I had an old Traulson fridge that I love but all of the electronics and analog sensors were old and failing. I added multiple digital thermometers in the fridge, freezer, intake and exhaust air. I then re wired both compressors with bigger relays and dropped a raspberry pi into the intake air side of the confessor coils. The result was a drop of $10.00 month in my power bills, and a fridge that worked great!
One of the things that increased efficiency was an node that only turns on the defroster when it was needed. With data and a bit of adjustment I'm now able to have the defroster only run when its needed and only heat the condenser to the lowest temp required to defrost completely. The previous analog timer ran the defrost every 24 hours to a temp of about 90 degrees F (at the condenser). Now it runs approximately every 3 days heated to 45 degrees F, that old fridge doesn't have to work as hard now. I based the defrost trigger on when the condenser coils drop below -8 degrees. That means that the cooling fins are plugged with ice and the condenser is getting too cold because there is no air circulation. Also, there was a 10 watt heater that was always on to keep the ice maker supply line clear. I added a relay to that circuit and now I only turn it on every 10-15 days for 10 min.
Here are some pics.
This was the original wiring
I changed it to this
The dashboard is great too.
Here is a copy of the current flow. Let me know what you think.
type or paste code here
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