Ah yes Pete, that is indeed true - I'd forgotten about those. Not on EME's boat though. You do indeed see plenty of seawater cooled fridges on some boats, though not the UK-built ones generally. Italian builds, among others, use them plenty. FWIW the current trend is away from seawater fridges, because people want high end domestic appliances these days, = SubZero et al, which of course tend to be aircooled
They are the biggest drain on 12v supply but who would want cold beer?!
As with many other replies we turn both fridges on when we arrive and they get turned off when we leave - unless its a couple of days before we are back - in which case they are left on!
When in the marina shorepower is connected but we are rarely plugged in as prefer to spend time on the lake either at anchor or moored on the public jetties, which dont have power. I used to turn them up when we were underway but often forgot to turn them back down again which defeated the point
In terms of batteries, we have 3 115ah batteries that supply the 12v systems and start the starboard engine and a further 2 110ah batteries that start the port engine and power the eberspacher. We find this set up gives us enough juice to easily stay away from power for 3-4 nights with a bit of running each day. Windermere doesnt lend to long periods of running the engines like on rivers which is why we installed some extra battery power.
Both fridges use around 5ah each when running and are on approximately 30-40% of the time depending on the outside temperature. In July with the hot weather we had the battery bank didnt look too healthy after 2 nights at anchor without starting the engines. The fridges were barely off.
They are the biggest drain on 12v supply but who would want cold beer?!
