Apartment fridge install

[Sabatical]

IMO you could go to 2, or even 1 with no harm done.

Unless you've precisely calculated based on mfg specs for thatbatt.

It's been a while and honestly i don't remember the calculation. It involved a call to Trojan and i believe i planned to start high and adjust down if needed based on specific gravity. SG has always been 1.275 (temp adjusted) so i've left it be.

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[John61CT]

Wow, nice to see such precision

 

[wayne49]

RV fridge (electric/propane) locations always have exterior ventilation. Burning propane requires it. There is a vented door low on the exterior wall and a roof mounted covered vent up above.

I installed an apt. fridge when the original Dometic unit crapped out. Fit right into the same space with more capacity.

 

[John61CT]

With compressor units active ventilation helps efficiency. Let the heat build up at all they start to run much longer, can shut down completely.

Plus who wants an inside heater in the summer, passive vents often just not enough.

 

[Sabatical]

I hear you guys on the ventilation. When i get to the part of the install where i insulate, vent, and anchor, i'll absoluetly keep that in mind.

Got about 16 other projects going on right now too.

You may have to check back in a few months for the finished part.

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[Sabatical]

This evening i checked specific gravity. 1.225. No bueno! Voltmeter reads 12.8 resting. Amp hour meter reads 222 out of 225. Not sure what's up. SOC reads 100%.

It spent all day in bulk which was my cue that something's wrong. I dropped the rebulk voltage back to 0.1. I don't think that could be the issue but it was a recent change i made.

I won't be able to check it again til sunday morning due to a work shift. I'll likely spend sunday babysitting it.

My gut says the fridge drew enough during the day that the batteries got limited charging for several days. The head scratcher is why the voltmeter looks good and the soc meter reads full.

I am 3 years into my "practice set" of batteries. We'll get em back in shape though! Other than the occasional goof up they are really lightly used.

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[John61CT]

Bottom line is every day you need to put in more than you take out.

If the fridge is consuming most of the charge source, have to increase that solar, maybe also carry a little gennie, or turn off the fridge to get the bank fully charged.

 

[SternWake]

Man....we could sure use SW's expertise in the math department right now...but I'm not sure he's talking to us anymore...





Sternwake, HDR, John61CT, IGBT, GotSmart, jimindenver, anybody? 

Help out please....

(crickets).....

:-/

First off, My STFU coment was not made toward sabatical, He was not making any claims without any data as to power consumption without having measured anything or collected any data. I wish his residential fridge project well.

I am however, done contributing. 

 The fact that my whole post was deleted when just the 'emotional'  the STFU portion could have been eliminated, shows me just how much I am wasting my time  on this forum trying to relate my experience and knowledge on the many things  I actually have a lot of experience with, and an active interest in. I am insulted and highly irritated, downright angry, and have absolutely no desire to type anything again on this forum.  

I've removed my bookmarks to this site, from laptop and phone, and mostly came back here to let Sabatical know my stfu was not aimed at him, and to say I am done. 

Keep in mind who you actually take advice from on this forum. Some have excellent research skills and can parrot things they've read very well, and act as authorities with  opinions are shouted as facts, but in reality they have Absolutely NO practical experience and can easily steer people the wrong way with that lack of experience of actually living off of 12vDC.





Best wishes to you all, 
well most of you.

Will this post disappear too?

Probably, and that's why I am done.

Sabatical, 12.8v resting and 1.225 specific gravity means you need an Equalization charge. as your batteries are sulfated.  They are sulfated because they are not getting fully charged every day, despite what your battery monitor is claiming. Your battery monitor needs to be reset/rezeroed after the equalization, and from here on out do not rely 100% on its accuracy.  Hold absorption voltage until Specific gravity maxes out.  If Absorption voltage cant do it, then 16.2 volts at 77f will, eventually.

Over and out.

 

[Cammalu]

Another great one bites the dust. Really sorry to see Sternwake go.

 

[Sabatical]

Thanks for the words of advice SW.

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[Ballenxj]

First off, My STFU coment was not made toward sabatical, He was not making any claims without any data as to power consumption without having measured anything or collected any data. I wish his residential fridge project well.

I am however, done contributing. 
<-------->
Sabatical, 12.8v resting and 1.225 specific gravity means you need an Equalization charge. as your batteries are sulfated.  They are sulfated because they are not getting fully charged every day, despite what your battery monitor is claiming. Your battery monitor needs to be reset/rezeroed after the equalization, and from here on out do not rely 100% on its accuracy.  Hold absorption voltage until Specific gravity maxes out.  If Absorption voltage cant do it, then 16.2 volts at 77f will, eventually.

Over and out.

