Invisible Power Consumption

[yellowgate]

OK, thanks to some good help on here, I got my system up and running. Love the way everything is working, but I found the inverter (Magnum MS4024AE) wasn't going into search mode at night. No problem, just bump up the search wattage, right? Had to raise it to 40 watts, and it kept switching rapidly between Searching/Inverting. Increasing it to 50 watts gave the same results, just not as rapidly. Next morning I began searching for the culprit. Finally the only thing left plugged in was the fridge. Used my Kill-A-Watt to see if it was pulling anything while not running, and it showed 0 watts and 0 amps. But I was still inverting. Unplug the fridge altogether, and inverter goes into Search mode. Plug it in and we're back to inverting even though the Kill-A-Watt is showing ZERO usage, until the refrigerator actually comes on, when it uses a little over an amp.

One- How is it using over 50 watts but not reading on the Kill-A-Watt?
Two- How do I defeat it?

Could the Search setting be mis-calibrated?  The manual shows less than 8 watts in Search and 30 watts Inverting (with no load).  I'd really like to cut that usage back when no one is using power, usually 12+ hours a day.

Thanks,
Greg

[Volvo Farmer]

Just curious... What's the make and model number of that refrigerator? Some of these new ones have one big motherboard that controls all the functions. I don't know if refrigerator electronics could confuse inverter search electronics or not, but I'd to look up that refrigerator and see how it's configured.

[Halfcrazy]

Another thing to watch is a lot of newer fridges can not run in search mode they will never wake back up

[yellowgate]

     Volvo Farmer, it is a Frigidaire, model number is LGUI1849LP0. That last character is a zero.  I still can't figure why the Kill-A-Watt doesn't show any usage. It does register the small phantom load my radio uses when turned off (.8 watts).

  With everything turned off last night my Trimetric was showing a load of 1.4A @ 23.8V which should be about what the inverter is using while on with no load. At least that is what I'm assuming, since I'm rather new to all this.

Thanks!
Greg

[Volvo Farmer]

I looked that up. It has an electronic defrost control board. I wonder if that isn't what is giving you problems.  You can go to Sears site, parts lookup, and type your model in to see the location of the defrost control.  I know that board has to have some sort of timer circuit in it to do it's job but you'd have to ask an engineer if it could mess with the search function of an inverter or not.

Not too long ago, refrigerators had mechanical timers to control the defrost function. It's possible that you might be able to retrofit that control to an old mechanical style, but judging by the looks of the thing, it might take a but of a herculean effort to get it wired up properly.  I cannot download a wiring diagram from Sears. If you want to PM me with a copy of your wiring diagram, I'd be willing to have a look at it and see if you could retrofit.

Or you can just do like I do, and live with the ~25 Ahr that an inverter draws overnight 

[yellowgate]

You know, I can live with it. I am hateful of waste, but spending $550 on this new fridge beat the $2grand+ for a Sunfrost. At least for now. And until I finish a rack or something for the entire array, we are doing fine on the 1.3 kW per day that just four 62 watt panels are making. Stormy weather for a couple of days led to some generator time, but aside from that...

Already looking ahead to the power available when all 16 panels are lit up. Thinking mildly about some heat-producing electric appliances, which were verbotten to think of before. I know a cookstove is out of the question (isn't it?) but a 2-element hot plate, maybe a crock-pot, toaster oven, etc. could help cut propane consumption. At least during the summer.

Of course, we haven't needed A/C yet, but that's usually only 10 weeks a year...

Frigidaire's website has a wiring schematic. I'm going back over to look at it.

We still haven't figured out why it isn't showing on the Kill-A-Watt.

Thanks,
Greg