Quote:
Originally Posted by snoobler
I know. Old thread.
Absorption fridges consume somewhere around 325W (depending on their rating) when using either 12VDC or 120VAC power.
325W / 12V = 27.1A
325W / 120V = 2.71A
Absorption fridges use about 5X the electrical energy of a quality compressor fridge for a given volume, AND you get more storage in a compressor fridge. A small 7.6cu-ft absorption fridge can be replaced by a compressor fridge that holds about 10 cu-ft in the same exterior volume.
The cooling unit occupies a lot of space.
The 7.6cu-ft fridge will use almost 5kWh/day where the compressor fridge will use almost 1kWh/day.
|
Methinks you're leaving out the propane side of absorption refrigeration. You are correct, when running a "gas/electric refrigerator" on "electric" it uses 325 watts for electric operation (on a 2 way refrigerator, that's ALWAYS 120 VAC because it uses shore power at about 2.7 Amps... If you use a inverter to power the refrigerator on electric, then the refrigerator would use 325 watts@12 VDC, but who would do that when propane uses less than 30 watts of battery power ?????
So, comparing apples to apples (rather than apples to oranges) a typical gas/electric 2 way absorption refrigerator, when dry camping and running on propane only uses about 2 amps of battery power and nearly all of that is consumed by the "door seal heater" not by the actual electronics/refrigeration components.
When compared to a compressor refrigerator of similar size, the absorption refrigeration system "substitutes propane for electricity" and is SIGNIFICANTLY more battery saving than any compressor refrigerator of similar size.