Mains to 12v

[JohnW2]

... however under EU rules they must give the annual power usage, that has not been given. Rather naughty.

Is it realistic (or meaningful) to give an 'annual power usage' figure for something which I presume is not generally used 24/7/365?

Kind Regards, John

 

[jc69817]

This is what you need.

https://www.towsure.com/kampa-coolbox-power-transformer

Note it is NOT a transformer, it is a DC power supply. Like many suppliers they don't know what they are talking about.

Unfortunately these are not powerful enough. My cooler needs more wattage than these supply hence going through a few over the years.

 

[bernardgreen]

Consider using a small lead acid battery such as a 12 volt motor cycle battery and a charger to float charge it.

 

[jc69817]

I had thought about a car battery and a charger set to trickle charge.
Ordered a 7amp supply so hopefully be ok for a trip or two ️️

 

[ericmark]

Is it realistic (or meaningful) to give an 'annual power usage' figure for something which I presume is not generally used 24/7/365?

Kind Regards, John

I would agree, not really some thing you look for with a cool box, but still they have no option, not on main PC so don't have the regulations to hand, but 46 litre uses around 106 kWh so at 55W that means running for less than 1/5 of the time, yet at 12V 48W it has no control just does not add up.

I do not believe the A+++ rating.

 

[JohnW2]

I would agree, not really some thing you look for with a cool box, but still they have no option, not on main PC so don't have the regulations to hand...

I will be interested to hear, once you have access to the regulations, whether it really is true that they 'have no option'. Are you sure that there is not an exception in the case of products intended for only intermittent (in many cases, only very occasional) use?

It sounds a bit like demanding that a manufacturer specifies the 'annual fuel usage' of a car, without any reference to how it is used or what mileage it does!

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

I was interested in cooling to brew beer, it seemed a bit extreme to use a whole fridge or freezer just to drop the temperature a few degrees, using the Peltier seemed the best option as only needed for first 4 days and only a few degrees. During the hunt I found there is a formula to work out the standard usage and it is from this formula that percentage efficiency is worked out. The F to A and now A+++ rating.

However there are different standards for upright and chest, and temperature they are designed to work in, if built in or not, and if auto defrost or not, so impossible to compare a chest freezer with upright auto defrost. However since forced to publish the average annual usage you can compare those figures, and using those figures you can also work out if insulation has failed, so if 365 kWh/annum then if it uses around 1 kWh/day then working as designed, but at 1.5 kWh/day likely insulation failed.

I worked out the actual power used with my own units and they mostly used a little more than the spec except for the chest freezer which used a little less, one very old fridge/freezer was over the rating and it did have known insulation problem, mothers little freezer used well over, and it was found the thermostat had failed and temperature was -22°C not -18°C about the only use of an energy meter.

My idea was fit a water tank in a small Peltier fridge and a pump switched using a temperature switch and a coil of plastic pipe in the fermenter to cool it when it went over 20°C however when I found how enefficant the Peltier was, and I had a fridge/freezer which was faulty with insulation failure I bought new one for house and old one used to brew with.

http://www.ericmark.talktalk.net/Appliance-power.html']This was the java script page I made to work it out. However I failed to link to government website where I down loaded the pdf that I used to construct it from. Likely still on lap top but that is waiting repair.

 

[rsgaz]

the 'annual fuel usage' of a car, without any reference to how it is used or what mileage it does!

That's exactly what the government did with Vehicle Excise Duty in 2001!! Making up new rules that don't make any sense is kinda their forte though!!

"Based on CO₂ emissions" [we really need a facepalm emoji, admin]

 

[JohnW2]

That's exactly what the government did with Vehicle Excise Duty in 2001!! Making up new rules that don't make any sense is kinda their forte though!!

Indeed so - but I think that it is probably a different 'them' ('the EU') who were responsible for the rules eric is currently discussing.

Kind Regards, John