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Considering house refrigerator vs RV refrigerator for my school bus conversion. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this? The house refer has larger capacity, no level problems, no venting required, and costs about 1/3 to buy.
I have a 1500 watt inverter and two 8D house batteries which provide 220 amp hours each or 220 useable amp hours ( 50% discharge)
The refer I'm looking at is 14.3 cu ft Hair. 62"tall X 28" W X 30" deep. $315.00
7 amp max for motor start.
Manufacturer estimates 1.22 Kwhr/ day.
Divided by 110V gives 11.1 AmpHr/ day. Add 10% for system inefficiencies, and another 10% for higher ambient temps gives me an estimated daily usage of 13.5 Amp Hours.
Seems like this would work for me. I am plugged in at home, let the batteries run it for 2 days on the road, and plug in at the campground.
What am I missing?
From what you have explained; you would be better off with the 'house' reefer. RV units are meant for situations where you would be without a 110 volt hookup for several days. If your plans are to be hooked up except when on the road; go for the less expensive house unit.
Hello David G.:
Just a word about the house refrig, to start any of these house type refrig & freezer combos takes approximately 2500 - 3000 watts, then when started drops down to around 500 - 700 watts. Is the inverter you have 1500 peak, which means if it is it's not heavy enough to even start the frig. Or does it have a 3000 watt peak, which would then probably work. Batteries might be heavy enough, but those 3 phase motors need a continuous current or they won't work and you'll lose all your cold food.
I have a 6000 watt generator that I have wired into my house and it runs the entire house with all the goodies.
Even with that, I still need to start my frig and a separate freezer separately as there is not enough wattage generated to start everything at once. But once running, unit handles everything. To get a proper wattage figure, multiply the volts X amps.
Get a good voltmeter and wire into your battery system to keep an eye on the charge status of your batteries. Don't let the batteries fall to below 10.5 volts because then the batteries are considered discharged and the frig motor will burn out. Hope this helps.
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