Refrigeration A25

[kerrye]

These are the anchors I will install on either side of the tray to secure the refrigerator in place. I will use 1" nylon webbing and fastex buckles between the anchors and the frig handles.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XR ... UTF8&psc=1

[kerrye]

Anchors installed. Don't look to be the best quality stainless but they will work.

frig33.jpg

frig34.jpg

[DesertAlbin736]

Galley in the pilot house? That was one of the interesting features of the Norwegian Saga 27 boat. Saga also made a 24 foot version with open aft seating cockpit but no aft cabin.

[kerrye]

I've had the unique 60l hooked to a small 35ah battery the last couple of days inside a hot garage while temperatures have been around 90 degrees during the day. With both compartments set at 3degrees celcius it used .5 amps per hour. Extremely efficient

[kerrye]

Since a 100 watt panel produces about 30 amps per day. It should be capable of keeping up with the frig

[Sunsetrider]

And when the rays weaken, the demand drops as well.

[kerrye]

Here's a picture of an A25 with an access hatch to the storage area under the gunwale where I plan to put my batteries for the frig.

albin 25 side storage.jpg

[WillieC]

That looks like the starboard side, correct? Would that end up being in the aft quarter berth, a clearly underutilized space in our boat? If the fridge is on the other side, why not keep the batts closer to the fridge? Charging wires are usually smaller and you minimize the distance component of voltage drop calcs from batts to fridge. (Forgive me if I am rehashing old news.)

[kerrye]

I'm going to put a battery on either side. It's the area immediately forward of the shelf in aft quarter berth. It isn't accessible from the aft cabin as it has a fiberglass bulkhead at the forward end of the aft cabin shelf.

One reason I'm putting the batteries there is that Albin recommended that any additional ballast to reduce roll be place as high up an as outboard as possible. Those two locations satisfy those requirements.

[Sunsetrider]

Does that seem counter-intuitive to anyone else?.

[kerrye]

Yep.

[dkirsop]

Same principal as figure skating - arms out, turn slowly; arms in, spin fast. It's all about radius of inertia.

[Beta Don]

Since a 100 watt panel produces about 30 amps per day. It should be capable of keeping up with the frig

If you're in Miami *and* you have your panel tilted to about 25 degrees *and* it's facing toward the sun, the figure produced by a 100 watt panel is about 33 AH per day, averaged over a full year

I know you didn't ask for my opinion, but thinking you will average 30 AH per day in a less sunny climate, with the panel mounted flat on the cabin of your boat is *very* optimistic. There aren't that many days without a cloud in the sky

I had a pair of 160 watt panels on the roof of our A27 powering two pairs of 200 AH golf cart batteries, in the Florida Keys and we still needed more power to keep up if we were anchored or moored for several days. Running the engine (with a 120 amp alternator) for half an hour or so, or running the genset (which powered our onboard 40 amp smart charger) for an hour or so every other day made up the difference

A.) It's surprising how much power you actually use, and B) It's equally surprising how little power you get from flat mounted panels not pointed directly at the sun. More/bigger panels coupled to a larger battery bank is the obvious answer. We *thought* since it's a motor boat that 320 watts of solar coupled to 400 AH of batteries would be sufficient - Based on the 200 watts of solar coupled to 800 AH of batteries on our last sailboat. Part of the difference was the fridge compressor on our sailboat was water cooled (more efficient) and the one on our A27 was air cooled

DC refrigeration is hard to keep up with, power wise. The manufacturers quoted AH draw of the fridge is the most optimistic number possible, and is based on a box that you never open and you never put any warm items into, and probably quoted based on 70 degrees ambient. In actual use, living on a boat where you're into it a dozen times a day and replacing a cold beer or Coke taken out with a warm one, the amp hours required will almost certainly be twice what the manufacturer claims and may even be as high as 3 times

If you're motoring every day and your battery bank is big enough to last the night (add in the anchor light, cabin lights and a radio or TV) without discharging it below 50%, you'll probably be OK, but if you're sitting still for even a couple days, a single 100 watt panel will probably not get the job done - Have a reliable alternate energy source in the plan

Don

[kerrye]

65C017DC-835A-4A45-B38C-D4BE9B30E07A.jpeg

A04F79A1-5919-4CAF-8D7C-8EDFF92D6838.jpeg

C6D9DCF3-6010-46AE-9ECF-62A40B1E7FA0.jpeg

Refrigerator and solar panel installed And charging

[DesertAlbin736]

Kerry, your fridge looks very much like a 45 quart Engel a friend offered to let us borrow for our upcoming cruise. But I don't know. First off, that sucker weighs 66 lbs empty, so I'd just about need a cherry picker crane to hoist the darn thing up into the boat; second, our house bank is a pair of 90 amp hour group 27 AGM's, not really enough to leave it turned on at anchor; & third the solar panel we have on the wheelhouse roof is a small 20 watt trickle charger, about 1.6 amps at high noon at best (as actually measured). I'm thinking I'd be better off just sticking with our 5 day West Marine "Ultra Cold" cooler, using block ice whenever possible, and provision like a minimalist backpacker. Besides that, it would have to sit on the cockpit floor behind the helm seat, and we're already a little starboard heavy with a slight list.

On placing ballast (extra batteries) high & outside, it's the same pendulum principle as having the mast & sail rig up.