DANG! Another huge void in the forum.

 

[Cammalu]

Bardo I wish you'd quit trying to make trouble. Even I understood what happened with the system overload. The dorm fridge was old and defective. I was there btw.

 

[Ballenxj]

This has been what I've tried to explain to the "experts" why it's not a good idea to use MPPT controllers and high voltage panels for years. It's only giving a full charge in bulk, when it goes into absorb you're only getting a marginal amount of amps because, as the manual even states, the absorb mode completely turns off the MPPT and the panel just outputs its nominal IMP. been there done that years ago.
<-------->
honestly all this good data you've posted will end up simply falling on def ears and prove to be a waste of time. That's why you have the resident self-proclaimed expert who cant run a 50a daily load without destroying 400A of batteries with 400w of solar....yet here you are with half that

Huh? What? I have been following this thread with great interest, and found it quite useful for my application.
As far as the internet bickering goes, I will stick with SGT Schultz immortal words, I know nothink!

 

[John61CT]

I am however, done contributing.

I really hope you can somehow be persuaded to change your mind, that would be a huge blow to those of us learning from your most excellent posts, as you say based on real-life hands-on rather than from notes collected from research.

To Bob:

Please see what can be done to change SW's mind, his leaving would be a HUGE blow to the value of your site.

Maybe the mod doesn't need to be made to eat crow in public, but IMO whatever it takes!

 

[akrvbob]

There is no one I respect more than Sternwake, and there is no one who I celebrate as a member of this forum more than I appreciate him. His contribution over the years is immense.  It's not hyperbole to say it's incalculable! He has made hundreds (maybe thousands) of peoples lives better by the selfless and generous gift of his time and knowledge. He has spent hundreds of hours pounding away at a keyboard as a loving gift to others. And I will forever be grateful for that.

However, this forum doesn't exist to educate about solar or electrical, or beds or toilets or any other aspect of being a nomad. All of those things are very important, but they only have value here as they contribute to the main, and only goal of this forum:

This forum exists to offer, help, compassion, and community to other human beings. EVERYTHING else is just an aspect of that. 

Batteries are very important in this forum, but only because they help improve the life of another human being.

The problem is, if you post a very helpful post on any topic, but it in the post you attack another member, you have taken what should have been a generous gift and turned it into an obnoxious attack. Telling someone else to STFU is an attack that will never be tolerated here by anyone at any time.

In this forum, because human beings are placed at the top of the pyramid and everything else is secondary, the attack on others overrides all the other good things in the post.

We can survive without the information, but we can not survive attacks on each other.

Then the accusation is made that we should have just edited out that line and left the rest in. That's not going to happen for these reasons:

1. None of the moderators have the time to be editing all your posts. 
2. I think it is much more insulting to you to edit your material than to just delete it.

We're all grown ups here, if you don't act like one, your post just simply gets deleted.

The solution is very, very simple, don't attack or insult people in your posts!!!!! If you can do that, it's extremely UNLIKELY any of your posts will ever be deleted.

If you can't stop yourself from attacking or insulting other people, it is very very LIKELY that your posts will be deleted. And no member gets a pass on this rule, no matter how beloved or helpful.

The choice is yours and not mine to make. You will have to live with your choices and I will live with mine.

 

[akrvbob]

Let's stay on topic.

Any off-topic posts will be deleted.

As always, you are welcome to start a new thread on this topic.

 

[Sabatical]

After getting home this morning i found some solid chargng going on! The cc was bouncing between bulk and absorb, but i noticed the 1 week light was lit. As you might assume, that means 1 wk since a full charge.
With SternWakes input we know that the sg is low due to sulfation from a weeks worth of partial charge days even though the soc meter and ah counter disagree. If this were an agm setup i would be flying blind and could easily kill the batteries in this situation. SG readings allowed me to catch this in time (i hope).

Sun will be limited today so i bumped it up to EQ. I'll take specific gravity readings at the end of the day. I probably broke a cardinal rule by not waiting til the end of absorb.

At this point common sense and some good advice by those taking part has shown me that 260w of solar with 225ah of battery is not gonna cut it given limited sun exposure. It might be a different story if the camper were not parked next on the edge of forest.

Stay tuned though. It aint over yet.

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[John61CT]

The cc was bouncing between bulk and absorb

Is that from active loads running?

If possible remove those, get yourself to known full state ASAP, then work from there.

 

[Sabatical]

Is that from active loads running?

If possible remove those, get yourself to known full state ASAP, then work from there.

No active loads. Voltage fluctuations due to cloud movement. It's that kind of day...cloud, sun, cloud, sun.

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[Sabatical]

All six cells now read 1.277 temp adjusted specific gravity.


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