fridge using a lot of power - am i doing something wrong?

[Eevo]

Hi Guys.
I installed an connected up my fridge during the week.
its a 40l engel of the mid 80's era. (i think its older than me!)


i installed a wattmeter last night.
between midnight and 10am, with the fridge on setting 2, the fridge consumed 17Ah
temp was between 18 and 12 degrees/

10Ah in 10hours
is this amount of consumption normal or high?

[Phil B]

Sound high
Is the fan working?
My Waeco started using a lot more power due to a faulty fan
Replaced- problem solved

[trout1105]

Using 17 ah in 10 hrs works out at 1.7 per hour which seems to be pretty good [thumbsupbig]
I have an 80l waco that uses 2a per hour at -3 and a 40l Primus that uses about 3.5a per hr at -15 So your 30-40 year old Engel at 1.7a per hr is running pretty sweet compared to mine that are only a couple of years old .

[Eevo]

Sound high
Is the fan working?
My Waeco started using a lot more power due to a faulty fan
Replaced- problem solved

i put my hand across the vents and coudlnt feel any airflow. so you could be onto something.
now to find a wiring diagram.

[Eevo]

Using 17 ah in 10 hrs works out at 1.7 per hour which seems to be pretty good [thumbsupbig]
I have an 80l waco that uses 2a per hour at -3 and a 40l Primus that uses about 3.5a per hr at -15 So your 30-40 year old Engel at 1.7a per hr is running pretty sweet compared to mine that are only a couple of years old .


1.7 per hour does sounds good.
which means 40 per 24hours

but the other day, it took 44 hours for the batteries to go from 12.6v to 11.4v
given that i have 160AH available to me, they should have lasted 4 days, but only lasted 1.8 days.

[Eevo]

althoug the water bottles i put in were still liquid, the inside of the fridge was between -2 and -4. so i can turn down the setting a little.

[DiscoMick]

We have a Engel of same size and similar age and run it on 1 because above that it starts to freeze, so you could turn it down. When I got ours serviced last year the fridge tech said it was running within the manufacturer's specs.

[scarry]

There is no fan in the Engle so that is one less thing to worry about.

My 29litre,same age,lasts around 3 days in summer(on number 1) on an Optima 55Ah,and the standard battery in the D4,whatever it is,using the dual battery Traxide kit.

very difficult to work out amp hours due to the way the Traxide kit works,so not much help.

Many say the old Engles use more power than many of the newer brands.

[bee utey]

Stop guessing and measure your actual consumption.

LCD Digital Monitor Volt Watt Meter DC RC Battery Power Energy Analyzer 60V/100 (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LCD-Digital-Monitor-Volt-Watt-Meter-DC-RC-Battery-Power-Energy-Analyzer-60V-100-/322467792919?epid=2145335338&hash=item4b14940817:g:cxAAAOSwTM5Y3Mav)

[Eevo]

Stop guessing and measure your actual consumption.

LCD Digital Monitor Volt Watt Meter DC RC Battery Power Energy Analyzer 60V/100 (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LCD-Digital-Monitor-Volt-Watt-Meter-DC-RC-Battery-Power-Energy-Analyzer-60V-100-/322467792919?epid=2145335338&hash=item4b14940817:g:cxAAAOSwTM5Y3Mav)


thanks bee, but im already using that exact product to measure the fridge consumption.

[DeanoH]

What model Engel is it ? Is it the older green/yellow type or a later brown/grey model ? AFAIK the older green/yellow and early brown/grey models don't have a fan. The later 'turbo' brown/grey models and the models with the inbuilt temp gauge do have a fan.

I copied this from an old post by Isuzurover ............
Engel current draw - a way to identify how old your fridge is!



I was talking to the knowledgeable bloke here: Engeland - Engel Fridge Freezer Hire & Sales, Perth Australia (https://www.aulro.com/afvb/redirect-to/'redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.engeland.com.au%2F) and he gave me some interesting stats I thought I would pass on in case they are of interest:

Decade of Manufacture / Current draw when ON
70's / 6 A
80's / 4.5 A
90's / 3.7 A
2000-on / 2.5 A

So with that I could identify that my 29L engel was made in the 80's.

Your fridge should have a red tag on the side with the current draw on 12V - if not, you can measure it!






So if yours is an Engel of '80s era it will have a current draw of 4.5 amps or a power usage of 54 watts.


In general, for your battery to last a while it's best not to take it below say 12 volts or 50% state of charge in 'normal' operation as the lower you take the battery discharge voltage the shorter the battery life will be. Occasional discharge to say 11.7 volts or 33% state of charge is OK and sometimes beneficial to the battery (if recharged properly) to avoid sulphation especially a battery that is continually floated. Taking the battery down to 11.4 volts or 15% state of charge is definitely not good for its longevity.

Putting this into practice with your Engel drawing a maximum of 4.5 amps and with a 100% duty cycle, (ie. continually on) the theoretical 160 ah battery 'life' would be 36 hrs. In the real world using 50% SOC as a measure you'd have 18 hrs of use @ 100% duty cycle. The energy consumption will vary [B]greatly depending on what temp. the fridge is set on, what is (isn't) in it and the ambient temp. Using a 50% duty cycle as a more realistic measure (unless turned on flat out as a freezer) this gives a real world figure of approx. 36 hours of use for a 160 ah battery to 50% SOC (12 volts) or 48 hours to 33% SOC (11.8 volts).


Deano :)