01-13-2016, 12:34 PM
In the example that ericlp posted, keeping your fridge more full using jugs or beer will slow the heat loss compared to empty space when used on a timer. Water being denser than air will lose its heat more slowly so the fridge has less work to do when the timer kicks the unit on. Of course, the fridge will consume as much energy to cool the water the second time as it did the first after the timer kicks the unit back on.
When no timer is used, the energy savings is probably negligible unless you have a teenager. Teenagers will open the refrigerator door several times a day and leave it wide open while they stare into it for minutes at a time, hoping that a magic fairy or leprechaun has put something fantastic that wasn't there the last time they checked just a few minutes ago. Yet oddly, they will never move stuff around to see if there is a precious treat behind the brussel sprouts.
As far as the timer goes, my experience after Iselle is that with my refrigerator at least, there is no energy savings from powering down the fridge at night. When we turned our generator on in the morning the fridge basically never turned off the entire day as it struggled to bring the temp back down. But the timer theory is sound if you only have energy produced during the daytime whether its from solar or a generator- you cool when you can. It might not save energy but it might save wear and tear on your batteries if you go that route.
One thing that helped was we put a large frozen ham (-5 degrees from our chest freezer) into the refrigerator at night. It kept the inside much cooler and the refrigerator played less catch-up when we turned the generator on. And we put the barely-yet-still-frozen ham back into the freezer in the morning. Rinse and repeat.
When no timer is used, the energy savings is probably negligible unless you have a teenager. Teenagers will open the refrigerator door several times a day and leave it wide open while they stare into it for minutes at a time, hoping that a magic fairy or leprechaun has put something fantastic that wasn't there the last time they checked just a few minutes ago. Yet oddly, they will never move stuff around to see if there is a precious treat behind the brussel sprouts.
As far as the timer goes, my experience after Iselle is that with my refrigerator at least, there is no energy savings from powering down the fridge at night. When we turned our generator on in the morning the fridge basically never turned off the entire day as it struggled to bring the temp back down. But the timer theory is sound if you only have energy produced during the daytime whether its from solar or a generator- you cool when you can. It might not save energy but it might save wear and tear on your batteries if you go that route.
One thing that helped was we put a large frozen ham (-5 degrees from our chest freezer) into the refrigerator at night. It kept the inside much cooler and the refrigerator played less catch-up when we turned the generator on. And we put the barely-yet-still-frozen ham back into the freezer in the morning. Rinse and repeat.