Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by t1bone

I have a Freedom Elite 22HEC. I would like to run some lights, and the fridge would be nice.

Lights yes, fridge no.

Your motorhome should have a propane refrigerator which can operate on electricity, but if you try that, it will require around 300 Watts of power (more or less). Absorption refrigerators are not very efficient when running on electricity.

With 100 Watts of solar panels, on a good day, you may get enough electricity to power an absorption fridge an hour or two. I would not even try it. Leave the fridge on propane unless you’re connected to shore power, or are driving and your batteries are already 100% charged (in which case alternator can run fridge while driving).

Refrigerators designed to run on minimum of electricity so they can operate on reasonable amount of solar are compressor refrigerators (similar to residential) and not absorption, which uses electricity to make heat in place of propane flame.

The most efficient compressor refrigerators run directly off 12V battery so they don’t even require an inverter. Your motorhome model suggests you have a propane absorption fridge, and if so, I would not try boondocking on electricity. It’s not worth the tiny bit of propane you’d save.