More capable Air Conditioning August 20, 2019, 09:14:00 pm I have begun to travel in the summer whereas before I stayed above 9000ft.I have put reflectix on one set of windows, isolated the driver's section, and looked for shade but it is not enough.The present AC unit is 13500 BTU. 15000 BTU units are available which I will look into after checking and cleaning the present evaporator and condenser. Are larger units than 15000 BTU available? Has anyone put two units on a class C for use with a second shore power connection at a 50 amp site. Installing another unit at the center vent of an RB may be possible. Haven't checked spacing yet.Just checking to see what others have done before I embark on this excercise.Fifteen degrees below ambient was all I could depend on this summer. I know 20F below ambient is the expected number..
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #1 – August 20, 2019, 10:37:57 pm I live in the desert; my original 13500 model just couldn’t keep the coach comfortable.I upgraded to a 1500 BTU Dometic Blizzard (not the Breeze).Dometic BLIZZARD NXT - 15,000 BTU Rooftop Heat Pump, Ducted orI was a little hesitant at first because Google doesn’t show much information about them.Took a chance and so far, I’m very pleased. Haven’t tried camping yet but the at home stats show:102 outside under a tree97 in the coach at start with cab open but bathroom area closed off. I do have cellular/blackout blinds which may help a little. I thought I would have to close off my floor length cab curtains but no need.In 45 minutes, it was 87, and dropped down to 78 in another 1.25 hrs.Temperature was set to coldest and blower set to high at first then to low.With the blower set on high you’re in a wind tunnel breaking the sound barrier.Medium may still be loud for some, low is fine. Even on high I don’t think it’s so loud that other campers would be bothered.Can’t tell until I try it, but I think it’s powerful enough to keep the whole coach cool without closing anything off. Keep having fun,Langton
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #2 – August 20, 2019, 11:23:54 pm Quote from: Langton - August 20, 2019, 10:37:57 pmI live in the desert; my original 13500 model just couldn’t keep the coach comfortable. I upgraded to a 1500 BTU Dometic Blizzard (not the Breeze).Dometic BLIZZARD NXT - 15,000 BTU Rooftop Heat Pump, Ducted orIn 45 minutes, it was 87, and dropped down to 78 in another 1.25 hrs.Thanks. I just checked mine. Input air 103F output 73F so it is working properly. I hadn't looked at the NXT Blizzard but it seems like a good choice. I think I would be better off to stay away from a low profile unit.
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #3 – August 20, 2019, 11:42:51 pm You might get some ideas from this fun video of camping at Burning Man:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-UZJs694TjQ
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #4 – August 21, 2019, 01:48:19 pm I can attest to the NXT Blizzard 15,000 BTU, as I upgraded this past May. I also live in the dessert, and it keeps my 26.5 RB comfortably cool. It helps to use a thick blanket to block off the truck portion. Additionally, I keep the door to the bathroom shut and helps a lot.
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #5 – August 21, 2019, 02:33:12 pm Harry,I just checked our air conditioner - about a year old, a Dometic Brisk II Air 13500.We are about 107 outside right now. We are sitting in full sun (no shade).Our air conditioner is putting out about 55 degree air - measured at the air conditioner opening where most of the air comes out - towards the rear of the coach.Air at the intake of the Air Conditioner is about 79 (measured right at the intake).The coach is very comfortable inside (I didn't measure around, but I would guess 75-80 in various spots).This air conditioner works much better than the original one we replaced that was almost 30 years old.Last summer before we put in a new air conditioner, we added a portable air conditioner - we turned the swivel passenger cab seat towards the coach and placed it there venting it outside the cab window. Without this, the area just inside the coach next to the cab was too hot even with the cab area blocked off. We have not felt the need to use the portable air conditioner this summer, though the cats tend to hang out with us in the TK lounge area by the windows as the cab area gets pretty hot.Having reflectix all along the south side windows makes a big difference, in AZ heat from the sun coming thru windows affects house temperatures more than a lack of attic insulation (a surprise to me when I moved here). Having reflectix on the roof vents also makes a difference.Our air conditioner pumps most of the cool air out towards the rear of the coach, with much much less being directed towards the front of the coach. Note: We do keep the air conditioner at fan level 2 all the time. This makes a big difference in keeping the entire coach cool rather than just the areas closer to the air conditioner.Jane
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #6 – August 21, 2019, 03:07:43 pm Thanks for all the comments, keep 'em coming. Helps me decide what I am going to do..107 or so in Phoenix today so I'll run another test.Dometic NXT Blizzard looks like a possible solution.
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #7 – August 21, 2019, 04:07:11 pm Ah, lovely hot phoenix. We are also in this area. We look forward to when we can just get up and leave in our LD (another year or two).In the summer we do reflex on all windows and vents and the front cab window (we leave the side cab windows uncovered for the cats to look out, but we might change that as covering the south window might give the same results and leave a bigger viewing window for the cats to use at night when it is cooler in the cab). We have a sleeping bag (just a cheap one but rated well) between the cab and coach, keeping that last foot or so from the ground uncovered so the cats can go back and forth easily.During the day we take down the reflextix on the north side to let in light (and sometimes the east side of the TK lounge area, depending on how much time we are spending in the coach that day, we don't yet have that configured for easy on/off) but the south side gets real warm (you can feel the heat on the window casings) so we leave that covered.Jane
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #8 – August 21, 2019, 07:15:23 pm Being from the A/C field, here is my take. One thing that everyone needs to understand is that these things are marginal at best. If they run too cold or with too much discharge air restriction, they are going to ice up. You don't want that. Make absolutely sure the return air filter is clean and stays clean and be very careful not to restrict the discharge air to much.Your A/C's capacity is actually cut back some what with a lower fan speed. It's a very long explanation and I won't go into it.House keeping is important so clean filter is a must. With that thought in mind, the evaporator coil also gets dirty as the filter is very porous so it also needs cleaning. That is harder to do as the A/C needs to be cleaned from the roof. Also, the condenser or the outside coil as some call them get very dirty with dust and they won't show it. Air or a garden hose is the best bet. Also accessed from the roof.If you are inside the workings of the unit, clean the fan that moves the inside air. You will see it if you clean the evap coil. Word of caution, if a short screw comes out, a short screw goes back in. No exceptions!!!Don't wait too long to turn your A/C on because they have a hard time catching up. I suspect your air conditioners never cycle much though.I can't tell you how many of these things I've worked on and the fact they work at all is amazing to me. But they do.Jon 1 Likes
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #9 – August 21, 2019, 07:40:17 pm Jon, I am amazed even in our bad summers our AC does cycle some. I can hear it only by the vibrations (can't hear it over the fan). I won't swear it cycles now in our bad heat including 110-120 heat (we just cooled down to 107 today). But at night with upper 80s and low 90s it cycles without doing real short off cycles.Jon reminded me we had problems with our AC when we first got it. One of the outlet vents is right next to the intake air and even shut the outlet vents let out a significant amount of cold air. This creates a right loop that said the coach was cold when it was cold only at the intake vent not many areas of the coach. We put blue painters tape on the field downward vents and it made a huge difference. One day I will take apart the inside piece of the AC and see about a better fix, but for now it works fine.I should say also that we have our temperature setting very close to warmest setting and still work very well.I added a picture. You can see we are on medium fan and pretty close to the warmest temperature setting. Also, you can see how close the downwards outlet vents (blue taped squares) are to the intake vent (place with lots of holes).In the AZ desert we are so dusty, we clean our intake every week. I put on our schedule to clean the condenser coils twice a year because we are so dusty. Our middle of summer one is scheduled for this week so we wills see how dirty they got (and adjust the cleaning schedule sooner or later based on that).Note: We added some blue tape also to our knobs also so we know which one is the setting side - they are not very distinct and this avoids us having to put glasses on just to adjust the AC (too easy to turn something to the wrong setting otherwise, especially early on as we were learning it).Jane 1 Likes
Re: More capable Air Conditioning Reply #10 – August 23, 2019, 09:31:56 pm Thanks for all the helpful comments. Burning Man has two problems-dust and heat. Interesting, but too much of either for me. They do have proven ideas to cope.It does appear that a 15,000 BTU unit should work on a 100F day. I have an EasyStart and Microair sent the install schematic.
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