Air conditioning....WHILE PARKED

[Abscate]

So here’s the math

8000 BTU (sic) presumably 8000 BTU/hr is 2500 watts.

You need 800 watts of electrical power to obtain 2500,watts of heat pump ability

His 800.watts of solar power will be short by 3-4x due to cosine loss and real world loss, those two effects being roughly equal
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[MarkWard]

[?Waldo?]

[MarkWard]

I clicked on the video when it was first posted, but immediately lost interest. Comparing apples to oranges. However since clicking on it my you tube account is trying to get me to watch every damn van life and tiny house video in their catalog. Thanks?

[?Waldo?]

[MarkWard]

It definitely skewed it into another direction. Been watching epoxy garage floor videos lately, so that should skew it to another direction. I also get a lot of Eastwood and JEGS adds. Anyone else?

[dobryan]

Adding a mini split A/C unit to my garage this weekend. Does that count?
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[Abscate]

[purpleonion98]

ATTENTION FELLOW MEMBERS! guess who got their zero breeze the other day! Will I be returning it???


NO.

Currently the temp is 86 and very humid here in Ohio. It is cloudy and theres a slight breeze. Im sitting here with the all the doors and windows shut and i have the zero pointed at me. I just turned it on. It feels 👍. Last night it just rained hard and it was humid as hell. I sat with it on without it blowing on me and it got too cold in here. I had to switch it back and forth to fan.

The sound is more pleasing than my generator. It is more of a "fan" sound. The idle sound decibal of my generator is supposedly the exact same as the zero but the zero sounds better, especially with the exhaust hoses out the window for now and the entire unit in the van. Last night I had half the unit sticking out the windowand that cut down the noise even more. This is with the lowest setting to preserve battery life. On fan it was very pleasing. I almost fell asleep in the van. While testing it out.

The battery life appears to be satisfactory with the ac on the lowest is lasted a few hours. I didnt test the exact time but it dropped down a light about every 45-50 mins (it has 5 lights).

Being hot like it is right now, i can easily fall sleep with the unit blowing on me. The best way i describe the air pressure (on the low setting) is like it feels like one vent from my jeep wrangler on its lowest setting. Will it cool the entire van? No. Does it take the edge off? Yes. If you have it at your feet and you're laying down it will cool your entire body. At night when the temp drops some, it does appear to cool the entire van better.

Obviously it is overpriced, but the unit appears to be in good quality. I ordered 2 batterries and the car charger and it came to $1800. Yes, it hurt, but i enjoy watching tv sometimes in the van when I'm parked.
I would agree that it would ve cheaper to purchase your own batteries to hookup to the unit. But i chose not to because theres a possibility i will use it if i sleep in the back if my suv and i believe the company's batterries to be more portable.

A big problem i have is where the heck to mount it. Its bigger than what i anticipated and with all the exhaust tubes its an awkward design. For now i have the unit sitting on top of my homemade sink/fridge cabinet with the exhaust out the window. I can drive with it like this but when im parked i prefer it sticking out the window to cut down on noise and increase space in the van. I pondered cutting exgaust holes next to the couch near the floor to have a permanent arrangement but im afraid ill be jinxing myself after i do that (the unit will break or theyll come out with another design).

So thats my 2 cents. Ill be keeping it for sure. Its nice that i took out the portable ac and generator! I like it better. If i was hooking up to electric at a campground or something i would have definitely kept the portable ac but i camp at walmarts overnight usually. I hope ive helped in your decision somewhat.

[4Gears4Tires]

Underneath the seat? Underneath the van where the syncro gas tank sits?
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[Abscate]

$1800?

I’m quitting my job...

Glad it is working well for you!
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[82westyrabbit]

Thanks for the update. I have a 5000BTU air conditioner hanging out the window behind the driver’s seat. It runs on 450 watts. The generator is idling to power it and the noise is not so bad. I would not think twice about running it in a Wallmart parking lot all night long from 30 feet you can’t hear it. A state camp ground with other campers is a hole different store. I have no other AC in my van so I will run it going down the road you can’t hear it except at stop lights. The hole set up is a little Mad Max’s but it will have to do for now. I had to do something with the heat in Dallas getting in the mid 90’s most days. I will post pictures in a day or two. Not that I think others should follow my lead. Great to here you are happy with the zero breeze. John

[slomoracing]

I highly recommend watching the zero breeze video on their website.

[campism]

[purpleonion98]

[purpleonion98]

[82westyrabbit]

Here we go. Try #1.

Generator on the roof. Just to big a pain to get it up and down from there, and start it and put gas in it.
Air conditioner between the seats blows cold air exactly where you want it when driving. Unfortunately it blocks my access from the front of the van to the back of the van which made me very unhappy, not to mention how ugly it was from the back. On top of that the portable air conditioner is a power pig taking about 9 amps to run and sometimes would overload the generator. With the air conditioner being the one hose design it blows hot air out but all of the air that gets blown out comes from inside the van no matter how long you ran it, it would never cool of the van because of the volume of the outside air being moved it.

Next move I mounted the generator on the rear bumper as the van is in Texas and most of my tools are in Massachusetts I had to accomplish this with minimal tools. I bought a winch mount from harbor freight and bolted it to my rear bumper (my rear bumper is re-inforced) but I can’t leave the generator out in the rain and would make it an easy theft item. The air conditioner between the seats would probably still be there but it died after 3 weeks.

Now I have 5000 BTU air conditioner hanging out my window. When parked this air conditioner despite being less BTU’s cools the whole van even when 100 degrees outside, but it still does not have enough power to cool the whole van going down the road but it gives me a nice cool blast of air on me. I also built a box around the generator. This air conditioner runs on less than 4 amps so the generator is at idle and is much quieter than when it was running the other air conditioner. If you really want air conditioning driving down the road this probably is not your answer. Also if you have the camper windows they don’t open wide enough to put the air conditioner in. So because I had one I changed the window to one out of the tin top so that the air conditioner would fit. I general I’m not a big fan of AC but in Texas you need it. I assume that come the end of august I will remove all of this and it will be out of the van until the middle of June when I will put it back in the van. John

[djkeev]

[82westyrabbit]

You weren’t supposed to notice that. I ran out of time.

[dobryan]

Looks like a decent solution to your individual a/c problem.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794