Sunday, March 8, 2015

Refrigeration, moving onwards......

The refrigeration project had been stalled for a number of reasons, not least of which was the search for suitable insulation.  Despite all the talk about vacuum panels, exotic materials etc., extruded polystyrene foam plastic insulation seems to fit the DIY boaters bill.  Its cheap, easy to work with and long lasting.  Please note the difference between extruded (XPS foam), and expanded (EPS foam).

http://ww3.owenscorning.com/sciencedoesntlie/ 

I finally found a local (L&W Supply, Miami) source for the slightly stronger version of XPS than is normally available in Home Depot.  Its the FOAMULAR® 250 Rigid Foam Insulation, 25psi.


As stated previously I had planned to decrease the size of the fridge and freezer considerably. Dura-Weld in Florida had made me liners of High Density Polyethylene that fitted through the existing openings into the fridge/freezer compartments.

 

I lined each compartment with XPS.



Filled in some gaps with low expansion spray foam, taking care to support the sides.



The next fun was bending the evaporator plate.  There is a lot of info on how to do this on the web, so I won't repeat it here.


Except to remind you to heat the paint to prevent cracking.


And get clever friends to help.



This will be a spill over system and one of the critical elements of this system is to have a minimum of R10 between the two compartments, I believe that I have R16 to 18.

My fridge is 2.66 cu ft and the freezer 2.5 cu ft.

The installation of the evap plate and compressor will wait until I haul TIH and install the keel cooler.

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