wrote in message
...
I have a large refrigerator and don't want to get rid of it since I'm
on the boat a lot, and the majority of the time at the dock. But do
like to go out for a couple of days each week, and the biggest
issue is the frig getting too warm unless the generator runs more
than I like it to.


My suggestion would be to get an inverter and battery bank that would run it
while you were away from the dock.

I assume that by "large" you mean a standard household, frost free unit.
These things can be real pigs on energy use, as most use as much energy
heating things (and I don't mean the byproduct of cooling) as they do on the
compressor.

A typical frost free refrigerator has

1) a heater around the door sill (open the door, put you hand against the
spot the rubber gasket would rest: it's warm, isn't it?)

2) A heater on the cooling coils, which is energized on a periodic basis to
melt the ice that forms

Many refrigerators also have a heater under the drip tray to evaporate the
water that collects from the defrost cycle!

A non-frost free refrigerator would require about 100 amp-hours a day to
keep things cold. A regular frost free unit would probably require twice
that. If you installed an inverter and a 200 amp-hour battery (two golf
cart batteries in series) and then ran your generator for a few hours each
day you could probably get by for two or three days.

Rod