Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CosmosMariner
rogercopy,
Seems like just a couple centuries ago on this thread (somewhere around page 30 or was it 50) I mentioned that both our son and we have Engle MT35 portable Freezers on our boats, his 27' Watkins and our 25' Watkins. We use them to make ice in polycarbonate juice bottles filled 3/4 with water. Every day we swap 2 frozen 'block ice' with the partially thawed block ice from the boat's ice box. We also make Ice cubes and use 'Ice Cubies' from Newfoam corp. We keep a few meats and some ice cream in there as well. Power draw is claimed to be 2.5 amps on freezer setting but is actually lower. We have both run our machines 24X7 for 2 years with no problems. Defrosting once every 6 months. Bob Bitchin keeps a MT35 in the cockpit of The Lost Soul (read the refit articles) and Capt. Woody took the smaller MT17 on his circumnavigation. They sell them in Lats and Atts mag. These units run on AC or DC and I have run mine on solar recharged DC for the past year exclusively. _
|
Rogercopy,
CM does have a very valid point here. Bob even uses the "blanket" on his Engle, and it is more efficient there as well.
If you take a look at what Richard Kollman is saying over on his site at
Kollmann Marine Boat Refrigeration Specialist you will find that, with a little work (or maybe a lot!), you can build a pretty efficient refrigeration system.
It certainly lends itself to your idea of two banks, one for the refer alone, and charged with solar (mathmatics depending of course, and it is accepted that I am no mathmatician) that will meet your needs, depending on where you are located.
Best of luck.