fridges in boats

[Rufus]

I have in my house boat a flat bottomed steel hull, underwater it's about 10 deg C lower than ambient temp, basically a giant heatsink, if the condenser on a standard Danfoss BD35 12v unit was mounted right on this cold steel plate would i gain any power saving ?

I plan on building the fridge as part of the hull to get a low temp to start with, then add Vacuum insulation panels, or thick insulation to get minimal heat loss. Next job will be to maximise the Danfoss compressor system's effecientcy. The fridge will be run off solar, a limited power source in the UK.

Can anyone think of any other ways i can improve the power effecientcy of this fridge, by utilizing my cold underwater hull.


V

[Brian_UK]

Have you considered a water cooled condenser or a keel cooling adaptor?

[Rufus]

Yes i have, but then that would either be modifications to the hull, or a circulation pump, seeing as i have this large cold heat sink ii might be better not to interfere with the integrity of the hull.

Does a water cooled condenser get me much power input saving ?

[The Viking]

How about making your own condensor out of a pipe and solder it to the hull?
That would remove the fan and give good heat transfer metal to metal...

:cool: