries are also charged via a CTEK 15-Amp mains charger when on shore power and there is also a 600-Watt Pure sine Inverter drawing off them occasionally. I've been considering adding 200 to 300 watts of solar along the entire top of the roof feeding a 15-Amp MPPT controller. I've also been looking at updating the charging system as well since the volts my alternator puts out is vairable between 13.9V to 14.2V and not giving the batteries a complete engine charge. The current leisure set are also getting a bit old so I want to upgrade to a pair of T105 trojans which need 14.8 Volts to get to full charge. Whilst looking at updating the DC systems and looking at Sterling kit, I also happened upon this item linked below: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ring-DC-Solar-Battery-Charger-30A-Split-Charge-System-Leisure-Batteries-RSCDC30-/231684355262?hash=item35f176b4be:g:xVsAAOSwFnFV8oBi Instead of using a seperate AC charger, instead I was thinking of using a 400-Watt switched AC-12VDC [slight output variable] power supply. Since it's only 400-Watts; this can be driven from a small and crude generator like an EX650 but also give enough for the full 30-Amp multi-stage charge. The slight variation on the output allows it to put out upto 13.9V which is enough to activate the Battery-to-battery charger. It could be connected into the same input terminals as the alternator cables and end in a 50-Amp anderson plug which is then connected to the AC supply and generator when required. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC12V-400W-33A-Switching-Power-Supply-115V-230V-to-Stepper-Motor-3D-Printer-CNC-/121684006529?hash=item1c54ee9681:g:Mj4AAOSw~gRVjj1W It seems to allow adjustable voltage outputs with the mention of it's default output being 14.8V and also integrates an MPPT solar controller. This means I can get a decent setup for around £200 and cut down on the number of components. Would this idea be viable? Here's a wring diagram of the concept below

Pete-Power talks about the EX7 being one of Honda's poorer generators having a weak engine that is unserviceable with regards to changing critical components like piston rings & cylinder liners unlike something like the bulletproof EX650 or EX1000. http://www.petepower.co.uk/choosing-generators.html In that regard; I'd rate the EX7 as being no better than the Kipor IG770 but for my money; I'd look at the Screwfix Impaxx IM800I. Just bare in mind none of these smaller items are for heavy-duty use so bare that in mind.

Whilst I agree what the B40 would probably draw high amps using its 12V Peltier [which would unlikely have any form of thermostat control]; I think it would draw a lot less than 84-Amps a day using its AC compressor and an Inverter. The only reason the B40 has a 12V peltier is to just maintain the fridges temperature for a short time whilst it is sat inside a motorhome or caravan when driving between home [where is will be connected to the mains to bring it down to temperature initially] and its destination camp site which would most likely have a hook-up. It’s not designed to run 24/7 on the peltier alone. Its cabinet is too large compared to the tiny 48-Watt peltier plate which is meant to run little 5-Litre coke can fridges and nothing more. My 32L equivalently sized LEC freezer has a sticker that specs the compressor to 60-Watts but I’ve found this to be a conservative estimate and measured it to actually be running at 52-Watts average. The insulation on the B40 is of a similar thickness to my counter-top freezer [minus the lid which would explain why it’s only rated as a 3-Star -15°C freezer]. Your calculations of 7-Amps an hour I assume is based on an Inverter with a 12V conversion efficiency of 80%? Let’s assume the compressor does indeed run at 65-Watts. A conversion to 12V at 80% is 6.5Amps. I assume the slack is made up with an Inverter standby of 0.5Amp per hour to get 7A? Your calculation of 84-Amps assumes the Fridge would need to be running for 30-mins or 50% of an hour for 24-Hours? Even the worst fridges don’t run this often on its compressor or it would burn out. Here is a closer estimate on running a B40 when set at 5°C. Based off my 32L LEC freezer as it has a similar cabinet size and insulation grade; I reckon it would only run for 12-minutes every hour in perhaps 2x 6-minute compressor cycles. I also think the conservative figure on the compressor puts it closer to an actual running wattage of 58-Watts. At a 20% Inverter conversion loss; this would draw 70-Watts or 5.8Amps at the battery. At 12-Mins an hour, that means 5.8[Amps] / 5[th of an hour] = 1.16AH. That puts the B40 fridges consumption at a more realistic demand of 28-Amps per day [+ 12AH Inverter Idle]. The inverter idle however can be solved by using a temperature controlled relay to switch the inverter on and off with fridge demand so 28-Amps is all you’re going to draw [+ cable losses?]. The same principle could be applied to a better suited domestic freezer to run as a fridge only costing £100. There is no reason to use a Waeco B40 on a boat. Dedicated Freezers are often designed to run in out-buildings and garages with similar conditions to unoccupied boats. The added benefit here is that even with a worst case consumption of 30-35 Amps per day running an AC freezer [as a fridge]; the combined outlay for an 80L freezer and Inverter can be just £250 whilst a Waeco CR80 costs over double that.

