Sunfrost noise [RE-wrenches]

[Steve Bell]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kurt Nelson, SunWise" <sunwise at win.bright.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 08:17 PM
Subject: Re: Sunfrost noise [RE-wrenches]


> jay peltz wrote:
> >
> > The Magic Chef models  CTL1511AEA  at 15 cu ft are using 1.2 kwh/day.
When I
> > worked at AEE, I did talk to a few installers Hawaii, other locations
and they
> > measured it at the 1.2 kwh day.
>
> Hey Jay,
>
> Is the 15 cu ft Magic Chef a manual defrost?  Not familar with it but I
> have a number of smaller super efficient systems out there that would
> notice the increased load of having the inverter booted 24/7 (I assume
> this is not factored into daily KWH calculations).  I know that industry
> wide, there has been a tendency towards ignoring the phantom loads and
> increasing the array to accomidate.  Works out okay for the most part in
> sunny climes, but round here you gotta pay attention to such stuff come
> November and December.
>
> Kurt Nelson
> Solutions
>
>
Hi  Kurt,

 With any AC powered refrigerator whether off-the-shelf or a SunFrost there
is the possibility of 24/7 inverter operation, but it is not a requirement
that they operate that way. In fact, many times you need to go to extra
effort to keep them  operating 24/7, provided the rest of the home has dealt
with phantom loads.
Here is what I have seen. When the refrig. cycles down (not cooling) the
"base-line" thermostat load is below the "sleep" setting of the inverter, so
the inverter goes to sleep and so does the temp sense circuit of the refrig.
The refrig can not wake back up on it's own because it does not know warming
up. It wakes back up when there are enough other loads to wake-up the
inverter. For most energy efficient homes this should not be a problem,
especially during mid winter. The food will stay cold overnight.

WARNING: Editorial comment  -  On a separate but related note, from my
perspective, there appears to wide spread attitude that super expensive
refrigerators like the SunFrost are the only reasonable choice in the RE
industry. I have nothing against the SunFrost and it has it's place in the
RE industry but it seem many people in the industry treat it like a "sacred
cow". Modern high efficiency refrigerators like some Maytags, Amanas and
Magic Chefs work quite well. Their real-life power consumption is typically
consistent with the government energy figures. Their cost is about 1/3 that
of a SunFrost. The SunFrost's advertised power consumption figures are
significantly less (0.93 kWh vs 0.56 kWh) than what the government found
when they tested a RF-16 under the same standard conditions as the
off-the-shelf units. I believe the industry, and especially the industry
magazines like Home Power are doing a disservice to all of  the persons just
starting into RE. Much of the industry represents the SunFrost type units as
the only choice and that buying one of them is just part of the cost of an
RE system. That may have been true 8-10 years ago, but is simply is not the
case any more. There are realistic, reasonable options these days. Is the
industry "getting set in its ways"?
I know this is a poke-in-the-eye to some of the leaders of the RE industry,
but I think it is about time that the industry wakes up to this issue.

Sincerely,
Steve Bell
Technical Support, SunWize Technologies
Stelle, IL
sebpv at stelle.net

- - - - - - -
To send a message:
 RE-wrenches at topica.com

The archive of previous messages: 
 http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

To unsubscribe send a message to: 
 RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

To check out the other RE-Wrench participants:
 www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine: 
 www.homepower.com

For info contact list moderator by email:
 michael.welch at homepower.com
___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A  The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics