by YossiD » Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:25 pm
Mark,
I too am concerned about power consumption, which is one of the reasons I'm asking for advice on this forum and elsewhere.
My thinking is that since the Mamad will be closed most of the time the A/C won't have to work very hard so hopefully the power consumption will be relatively low. Of course I will select a high efficiency unit and I'm also thinking that an inverter unit will save power too. Inverter A/C units change the speed of the compressor based on cooling needs rather than turning the compressor on and off all the time. This should reduce power consumption and also extend the life of the compressor. I want to ask a few more people about this before making a decision.
My Mamad has only one outside wall, and that wall is never exposed to direct sunlight. Despite that it gets pretty warm in the Mamad during the summer, so I need some kind of cooling if that's going to be my wine storage. I thought I might try to improve the thermal properties of the Mamad by sticking some insulation on the outside wall, or perhaps painting it with reflective paint.
When making comparisons, remember that a wine fridge also uses power, and from what I've read it's not all that negligent.
If I do this I'll try to make some measurements and will report back.