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Reduce compressor running time with up to 50% |
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skipper
Vice Admiral Joined: 16 February 2008 Location: Sweden Status: Offline Points: 825 |
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Posted: 16 April 2011 at 12:13 |
We do very seldom have shore power due to that we love to moor to islands in the archipelago (and I have a mindset of a Scottish person, the additional fees for shore power in the Swedish harbours are too high for me). After we installed a 75 W solar panel do we have a rather good energy balance but I want to improve the battery status even more to enable me to invest in new toys to the boatJ Run the engine more time each day isn’t an option when we want to have a “green profile” and a wind generator isn’t an option for us in this stage. When I understood that our refrigerator box was of a robust construction but without insulation did I realize what to do. Why should you insulate your fridge box?
What insulation to be used? My recommendation is to use high quality products to achieve the best result when the space is very limited (20-30 mm on our 342, other galley’s may have more space) either as extruded polyurethane insulation (hard panels), armaflex (soft panels) or 2 part/components PU foam. I considered several insulation options and finally thought it was easiest for us to use PU foam and we have been warned by professionals that never use 1 part PU foam to a fridge in a boat due to that it will capture the humidity in the air. So 2 part PU foam will give us a good insulation, it won’t capture water over time, it is rather easy to spray and after 15 minutes will it stop to expand (at 20 Celsius degrees). Our high level plan Insulate the black plastic tube for the heating system of the boat in the area around the refrigerator box and the compressor. Increase the ventilation area behind the black plastic grid there warm air is supposed to came from the compressor into the saloon (the shipyard only makes 2 round holes through the GRP). Prepare for future change of compressor and evaporator. Use insulation tubes round the “copper connection” between compressor and evaporator. Use insulation panels as a wall towards the sink and under the wooden shelf that the box stands on. Use foam in the wall towards the sofa and the stove (20-30 mm) Use foam in the space between the box and the hull (100-200 mm) Preparation will be time consuming but the foaming will be a rather easy task to do The ventilation grid between the compressor och the saloon have 2 round holes cut through the GRP made by the shipyard, I believe that my small improvement done by a rasp will make the transportation of warm air a little easier to pass the grid.
Preparations:
I removed the wood hatch behind the sofa to inspect how it looks between the hull and the backside of the sofa, the wooden plate/bulkhead behind the sofa close to the fridge will prevent the foam from being spread from the space between fridge-hull.
Insulate cooling tube and air-heating tube The image below shows how it looks like before I insulated the black plastic heating tube and the white thin copper tube for the fridge. I removed parts of the edge on the wood shelf to make it easier to work below it. Foam blocker Foam pipe insulation did I use around the white copper pipe and as foam blocker between the inner liner and the hull at both side of the fridge box. I don’t want to fill the whole space (inner liner and hull) on starboard side. I tested to put a small foam pipe inside a larger one but I was not strong enough to push them in place. For me did it work better to combine 2 of the same size and push them in place towards the hull. Sofa-Fridge
Stove-Fridge
Lid/Hatch I removed the screws from; the hinge at the back of the hatch, the stainless steel spring hatch holder and the flushed lift ring (the top is made of 12 mm thick wood plate). The wood below the lift ring were removed with a Dremel so that I could see into the empty space in the hatch. I decided to drill one hole on the edge were the hinge were located (this hole won’t be visible when the fridge is in operation). Use protection tape around the holes and were you suspect that the foam will come out from the inside. The 3 screws holding the lift ring could be exchanged with shorter ones (metal transfer the cool…). Execution time Remember to protect everything because the foam is more or less impossible to remove afterwards. I bought 9 bottles with 2 part PU foam and re-used leftover insulation plates from 2 other fridges:
Put the hose from the bottle at the lowest drilled hole and inject the foam. Use a spatel to remove the foaming coming out from the top holes. After approximately 15 minutes has the chemical process ended. Acetone can be used to clean on the white walls but NOT on mahogany walls (the varnish will be removed as well). I extended the hose that come with the foam bottle so that I could reach behind the box towards the hull (used 80 cm long plastic hoses that were planned for ventilation of batteries). MEASURED AFFECT Before I insulated would I say that the compressor were running 40% of the time during the Swedish summer period. In September (2010) did I measured that the compressor were running 10% of the time (running 1,5 minute and idle 12 minutes, 20 Celsius degrees inside in the saloon and seatemperature 13-14). I set the temperature control on 4,5 and got 1-2 Celsius degrees on the bottom/5-6 at the top in the basket. I will update this thread when I have measured the coming summer. Even with 20% running time have I improved the energy budget with 0.2 x 24 x 5 (rough estimation) = 24 Ampere-hours per day. Checklist Paper towels Spatel Carry bags for waste Acetone Gloves Protection tape Extension hoses to the foaming bottles 2 part/component Polyurethane foam from Danalim http://www.danalim.com/produktkatalog/byggeri/fugeskum/2c-polyurethane-foam-596/ 2010 did the foam cost roughly 11-12 Euro/bottle, 10 litre foam/bottle
References: http://www.spray-insulation.co.uk/ http://www.kollmann-marine.com/insulation.html http://www.yacht-sailboat.com/marine-refrigeration.html http://www.maringret.110mb.com/articles/refrigerationFAQ.html Cindy's Island, Hanse 342, the most insulated box I ever had read about, search for refrigerator down on the web page
http://cindysisland.wordpress.com/category/boat-projects/galley/ Foam agent in Sweden: Berteco in Stenkullen, outside Göteborg. http://www.berteco.se/ Refrigerator parts
If you plan to totally rebuild the fridge box from scratch, this is the source to get a professional result, check out the great lids Edited by skipper - 15 October 2013 at 18:01 |
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Cheers,
Skipper Former owner of Hanse 342 2005 (Sparcraft mast, white hull, wheel steering, deep draft keel, short rudder) |
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gizmo
Commadore Joined: 03 November 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 411 |
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Well done Skipper. Thats a big saving on battery draw I will take a look at mine this year.
