Remotely mounting compressor and condensor from refrigerator
 

I was reading this thread http://ecorenovator.org/forum/conser...dge-saves.html and had a thought.
Has anyone here removed the compressor and condenser from their fridge and mounted it elsewhere?
Easy? Difficult?
I have plenty of room to mount it all on top of my fridge. Could have a nice cabinet built around it to hide it, and even vent the heat to the attic space in the summer and into the house in the winter.

It is a very good idea.

Piece of cake if you have the cake to pay for the refrigeration work :)




I say do it, mount it on top , so much easier to have it right on top of the fridge,then off to the side, it will be good to have it there for when you are forced to move it around.

I am a little concerned after thinking if the heat up "there" would cause more run time ? doubt it but..

Would any one have an idea how much money one could save by eco-modding a fridge. I had a couple thoughts like mounting the condensor outside but that would prevent any heat gain to the house. Maybe a diveter valve for summer/winter operation.Remotely mounting the compressor from underneath the fridge is a good idea but the question remains how much energy can be saved wit this expansive modifications.

Randen

If you payed the refrigeration guy $200 and spent $50 on insulation it would cut your refrigerator energy consumption by 50%, i bet.

If your fridge uses $120 of energy a year you would cut that in half. 60x4= 240 so it could pay for it self in 4 years then it will start making money , 60 bucks a year or what ever the particular fridge cost to run.


With my fridge i am at a 38% reduction now with relatively light but tightly applied insulation, especially the fridges compressor / condenser area as it is really warm down there, if not hot after a compressor run..
The heat absorbs into the fridge most from that point.

When i finish with the inside of the fridge (reducing interior sq feet) i know i will reduce its consumption even more.

There was an article some months back on GBA about this kind of thing. Apparently one of the main writers there is the offspring of the man who invented the monitor top fridge. That thing rivals modern units for efficiency and is only insulated with corrugated card board. It's mainly because the compressor and what not are on the top. I know that for major refrigeration there are devices, the names of which currently escape me, that can dump their heat to several places and it's selectable. None are on the market for regular refrigerators. Only commercial, walk-in units. It slays me that I have to cool my house down in the winter to keep my food cool. That is one situation where I'd be happy to "heat the outside", as has bee told to children who leave doors open in the cold since time immemorial. In fact, I think if I could just move the condenser outside I'd even live with the summer issues because in the winter it would be astoundingly efficient.

How about some small computer processor fans mounted under the kick panel, blowing the warm air out from under the fridge.
Solar powered of course and on a battery...

When I was thinking about building my own ASHP for hot water heating,
I wanted to pickup heat outdoors in the summer, and indoors (basement) in the winter.

Instead of a valve system, I had the idea of using dual compressors.
(Since I would be needing another fan and HX unit anyways).

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...t/dualcomp.jpg

Maybe the idea of dual compressors with indoor and outdoor HXs, could be adapted for a fridge hack??

I don't think you need two comps. Just a reversing valve or a couple of solenoids, where the condenser is switched from the indoor to the outdoor location. There will have to be a 5min waiting period for the pressures to equilize and have 2 TXV or cap tubes.

Sun Frost fridges have everything mounted on top, my current fridge costs me about $4 per month to run... pay back would be a decade or more!
My fridge also has the condenser drain drip in to a pan on top of the compressor to heat the water to cook it away, if you move the compressor then you have to hook up a new drain system as well.
I still haven't gotten around to it, but I want to install a chimney of sorts up the back side of the fridge where the coils are (one of the few new fridges with coils up the back side still!) and build a stand to lift it up off the floor a bit to get a better draft, that draft alone should help cool the coils and boost it's cooling power and it would also keep that heat from the coils away from the cold side of the fridge, a layer of space blanket in there between the coils and fridge would help a great deal too! all without hacking the fridge apart.

What if you had a few spare compressors laying around??
Compressors that were going to be tossed in the trash next summer..

~~~

Maybe another thing to consider, would be compressor life.
If compressor #2 only ran 50% of the time, wouldn't the system last twice as long?
(Assuming that running up the compressor hours puts wear on it's motor etc).

A little off-topic:
I'm basing that 'life' idea on my Sanyo Theory.
Which is: Running both Sanyos at 450 watts(each) to keep the house warm,
is better then leaving one unit off, and running the other at 900 watts..

Since they don't come on as much (run time), with both of them running, it's easier on both.
If one unit was going to last for 5 years, maybe both will last for 10 years..?.


Plus, when it gets really cold, and each unit is running at .8 to 1.2 kW,
one Sanyo alone would need to crank up to 1.6 to 2.4 kW.
(Above 2.4 kW, the 10A breaker would kick in).
It seems like it would be better not to run them at high power levels..

My pin-hole R410A loss experience tends to make me think that high power/high pressures are hard on copper tubes..