Since the digital thermostat controller is only about £8 I can’t see any reason why you can’t give it a go. I believe they are more accurate and will give tighter control and savings than a standard manual thermo-phial thermostat, despite drawing power themselves. This is of course based on using a basic fridge without using fancy indicator LED’s, digital readouts, anti-frost circulation fans and de-frost heaters. Sometimes for the sake of efficacy; simpler is the better way to go. There’s a problem simply sticking insulation around modern fridges and freezers. I’ve noticed a trend with newer small to medium models in that they seem to be mounting their coils internally [to protect them?]. These modern condenser coils will most likely be setup in a box or cage-like arrangement and there will almost certainly already be a fan present to stir the air inside this cabinet’s coil cavity when the fridge is running. The system relies on the excess heat radiating out from the cabinets metal skin. If you stick insulation over the top, you are actually trapping the heat inside the cabinet and I bet you would actually reduce efficiency by trapping the heat inside. That is why in my case, it’s better to start with a freezer cabinet to start with and leave it alone so the heat can radiate away from the metal skin. At any rate; it just looks cleaner that way and by not having to modify it, means you can sell it later. If you really think it will help in the case of a fridge with internal coils; your best bet is to run your fridge for a while and feel around the cabinet to find its warm surface. Insulate all but that face and leave that exposed to allow it to vent its heat. If the hot face is on the bottom, it will probably be most effective to suspend the fridge a bit higher to allow an air gap underneath [bricks?].

I only cited the B40 Hybrid fridge as a cheaper alternative to the CF-50 as it's a third of the price and just over half the price still even when you factor in a cheap quasi inverter and relay switch setup. It's also a similar size but you lose 15L of capacity due to it's thicker insulation. I personally would always try to get the smallest fridge you need so it works less to cool a smaller volume. Personally; if you have the cabin space, I would go with the 60L Curry's chest freezer but I think you would get annoyed using a chest freezer bending down to get things in and out and there's also the issue of moisture building up in the bottom running it as a fridge. The savings are not as great as you might think unless you open the door a couple of times every hour. Most normal freezers have 3 trays that retain the cold air separately even when you open the door. I own a CF-50 and can say that the insulation is appalling. The sides are around an inch and the lid has none at all but there is a reason for that. The Waeco chest fridges are designed to be lugged in and out of cars. They are popular for outbacking in Australia where they drive a lot to keep the fridge topped up and have better solar panel performance so optimum power efficiency isn't as important. For the sake of portability the insulation has to be thin. Compared to the B40, the CF-50 is easy to carry about and weighs just 18kg as opposed to the B40's 25kg weight which is a bit beastly. I've noted that in Warmer weather, when my Waeco's in-built digital thermostat is set at 5ºC; it's running about twice every hour and probably is on for about ¼ of every hour. I ran it off a 12V AC adapter and logged that when running, it uses about 55-Watts and peaks at about 100-Watts when starting. Waeco themselves quote in their specs that a CF-50 uses 0.7Amps every hour but mine uses more like 1-Amp every hour and that's when it's only set at 5 degrees. Their more traditional upright 12V fridges [CR Range] are heavier but still have poor insulation and use double the Amps again compared to their CF chest fridge range. Shoreline are better but you pay the price but you get better cabinets. If you have the monies; get a shoreline 12V freezer and run it as a fridge. Compare photos of the CF-50 and the B40 and you can clearly see that the B40 has thicker insulation [looks about double – 2 inch] as when running on mains using it's traditional AC compressor; it's specs say it can operate as a -15ºC freezer whilst this is downplayed with the Waeco CF range though they can go down that low, they run almost constantly. It is also 7kg heavier but not too portable. I believe their intended use for it was for it to be never taken out of the boot of the car. Unfortunately, I don't know much about how many Watts a B40 uses in AC mode but I wouldn't even consider running it in 12V. You might as well use a Gas Fridge on 12V efficiency wise. Might be worth e-mailing Waeco.

Will run it easily. There is a vid on Youtube of your generator running an old Dyson. Those old Dysons are a lot more inefficient using twice the power of your new low-power Henry.

The watt-meter is nothing special. This sort is all over eBay and Amazon under different brands. The part number on mine is EMS-UK. Here is something similar http://www.amazon.co.uk/Energenie-ENER007-Power-Meter/dp/B003ELLGDC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443040050&sr=8-1&keywords=watt+meter I also took pics of the running watts and maximum recorded watts in 24-hours. I'm not sure about how often the meter samples per second but it had done around 25 compressor cycles over 24-hours so I'm pretty sure it captured this particular fridges peak-watt startup. Anything faster and higher than this figure within this <second band would probably be caught by the Inverters much higher but millisecond rated surge rating.

Whatever watts your compressor is at when running; times that at least by ten for the peak compressor start load to size-up an Inverter. In my case however, the peak load was over 13 times the actual running watts [52W] though the label on the back rated the freezer at 60 watts which is closer to that x10 Ratio considering the peak start-up measured in at 659W. I’m pretty confident of the peak-watt figure. Though my efergy watt-meter doesn’t have a very quick reading resolution, it was on for a whole day logging multiple freezer starts so I’m pretty sure it captured the max watt load. As a comparison; I tried it on my large fridge-freezer at home. That draws around 120-130 Watts when running but took 1.3KW to start it so the fridge size and wattage needed is generally proportional. For a modern under-counter fridge I would say that an 700-800W Inverter is the minimum requirement. In response to Bro; what 12V fridge do you have? The easiest, quickest and cheapest improvement would be to use the external insulation and fan method mentioned by ditchcrawler. I would add that if your 12V fridge is a few years old, your Danfoss compressor might also need a re-gas. You could also make sure your evaporation coils are clean & free of dust. I would still run it off an external digital thermostat controller and use it to switch the fridges 12V feed on and off [as well as any external DC fans so they don’t waste power running 100% of the time] as old manual fridge thermostats are fickle to say the least. Here is a list of items required to set-up an efficient AC system using any common inverter · <£100 - Currys Essentials 60L Chest Freezer [as an example!] You could buy any freezer but if you can fit a chest-type in your boat, it is better for efficiency. This model for example uses 153Kwh and based on my results above, should drop consumption running as a fridge by about a factor of 3.2 so should only require 48KwH in a year running at 4°C. This breaks down into 132-watts [or 11AH] daily. Bump this figure up to around 13-14AH per day based off of an 80% efficient Inverter. · £113 – Sterling Pro Power Q [quasi-sinewave] 12V Inverter [uK based company support with a reasonable brand image compared to a unknown Chinese suppliers] – This should run most things including small power tools except induction items like cordless rechargeable electric toothbrushes. · £21 – Durite 120-Amp heavy-duty relay [P/N: 0-727-18] - This isn’t needed if you can rewire the on-off toggle switch of the inverter itself directly to the digital temperature controller. Otherwise; this gets installed in-line to the Inverters positive DC power input cable. The Inverter’s toggle switch must be left in it’s on position. The secondary terminals on this heavy-duty relay are controlled by the digital temperature controller [or via a bypass switch when operating other items]. · £8 – MH1210A 12V Powered Digital Temperature Controller [relay] · £4 - REUK 0.8Amp 12V voltage regulator [this is needed so that the digital temperature controller isn’t fried when your leisure batteries are being charged at 15V+ on a cold day] · £2 - Torpedo [temperature controller bypass] switch = £2 or……. a remote control 12V relay = £18] With this setup, the unmodified domestic freezer is simply plugged into the inverter. The total cost for this system is around £250 which is half that of your average new 12V fridge but this includes both an easily replaceable domestic freezer [fridge] which itself doesn’t need to be physically modified and you gain the benefit of an inverter on-board for some extra luxuries. Re-housing your old 12V compressor would cost about the same as this setup but keeping it as a fridge in a fridge-style cabinet would use more power. Just look at the Amp-hour figures quoted by Shoreline and Waeco on their fridges.

Based on cutting the consumption to a third [45KwH]of the LEC freezers original [146KwH] and that the fridge equivlant of the LEC uses around 106kwh; putting a danfoss in a freezer box should cut its current consumption by at least half of whatever it was before. Rehousing it whilst more costely would at least be more attractive than encasing it in ugly celotex and duck-tape which was my original idea for my Waeco CF-50.

I guess people miss the point that you don't need to spend £400+ on a top class AC fridge or a rubbish insulated 12v fridge when a £8 mod to a £50-£100 bargain basement freezer yields better results. Remember that an A+++ fridge still isn't worth it if your 3000W+ bells and whistles inverter sucks 20-30Amps a day on its own. If you don't have a fancy low-draw inverter that's why I can up with the other option of using a heavy duty relay in conmbo to switch on and off the inverter on demand instead.