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Post by GO30 on Jun 21, 2024 14:33:33 GMT 12
We have brass monkeys everywhere. 1 is powered by a R930 solar system. 2 are powered by solar array in rural and the other is powered by Ducati when not running on it's own battery. Many see the top boxes on the back of bikes and think clothes, helmets, etc. My top box is a steady 4 degrees and carries beers. Note I did have to do some welding on it to secure it to said Duc. Runs for 8-9hrs on a battery charge, as soon as I flash up the Italian V it takes power from the Duc and recharges the battery at the same time.
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Post by fish on Jun 21, 2024 20:23:06 GMT 12
We have brass monkeys everywhere. 1 is powered by a R930 solar system. 2 are powered by solar array in rural and the other is powered by Ducati when not running on it's own battery. Many see the top boxes on the back of bikes and think clothes, helmets, etc. My top box is a steady 4 degrees and carries beers. Note I did have to do some welding on it to secure it to said Duc. Runs for 8-9hrs on a battery charge, as soon as I flash up the Italian V it takes power from the Duc and recharges the battery at the same time. Good to know. How do they go as freezers? don't suppose you have any power usage numbers?
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Post by GO30 on Jun 22, 2024 9:55:27 GMT 12
Good to know. How do they go as freezers? don't suppose you have any power usage numbers? Sussing showed no difference between similar sized brass monkey and ..bugger mind blank, the usual top end name manufacturer of these sorts of things, not Engel and I think they have been rebranded Dometic recentlyish. Mine tend to run at 3-4 degrees at which they use little once down to temp and kept out of the sun. We ran a 40l one off the power generated by a lighting coil in an outboard. Just as a indiction as to why I often see you lot yabbering away about power and think 'WTF are you lot running that needs so much generation?', we ran the entire boat off that lighting coil and one 40w solar panel. Fridge, lights, radio, stereo, nav, the lot and for a couple of weeks at a time. We noticed one running a lot in the boat, put a towel over it to put it in shade not direct sun, huge difference. I have a 60l in rural as my back up/on the move bevvy fridge. I'll see if I can drop something into track consumption. There are a fast growing plethora of data loggers these days so there's bound to be a easy clip in out there somewhere. I'm using a few in spots and they are damn handy, even down to watching the temp of my washes to suss where the fermentation is at. Damn handy things.
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Post by fish on Jun 22, 2024 10:45:59 GMT 12
Good to know. How do they go as freezers? don't suppose you have any power usage numbers? Sussing showed no difference between similar sized brass monkey and ..bugger mind blank, the usual top end name manufacturer of these sorts of things, not Engel and I think they have been rebranded Dometic recentlyish. Mine tend to run at 3-4 degrees at which they use little once down to temp and kept out of the sun. We ran a 40l one off the power generated by a lighting coil in an outboard. Just as a indiction as to why I often see you lot yabbering away about power and think 'WTF are you lot running that needs so much generation?', we ran the entire boat off that lighting coil and one 40w solar panel. Fridge, lights, radio, stereo, nav, the lot and for a couple of weeks at a time. We noticed one running a lot in the boat, put a towel over it to put it in shade not direct sun, huge difference. I have a 60l in rural as my back up/on the move bevvy fridge. I'll see if I can drop something into track consumption. There are a fast growing plethora of data loggers these days so there's bound to be a easy clip in out there somewhere. I'm using a few in spots and they are damn handy, even down to watching the temp of my washes to suss where the fermentation is at. Damn handy things. I had a good suss of the Dometic ones and can't really tell the difference of those from the Brass Monkey ones. Thickness of insulation, current draw numbers etc all appear to be the same. But price is about $1k different. The engel is obviously different, a proper lid, far thicker insulation and of course the fancy sawafuji pump. I went down to the boat yesterday and had a good suss of my current set up and phoned Fridgetech while I was down there. My freezer appears to have 90mm insulation and I can't see anything wrong with it, fridge between 40 or 50 mm. My setup currently runs a mechanical thermostat which limits its ability to accurately control temperature. It measure the evap plate temp, not the compartment temp which confused me. Even when turning the unit on to pull down the temp, the compressor was cycling off an on instead of just working consistently. Anyway, I can fix that with a digital thermostat from Fridgetech for $175, or it appears I can do a DIY one for about $35, then I can set the compartment setpoint to -18 deg and know the compressor will run till it gets there. The upshot of all of that is that I should be able to run a freezer easily with a simple upgrade, and if I want a fridge as well on the other icebox I'm talking a simple $1,100 DIY compressor and plate install. And the best news is based on my freezer size and insulation thickness, the estimate is 1.5A/ hr or maybe 36 Ah / day. Plus maybe 12 or 18 Ah/day for the fridge. I can cover that kind of load with a modest solar panel, maybe 50w, and not need a 200w array. And I can put a 50w panel in many more places than a 200w array. I love how getting the scope right can solve the problem.