Ken
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samuel
Admiral of the Fleet Joined: 26 December 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 2683 |
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My experience with these foam products is that if you exclude air from the material when applying they tun to mush
For instance I poured some in a plastic bottle ( to make a float for a particular model project) & the stuff just did not work.
You must have had lots of air round it so it cured properly or you had a better foam product
For those that do not want to go to this expense & where you can get access to an item being insulated there is a product I have used in the building trade for some years with succes
It is Trio Iso super 10 ( google it for details)
It is a cloth like product 20 mm thick but because of its design it is equivalent to 230 mm of glass wool
It can be squeezed to less than 10mm ,easily wraped around things & stuffed into voids. does not seem to absorb much moisture & could be useful for insulating areas on a boat
You have to buy a roll but what you do not use will serve well in the loft !!
If you have some friends who also could use some then the expense is not so great
Daydream Believer
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Daydream Believer- Hanse 311- No GBR9917T- Bradwell Essex
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CharlesP
Admiral Joined: 23 September 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1208 |
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Thank you Skipper for showing us in detail how to do this work. Excellent.
Charles |
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'MERIDIAN LADY'
320 Nr 536 2010 Medway |
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holby
Admiral of the Fleet Joined: 18 February 2006 Location: Isle of Man Status: Offline Points: 2287 |
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Skipper, Good clear information especially for me. I have no experiance of this kind of expanding foam spray. Out of interest if your fridge has to be removed for repair/replace, how will this affect this ?
Cheers Dave
Edited by holby - 18 April 2011 at 09:34 |
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Hanse 301, tiller steering, Volvo 2010 (10hp)
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Johan Hackman
Admiral of the Fleet Joined: 24 August 2005 Location: Sweden Status: Offline Points: 4262 |
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Dave, if you are a lucky sod to being able to remove the fridge you won't even have to use foam. In a 342 you will have to remove the deck from the hull to remove the fridge. That's how they are built.
Skipper, thanks for sharing this excellent information. Good job! Johan Edited by Johan Hackman - 18 April 2011 at 09:55 |
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Gregor
Admiral Joined: 11 February 2006 Location: Netherlands Status: Offline Points: 1256 |
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Nice job!
I did some work on the fridge too. Beside installing foam around the thin isulated box, I also added a fan to get cool air from under the gouge (water tank is installed there) and blow that onto the compressor. This keeps the compressor much cooler and it gives a better air circulation. Due to a cooler compressor, less heat will float along the fridge box. See fourth picture of the link showing the pictures on my site. http://www.uisge-beatha.eu/index.php?mact=Album,m54235,default,1&m54235albumid=58&m54235returnid=63&page=63 Gregor |
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Uisge Beatha
Currently sailing Dehler 36 JV (2002) Previous boat: Hanse 311 #80 http://www.uisge-beatha.eu |
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holby
Admiral of the Fleet Joined: 18 February 2006 Location: Isle of Man Status: Offline Points: 2287 |
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Johan, I am no expert on things like this, as I am sure you are aware, but it seems to me that the cool box should be able to removed, and the compressor for the "coolbox" is under the starboard bunk with a fan into the saloon to keep it cool and circulate the air. The cooling plate in the coolbox, i think was added as a later item.
Out of interest is the compressor as one unit with your fridge or as extra equipment under a bunk? Dave
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Hanse 301, tiller steering, Volvo 2010 (10hp)
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skipper
Vice Admiral Joined: 16 February 2008 Location: Sweden Status: Offline Points: 825 |
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Thanks for the feedback, in most cases is the hard thing to figure out how to do it, not to execute the plan. This forum is a great place to share and I know from face 2 face meeting with other Hanse sailors that many are doing things that could be shared here as well. ------------------
Regarding the question how to replace the compressor and the evaporator in the future. This is something I have tried to prepare by initially put a round grey insulation pipe around the white copper pipe between the compressor and the evaporator. I wrapped both the white copper and the black electric wire with a foam pipe, pushed it from below which means from the space under the wooden shelf. My idea is that this shall prevent the PU foam to get in contact with the white copper and the black electric wire.
By using insulation panels below the wooden shelf will it be easy to remove them the day I have to switch cooling system.
I hope my explanation in broken english is possible to follow, if not let me know.
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From the Swedish forum do I know that the space around the fridge box can be very different. So if there is bigger space around the box insulation plates could be the best choice. This is a rather easy job to do and from a cost perspective can I really recommend it as the first step to get a better energy budget.
Fridge insulation combined with use of LED lamps are the initial improvements, if not enough solarpanel is always good to have to recharge the batteries.
Edited by skipper - 18 April 2011 at 15:42 |
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Cheers,
Skipper Former owner of Hanse 342 2005 (Sparcraft mast, white hull, wheel steering, deep draft keel, short rudder) |
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Chris G
Captain Joined: 23 March 2009 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 219 |
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WoW!
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H411 "Equinox"
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