Cooling down the RV? Help

[MichaelM]

I'm curious if anyone has any tips for how you keep your RV cool. We're going to be traveling around near southern Arizona for the next month (it's 100+ every day, from what I hear). I'd like to find some sort of AC that runs off of DC or can at least be converted I've been checking out a few places online, but I could use some help. A) it needs to be quiet, because I'd like to run it while I'm sleeping. And B), it needs to be relatively affordable, I probably won't be using it again after this trip.... I'm currently looking at the ACs here, they seem the most affordable out there Portable Air Conditioner. Do you guys know anything about any of these? Can I convert them?

Thanks for the help.

[glc]

Welcome!

I would think you would need a generator to be able to run those, and that may give you issues with campground quiet hours.

[Utahtea]

I'm currently looking at the ACs here, they seem the most affordable out there Portable Air Conditioner. Do you guys know anything about any of these? Can I convert them?

Thanks for the help.

I looked at a lot of those at the link and I'm pretty sure they all need to vent to the outside and so I have no idea how you will be able to do that easily.

I'm assuming that you will have electrical hook ups at the campground to run those air conditioners or you will need to run a generator. Private campgrounds don't allow generator and most of the other kinds of campgrounds have generator hours.

I was looking at camping world and maybe one of these might work.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...r-mister/37641

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...g-system/55683

When we had our old Terry Travel Trailer it didn't have an air conditioner on it so we used one of the vents and put on a water cooler (evaporative cooler) because we didn't go many places that had electrical hook ups and the water cooler ran off the batteries. In Arizona and all of the southwest we were so comfortable with the water cooler because it was so hot and dry outside. The items above are more on the lines of a water cooler than an air conditioner.

Utahtea

[DonnaR57]

Michael, we looked at those portable air conditioners a few years ago, thinking that one of those might work in our new family room. Well...Utahtea is exactly correct, you have to vent them to the outside somehow. You are better off with one of the two systems that UTea posted. One of those kinds of things worked years back in our Norris trailer that didn't have A/C, but only in AZ when there wasn't much humidity.

Are you not going to have hookups while you are in SoAZ?


Donna

[Foy]

......a 12,000 btu alternating current portable air conditioner can be operated from 12 volt direct current storage batteries.

There is probably not a requirement to vent the condensate outside, however, as the portables I've seen have a condensate tank built into the unit, much like a dehumidifier, which in fact an air conditioner is to one degree.

The power required at start-up of even a small air conditioning unit is high enough to dim the lights in a structure or slow the idle speed of a car's engine. Once started, the compressor continues to draw material current, and a fan is then powered to distribute the cooled air. I don't have access to actual numbers, but surely something in excess of 1,500 watts are pulled. An inverter which changes DC current to AC loses much power in the conversion and this power loss passes as a surprising amount of heat released by the inverter unit itself. I think it would require an inverter capable of well in excess of 1,500 watts to start a compressor, and once started, the ongoing power requirement would drain a storage battery, or a bank of batteries, within an hour, if not less.

AC units need far more alternating current power than is normally available from a battery run through an inverter.

Foy

[Southwest Dave]

Hi memelanie and welcome to the RTA forums !

Thanks for replying to this thread but MichaelM (OP) has not posted back on this site since this one and only thread which is 9 years ago. Enjoy RTA !

Dave.