Refrigerator Freezer

[Makin Waves]

Is my refrigerator freezer supposed to be working while I'm travelling?
Stuff was thawing out, we were under way for 8 hours
We have a giant inverter system, other lights, heads, etc are working while under way
The inverter system is very complicated, not sure how it works
thanks
Dave

[rkrumm]

Yes. You may have to turn on the "Refer" switch on the 12 volt panel. At least that's I do to stay cool.

[km1125]

The lights and heads are probably all DC powered. You should check if your inverter powers the fridge, or if it just powers things like TVs. If the inverter does not power the fridge, the fridge should also have a dedicated DC breaker as rkrumm says, to power it when cruising.

[Viper]

Typically they are AC and DC operation but it really depends on the make and model you have as some are AC only. If it's dual voltage, make sure your 12 volt fridge breaker is one while underway. Having said that, if your inverter powers up the whole 120 volt panel and is auto-switching, the fridge should continue to work on AC supplied by your inverter. Really depends on what you have, how it's wired, and how you're managing your breakers. Need a little more info. Is this boat new to you recently? Did you install the inverter or was it already there?

[tomschauer]

as mentioned above, you should have a 12 volt breaker for the fridge. Turn it on when not on shore or generator power. All of you factory installed lighting and heads should be 12 volt and not connected to an inverter. If you do have an inverter installed it would only supply your 120 volt receptacles, and load connected to them, and maybe your a/c unit(s) water heater and icemaker. But it takes a pretty good sized inverter to run the a/c and water heater. Are these items working without shore power or generator?
Also, most inverter systems are not auto change over. There may be a on / off switch somewhere for it?

[km1125]

In a semi-related note:

I put a Kill-a-Watt on my Norcold fridge/freezer the other day. I think it's a DE-461 which replaced an older DE-728, but it's the "full size" boat fridge with freezer section on top. Here's some numbers:

It was a sunny 90 degree day. In peak afternoon, the cabin temp was probably a few degrees hotter, as there is no A/C. Nightime dropped to 68ish (F)

Over a 24 hr period, it used about 1.25KWH. If the efficiency is similar running on D.C., then that alone would completely kill the average new Group 29 or Group 31 battery in one day.

Average power while running is 76 W. Average power while NOT running was 6.6 W, which surprised me.. I was thinking it would be less than 1.

Based on the average power over a day and the running power, it was running about 70% of the time... probably more during the hot afternoon and less at night.

[Makin Waves]

I will check this out on the weekend
thanks