xrover wrote:That's what I was hoping and figured. Thanks madjack.
On the other question you answered, is it possible the mfr already takes into account that the unit will not be running for a full hour and therefore the 5.5 is a total hour consumption? You know how those marketing folks like to spin the numbers.
Yes, marketing is often institutionalized lying, but my bet is that the rating is actually 5.5 amps while it is running. If they wanted to show averaged consumption over a period of time, they would say (using madjack's example of running 25% of the time) 33 amp-hours/day, because 6 hours of operating time multiplied by 5.5 amps while running is 33 amp-hours in that time period of 24 hours.
The problem with quoting this sort of charge used per day is that it depends on operating conditions (if the room is hot the compressor will need to run more of the time), so there needs to be some sort of standard. The current while running (5.5A), on the other hand, is true no matter how much or little it has to run.
Government standards (such as
Energuidein Canada) have pushed home appliance manufacturers to show how much energy their appliances use in a typical month or year, but you can't compare appliances that way unless there is agreement on the operating conditions, which is what is in those standards. I suspect that there is no standard established for portable appliances, and that RV refrigerators are not rated against the household appliance standards; for instance, EdgeStar does not appear among the
manufacturers listed as having Energuide ratings.