Adding 12v timers to fridge and freezer

[davethedog]

Hi all,

Just thinking of adding 12v digital timers to the fridge and freezer in order for them to turn off during pre set times, such as 2300 to 0500, to save power usage.

Has anyone done this and any recommendations of what timers as ideally small form factor and up to 6a loads.

Cheers

DTD

 

[starfire]

Imho With well insulated fridges, especially with them not being opened at those times, you will save little power

 

[PaulRainbow]

Hi all,

Just thinking of adding 12v digital timers to the fridge and freezer in order for them to turn off during pre set times, such as 2300 to 0500, to save power usage.

Has anyone done this and any recommendations of what timers as ideally small form factor and up to 6a loads.

Cheers

DTD

I think that'd be a pointless exercise Dave. The usage during those hours won't be great and you'll only be deferring the power consumption. If the fridge needed to be on for x hours during the night and the timer prevented that, it would run for a proportionately longer time in the morning.

If it was possible to save fridge/freezer energy consumption by turning them off for hours, why not only have them turned on for 5 minutes a day

 

[Norman_E]

It rather depends where you are. In Turkey I used to switch the fridge off at night because the noisy compressor would run with the temerature not dropping below 30 degrees.

 

[[70521]]

Like @PaulRainbow I am asking why.

We fill the fridge with everything frozen to reduce the energy use. Things last longer and can be defrosted quickly in a bucket of water,

 

[superheat6k]

If you do decide to do this the relay needs to handle the start load so 6a would likely be too small. Also the inductive load could cause quite an arc when the relay opens, so a snubber circuit to absorb the spike should be considered, otherwise the relay life could be quite short.

 

[pcatterall]

Imho With well insulated fridges, especially with them not being opened at those times, you will save little power

As said probably little power saving. It could be useful if the compressors cutting in and out wakes you up!

 

[Boater Sam]

Clockwork timers? Zero power consumption. Though the ticking could be perturbing.

 

[davethedog]

OK, it was just a thought lol

 

[Mark26]

A better option might be a bigger battery, or add another.