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Date:         Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:52:35 -0700
Reply-To:     Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Propane and refrigerator success
Comments: To: Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca>
In-Reply-To:  <B7520C37-D04B-464B-BE4E-9D81C95297B7@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed

It's been running in the upper 30s (C) hereabouts for the past few days and into the foreseeable future. I would not want my household refrigerator to be ammonia-based. Esp. since we do not have air-conditioning in our house.

I do have a big aux battery in the van -- a pair of golf cart batteries. And a set of portable solar panels totalling about 75W (measured) and a good MPPT solar controller. These are, as someone said a few days ago, the "support system" for my Vitrifrigo refrigerator.

Nothing creeps me out quite like watching my perishables get warm. OTOH, it's a personal issue. Like Don sez, "I suppose I could 'stress' about how inefficient my Dometic is in my Vanagon but I'm satisfied with it..."

-- Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott 1984 Westfalia, auto trans, Bend, Ore.

On 06/28/2015 08:36 AM, Alistair Bell wrote: > It's all down to horses for courses. > > I have no problem using the dometic where I camp, but I can > understand how it wouldn't work for hot climates. > > The warmest spot I have ever camped in was dinosaur provincial park > in Alberta in summer. I think it was around 41 C and spotty shade at > the camp spot. I didn't record fridge temps then but I recall that it > wasn't up to the task. > > Now that I have a big aux battery I could install an electric fridge. > But I don't have the pressing need right now. > > The previous mentioned ( R Jones) surface are to volume ratio > handicap on the dometic is the big issue. If the fridge had super > efficient insulation ( aerogel anyone?) it probably would help. > > Alistair > > > > >> On Jun 28, 2015, at 8:17 AM, Rocket J Squirrel >> <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> I did all the tricks I could to help the refrigerator when I was >> camping in the Southwest because I like to tinker. >> >> Parked the van so the driver's side was the shady side, slung a >> mylar blanket over that side when I couldn't park ideally, put on >> the bigger heatsink fan, installed an exhaust fan in the city water >> port, drew cooler air up from beneath the van, added additional >> insulation between the outer wall of the van and the backside of >> the refrigerator, and additional insulation around the flue. >> >> None of these made a noticeable difference. When you're parked in >> 100F ambient temp and the ammonia cycle can only pull a 40F delta, >> the inside of the refrigerator will eventually get to 60F. It might >> have been be a bit later in the day when it reached that point, but >> it got there anyway. Heat never sleeps. >> >> But have at it -- maybe someone will tumble to some new trick that >> will make a significant difference. >> >> -- Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott 1984 Westfalia, auto trans, >> Bend, Ore. >> >>> On 06/28/2015 07:56 AM, Alistair Bell wrote: Yes but it's a quiet >>> person jammed in behind the fridge. >>> >>> It gets stoinking hot back there, flue is hot, fins are hot... >>> >>> Maybe insulating the flue, didn't Neil do that? >>> >>> Alistair >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>> On Jun 28, 2015, at 7:54 AM, David Beierl >>>> <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote: >>>> >>>> At 10:13 AM 6/28/2015, Jim Felder wrote: >>>>> Right, I never think about it unless I'm camping and can't do >>>>> anything about it, but if that little flame was to be outside >>>>> the living space like it is on RV, by means of a louvered >>>>> panel or something like what you have done, it would have to >>>>> be somewhat cooler inside. >>>> >>>> The 85 watt heater is about 300 BTU/hr, or about half a quiet >>>> person. The flame was quoted to me on the phone by a Dometic >>>> tech years ago as 650 BTU/hr, or a whole person -- but the >>>> great bulk of that extra goes out the flue. >>>> >>>> Yrs, d


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