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Post by GO30 on Jun 23, 2024 9:37:05 GMT 12
My Wa reminded me when I was sussing for another 40-50lt lectric fridge for boating I was another 'I want it all and to run it all using 2amps per day' (no point setting a half arsed target) I ran our older bugger, what was their name who I think is now branded Dometic, thru my consumption checking devoice to see exactly what it uses. They run German made compressors so should be pretty good. Testing showed if I allow 24amps consumption per day we'd be fine unless it was in the sun,the kids were in and out a lot of we turned it off to save power*.
On deciding on the new Brass Monkey I went with the 60lt as it has the same running gear as the 40 and 50lt (note I was an early adaptor and I do see signs Bad Monkeys are in a continual improvement program have changed a noticeable amount), I ran that thru my testing process to get pretty much the same out come. So we work on consumption being 1 amp per hour, or more 25 per day as they do use more in day time than night time.
* - we tried a few on and off for periods to see if it saves power as some suggests. All that did was increase 'food life span anxiety',a need to remember to turn on and off at specific times not good when in cruise mode and all for a barely measurable saving. Like most fridges when they are warm they work hard and slurp as they do so we found it far easier and just as power wise to turn on and leave on.
My testing did show the consumption numbers published are pretty good but when used in best conditions, if you hammer the fridge i.e. a decent bevvy session, they will increase possibly by quite a bit.
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Post by em on Jun 23, 2024 9:53:16 GMT 12
Sussing showed no difference between similar sized brass monkey and ..bugger mind blank, the usual top end name manufacturer of these sorts of things, not Engel and I think they have been rebranded Dometic recentlyish. Mine tend to run at 3-4 degrees at which they use little once down to temp and kept out of the sun. We ran a 40l one off the power generated by a lighting coil in an outboard. Just as a indiction as to why I often see you lot yabbering away about power and think 'WTF are you lot running that needs so much generation?', we ran the entire boat off that lighting coil and one 40w solar panel. Fridge, lights, radio, stereo, nav, the lot and for a couple of weeks at a time. We noticed one running a lot in the boat, put a towel over it to put it in shade not direct sun, huge difference. I have a 60l in rural as my back up/on the move bevvy fridge. I'll see if I can drop something into track consumption. There are a fast growing plethora of data loggers these days so there's bound to be a easy clip in out there somewhere. I'm using a few in spots and they are damn handy, even down to watching the temp of my washes to suss where the fermentation is at. Damn handy things. I had a good suss of the Dometic ones and can't really tell the difference of those from the Brass Monkey ones. Thickness of insulation, current draw numbers etc all appear to be the same. But price is about $1k different. The engel is obviously different, a proper lid, far thicker insulation and of course the fancy sawafuji pump. I went down to the boat yesterday and had a good suss of my current set up and phoned Fridgetech while I was down there. My freezer appears to have 90mm insulation and I can't see anything wrong with it, fridge between 40 or 50 mm. My setup currently runs a mechanical thermostat which limits its ability to accurately control temperature. It measure the evap plate temp, not the compartment temp which confused me. Even when turning the unit on to pull down the temp, the compressor was cycling off an on instead of just working consistently. Anyway, I can fix that with a digital thermostat from Fridgetech for $175, or it appears I can do a DIY one for about $35, then I can set the compartment setpoint to -18 deg and know the compressor will run till it gets there. The upshot of all of that is that I should be able to run a freezer easily with a simple upgrade, and if I want a fridge as well on the other icebox I'm talking a simple $1,100 DIY compressor and plate install. And the best news is based on my freezer size and insulation thickness, the estimate is 1.5A/ hr or maybe 36 Ah / day. Plus maybe 12 or 18 Ah/day for the fridge. I can cover that kind of load with a modest solar panel, maybe 50w, and not need a 200w array. And I can put a 50w panel in many more places than a 200w array. I love how getting the scope right can solve the problem. Dunno what compressor you have but I got a smart energy control from fridge tech for our freezer compressor which is an isotherm/danfoss DIY kit from fridge tech . The SEC just plugged into the exisiting control unit spade terminals then you plug all the cables back into the SEC . It’s basically a new brain for your compressor and senses when there is more/less power on hand and controls compressor speed accordingly . have noticed a big difference overnight with consumption and it’s quieter too .
