Bob:
I understand your dilemma! When we bought our T48 we wanted to make her capable of being off the hook for as long as we were capable. So far the longest we have been away from a
dock is 9 months. I think the boat can last longer than we can.
Refrigeration is the biggest energy drain on the boat. We upped to 800 ah of
batteries and that helped. Your
single solar panel is probably enough to provide for all your energy needs (???). We just wanted a
wind generator for redundancy (you can see that a lot on our boat). A wind generator generally is not a good way to (re) charge, but danged good at reducing continuous draw. There is a subtle difference between these and important to understand your needs.
We chose the
Marine Kinetics MK450 wind generator. It has been a very good choice. It has proven dependable and just as importantly (to me) quiet and smooth.
As for the Frigoboat units...I chose them in the keel cooled configuration because...I heard nothing but good about them. There are a lot of good options out there. Everybody gets the chance to make their own decision. Saving
money on an installation of this importance was not part of my decision making criteria.
Below is a picture of the compressor installation behind the drawer section. Unfortunately I am not in a position to supply any more pics at this time. I think with a little imagination you can see the simple brilliance of the installation tech on this. He was Jeff Hawthorne, a well experienced and respected guy in Ft Lauderdale.
The flat evaporators (not boxed) are molded (bent/shaped) into the top of the boxes and in front of the holding plates using copper tubing stand offs where needed. We chose the mechanical thermostats mounted as they typically are. Getting the bend right was tricky so make a template to practice with before you start
The tubing to the evaporators runs at the top of and back of the boxes (drilled holes through, run, and plugged with plumbers putty afterward). Simple enough.
The keel
cooling tubing runs straight down behind the drawers to the first galley
bilge compartment (and behind the manual bilge pump). It is a very easy and natural place to put them (more simple brilliance). Of course drilling a hole in your boat is never fun, but as the Techs will tell you, drilling holes in other people's boats is not a problem. Of course this step will have to be accomplished before you 'are on the hook' and it is a two person job.
Next, after some discussions of pros and cons, we decided to install a breaker box on the bulkhead forward of the drawers, behind the settee. It is not necessarily easy to access, but it is not like we are turning these off and on a lot. It reduced the wire run thus increasing efficiency and is still easy enough to get to. Install switch covers so as to not accidentally change the switch setting.
I don't have the exact specs on the equipment but...I think with the right
research you can ferret it out. The refer flat evaporator was '130' the freezer was '200'. You can see by the picture the freezer compressor was a 50 and the refer was a 35. The refer compressor had the speed control card installed on it (also visible in the pic) and would perform well on the lowest (slowest) setting. Generally we run the freezer at '3' setting and the refer around '5' - also depends on conditions. The freezer will make ice in less than 24 hours (yea!).
When we did this installation little did we know how important the redundancy of units would be. Now after my wife was diagnosed Type 1 Diabetic in 2016, we carry much life saving and expensive insulin that has to be closely temperature controlled. She has an article on pg 114 of the
current Cruising Outpost magazine and is well worth the read. The last line pretty much sums it up, ... "You only get one life, and it would be a shame to be so safe and secure you die of boredom." Uh huh.
Also worthy of note and along these lines...She has an article coming out in the summer edition of Cruising Outpost called, 'The making of Nomad,
Dock queen to cruising machine'. It touches on some of the thoughts we had in outfitting Nomad to be our boat.
I hope this helps. I know it would be easier to envision if you had Oasis right there. It is well worth the effort to be sure.
Regards to all,
D