The SCAD SensiStat Energy Saver refrigeration controller works with your 12 or 24-volt holding (aka holdover) plate refrigeration system and reduces your battery usage by:
- Providing extremely precise thermal control thus reducing excess running of your refrigeration compressor
- Automatically utilizing available “excess” power while your batteries are charging. This reduces the amount of battery energy used each day for refrigeration and saves you hours of battery charging time each week. This savings translates to real dollars as you will use less fuel for battery charging and reduce wear-and-tear on your engine or generator.
How it works
A typical thermostat turns on your refrigeration compressor to freeze holding plates solid. The plates are then allowed to defrost to a temperature approximately 8° F higher before the compressor is turned on again and the plates are refrozen. The difference between the freezing temperature and the “defrosted” temperature is known as hysteresis or differential. This is the most energy efficient method and the more precise the control, the more efficient the system and the more likely your ice cream will remain solid. The SCAD SensiStat refrigeration controller, with a resolution of 1/10° F provides unparalleled precision of control. What’s more, the SensiStat comes with temperature sensors to allow you to monitor and display both the holding plate temperature and refrigeration box temperature.
Normal thermostats also do not take advantage of randomly available “free” power provided whenever your engine or generator are running and charging your batteries.Since batteries can only charge so fast, there is normally plenty of extra generation capacity available to run your refrigeration system “for free”, that is using energy without depleting your batteries. When the SCAD SensiStat refrigeration controller detects charging level voltages, it closes down the hysteresis to only 1o F and uses the available free power to “top-up” the freeze on your holding plates. For example, when you are motoring into an anchorage at the end of the day, The SensiStat will automatically run your refrigeration compressor while your engine is running and save you all the battery energy that would have been used later in the evening running the refrigeration compressor for the same amount of time directly off the batteries.
You can also tell the SCADtech SensiStat refrigeration controller to ignore extra power (such as while plugged in a dock) or to force a freezing of the holding plates for up to 60 minutes.
Additionally, the SCADtech SensiStat detects excess voltages which might damage your refrigeration system alerts you and does not over-ride the differential when excess voltages are present.
Finally, although the factory settings will work for most sailors, you can custom program the voltage threshold at which the SCADtech SensiStat overrides the differential. You can also set the holding plate freezing temperature, the normal and override differentials, the displayed temperature scale (Fahrenheit or Centigrade), and whether the holding plate or box temperature is displayed by default.