Using Aerogel for refrigeration upgrade

[rascacio]

I tacked a reference to this material on an earlier post with no response so far, so I've re-posted my enquiry as a new topic.

Has anyone any experience with this material as an insulator ? and if so any idea of price and availability ?

I have only found 2 possible suppliers so far and am still trying to get some price information.

The main reason I'm interested is because I want to upgrade my refrigeration system and I am considering 2 options. 1/ New fridge (any recommendations ?) and 2/ Upgrading the insulation in the built in top opener already on board.

Any views on either way would be much appreciated.

 

[Achilles]

I wanted to upgrade the fridge insulation on my boat 18 months ago and looking at the internet understood aerogel was the best you could buy. But just try to buy it, near enough impossibe. So bit the bullet and replaced the marine fridge (complete with keel cooler) with an Engel joint fridge freezer. Haven't looked back, it doesn't switch on very often and when it does it's only for a short while and then uses 3.5 amps (12 volt).
I would recommend an Engel.

Good luck with whatever route you choose.

 

[whiteoaks7]

Alternatives to aerogel

Aerogel is pretty exotic stuff, if you don't have the thickness available to use the more normal materials such as expanded pvc, have a look for inert gas-filled panels. These are like vacuum panels but are filled with argon, krypton etc so are a little more robust. This will give you excellent insulation co-efficient - good thermal resistance with small thickness. I'm afraid I don't know suppliers off hand though.

 

[rascacio]

Gas filled panels

Thanks for your reply, but the problem with the gas filled panel is that it cannot be cut in any way in order to fit it inside awkward spaces so you need to do a lot of de-construction/re-construction, and they are very expensive too. It would not be cost effective at all unless you were building from scratch.