There’s cool, and then there’s cold!
Yesterday’s post about wind gennys really only deals with half of the energy equation: generating power. The other half is reducing power consumption. When looking at the energy draw on boats just about everyone agrees that electric refrigeration is by far the greatest consumer of power. What can we do about that?
1. Stay north where it is cold? No!
2. Convert the fridge to an icebox? Not for us.
I guess then we need to keep the cold inside as much as possible so that the motor doesn’t run as often. One way of doing that is by having the food organized so that it is easy and FAST to get. We talked about how we organized our top-loading fridge last summer. Our friends on Pirate Jenny recently suggested using additional insulators to help keep the cold inside so during one of our trips to Home Depot we picked up some reflective insulating material. Rebecca then cut a piece to size to fit inside the fridge, just over the food.
She also coated the back (top) of this piece with duct tape to make it a bit more rigid. Sorry we don’t have any concrete data to say how much it has reduced the run time of the compressor. I think it has to work though.
Now, all of the above may be cool, but jumping into Lake Ontario on Sunday was COLD!!!
I went in the water a Tenor but came out a Soprano, and not the HBO mafioso type either!
With refrigeration, everything little bit helps. The bubblewrap can’t hurt. Is there any way you can increase the thickness of insulation on any of the sides of the refer compartment? If any of the sides are available inside a cabinet, you could attach some polystyrene foam. How about the underside of the lid?
Mike, you are way braver than I. Our water temp here is 54 degrees right now. No way am I going in without a wetsuit!
bob
I haven’t looked that closely at the fridge but it might be possible. It was also suggested to lay a “blanket” over top of the door when it’s closed.
As for the water it was 46 or so!
Yes, it’s all about insulation. All those comments are right.
When we went on our long Stiletto cruises we would wrap the cooler in a sleeping bag, and that made ice last ~ 40% longer. Also, we made a false top out of something like that bubble wrap, so that when we went for a cold drink we did not let too much cold out.
Could you make a padded cover that would stay in place most of the time (or all of the time), perhaps something like foam matting?
Cultivate a taste for warm stout. Takes time.
The warm stout thing isn’t likely to happen in the near future. 😉
How would what you are calling bubble wrap prevent cold from getting out when you opened the fridge for drinks? Were the drinks above it?
Exactly.
Got it. Last year when away at anchor for a few days we kept the beverages (beer) in a cooler so that we didn’t have to open the fridge very often.
Yeah we do have the same exact dinghy. Have you named yours yet? Ours tried to make a run for it the other day and I had to jump in the water after it. Brrrrrr
I read that on your blog. Doesn’t sound like you two had a very good day.
Enough already!
The water is in the mid 80s down here year round.
Get your butts in high gear guys!
De beer be cold
Da sun be shinin’
Come SOON mon!
Translated to Canadian
Have a Frikkin’ cold brew, eh?
Holy crap it’s hot down here, eh?
Hurry up, eh!
We can’t come until we finish this @#$%ing windlass installation. Grrrr!
You don’t need a windlass, just heave ho and GO! Remember… there are chandleries all along the east coast. 🙂
We HAVE a windlass! We have had it in a box since last September. I just need to get the stupid thing attached to the deck. I drilled the holes yesterday….
Mike, your swimming lessons seem to have worked! I don’t remember that you would have dived in like that last summer, even though the water was warmer then! As to the cold, it’s almost over. You will soon have everything sorted and be headed south!
🙂
Thanks Helen. Some warmer water would be nice.
I will second and third and fourth the insulation. We added to our box as well when we had the PDQ. We went around the sides somehow, I don’t remember. Other friends bought heavy, clear plastic and made overlapping flaps… so when you open the fridge door, you can see in (to ponder what you want) and yet keep most of the cold from escaping. Then reach through the flaps and get your food. Ask on the PDQ forum, I’ll bet someone has pics.
That sounds very interesting! I will do that. Thanks Cindy.