Portable A/C

[xcnick]

Well it got up to a hundred and I find the 8000 btu useless. I went back to the store and bought the 10000.

The 8000 could get the floor to 85 3 feet from the A/C but at 6 feet and the rest of the van was 90 to 95. The 10000 got the floor to 78 3 a and 6 feet from the A/C, the rest of the van 80 to 85. The numbers don't really tell how much better it is. the 8000 was 70 at the vanes, the 10000 was 60 and pushing way more air.

Gas consumption was about .5 gallons in 2 hours. Maybe 4 hours max, not the ten one thinks when one reads 10 at 1/4 power. Rough math says I am using 1000 watts so that is 1/2 power.

[MadScience]

The generator efficiency goes down in high heat as well. Even with a nice diesel generator I'm always a little amazed at just how much fuel we go through. Still, it's easily worth the couple extra dollars to get comfortable sleep in an otherwise unforgiving environment. I'm not the biggest fan of the carbon foot-print, but the alternative is to haul a bunch of water to run a swamp cooler and that's not great either.

I just did a bit of reading on portable units (I'm close to getting solar and have 100 year old duct work that would need to pass pressure testing in CA before I'd be allowed to take a central AC unit on-line), and their efficiency is far from optimal. did you at least get a two hose unit? (IIRC from the pictures you didn't) -- If not, those become more and more inefficient the hotter it gets since they are fighting their own waste heat. Even dual hose portables end up dumping some of their own heat into the space that they are supposed to cool. -- So I think I'll stick with the roof-top on the van for now.

Regardless: Thanks for sharing your observations! It's always nice to have some real-world data.

[xcnick]

Single hose, and that is my new problem. Also I don't have the recommended 20" in back and to the side. The hose gets hot and the back of the unit gets hot, so hot the temp gauge on the unit never got below 95 even though I was nice and comfortable even in the front seat. I will be wrapping the hose in Refletix, the silver bubble wrap stuff. Well that is what I have, I am open to suggestions. I also have pink house insulation but I itch just thinking about using that. I am not sure I want to put it on the back of the unit as I think that heat should get away. I think I will just make a shelf of refletix on top of the hose.

I am beginning to see the wisdom of a window unit shoved in the back door. The ones I have seen always look funny with cardboard duct taped to make a seal and shelf hardware holding it up. Consumer reports say Portables are a joke compared to window units. When I think about it all the hot parts are outside, and interior space is better, door will open, the isle is clear to walk through, and drawers open easily.

Also know I have refletix custom fit to every window so there is not even a crack of light coming in. This has worked to keep the interior about the same as the outside when I leave the van. I am always amazed how well this works. It probably helped insulate for the A/C too. You can see I have some insulation in the door I opened up to put in the hose. I have insulation in various other places I could easily open up, but not everywhere.

I did all the testing of the 10000 in the parking lot of Home Depot. Again I had to take the first one back because it was faulty. It was a hilarious couple of hours because I think just about every employee came out to poke around and see why the genny was running on the mobile toy box. (Motorcycle, bicycle, kayaks hung all over the thing.)