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Post by GO30 on Jun 23, 2024 10:00:23 GMT 12
Hmmm...now I can log in most of the time again but I write a post to find I've been logged out very quickly. So log in, write, copy, log in again, paste and post. But it's a little random on when it does that as well.
No idea what this niggle is but it is an arse. I'm coming to the conclusion it's something to do with 1 of 2 gizmos in my security suite. It is serious stuff and recently had a large core update.
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Post by fish on Jun 23, 2024 10:29:30 GMT 12
I had a good suss of the Dometic ones and can't really tell the difference of those from the Brass Monkey ones. Thickness of insulation, current draw numbers etc all appear to be the same. But price is about $1k different. The engel is obviously different, a proper lid, far thicker insulation and of course the fancy sawafuji pump. I went down to the boat yesterday and had a good suss of my current set up and phoned Fridgetech while I was down there. My freezer appears to have 90mm insulation and I can't see anything wrong with it, fridge between 40 or 50 mm. My setup currently runs a mechanical thermostat which limits its ability to accurately control temperature. It measure the evap plate temp, not the compartment temp which confused me. Even when turning the unit on to pull down the temp, the compressor was cycling off an on instead of just working consistently. Anyway, I can fix that with a digital thermostat from Fridgetech for $175, or it appears I can do a DIY one for about $35, then I can set the compartment setpoint to -18 deg and know the compressor will run till it gets there. The upshot of all of that is that I should be able to run a freezer easily with a simple upgrade, and if I want a fridge as well on the other icebox I'm talking a simple $1,100 DIY compressor and plate install. And the best news is based on my freezer size and insulation thickness, the estimate is 1.5A/ hr or maybe 36 Ah / day. Plus maybe 12 or 18 Ah/day for the fridge. I can cover that kind of load with a modest solar panel, maybe 50w, and not need a 200w array. And I can put a 50w panel in many more places than a 200w array. I love how getting the scope right can solve the problem. Dunno what compressor you have but I got a smart energy control from fridge tech for our freezer compressor which is an isotherm/danfoss DIY kit from fridge tech . The SEC just plugged into the exisiting control unit spade terminals then you plug all the cables back into the SEC . It’s basically a new brain for your compressor and senses when there is more/less power on hand and controls compressor speed accordingly . have noticed a big difference overnight with consumption and it’s quieter too . That is what I was looking at. They have just discontinued the thing called the ASU and now going with an ITC. Along with digital control, it gives the fridge full ergs when under power, as in voltage is at 14.8 I assume, meaning the engine is running and the alternator putting out full ergs. Then when sensing on batteries only, drops the usage back. Has soft start (not a big deal for me) but variable compressor speed, so quieter and more efficient. The main reason I went to the boat the other day was to see if my compressor could take it. Unfortunately my control module is out of date and it will cost me about $800 to upgrade to the ITC, where I can just do digital control for $170 or $35 if I DIY it. I can get a whole new correctly sized fridge kitset for $1,100, so $800 is alot to upgrade the control. That $1,100 needs another $350ish to get the fancy ITC control, which I am very keen on doing. I just need to complete some other boat jobs and sequence some higher priority boat spending before I pull the trigger on that. The consumption numbers all sound very promising and better than I thought. There is a calculator on the OzFridge page. It suggests my freezer will use less Ah than my fridge, the driver for that being 90mm thick insulation on the freezer and 40mm on the fridge.
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