Installing a Danhard Air Conditioning System - Page 2

terry · 06-20-2008, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jage

So, what does Danhard do? Is it like Starcool?

It is a 12000 btu Air conditioneer.

The compressor uses AC.

The condenser and evaporator uses 12 DCV.

Since, you need AC power, you would not normally be able to run the Danhard while in motion.

The Starcool can run while vehicle is in motion.

Steve_382 · 06-20-2008, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by terry

I would not be suprised if it wouldn't be more efficient to just run the vehicle dash air conditioning.

As an electrician for over 30 years, I would tend to agree with you. The only way I see that you could help the system would be if you had lots of solar panels up top that were recharging the batteries as you drove. Maybe if you pulled a 30' foot trailer of panels?....

Greg In Austin · 06-20-2008, 08:54 PM

Well, I was at SMB TX today, and monitoring the Danhard, it was not pulling 9 amps continuously when on. It was at 7 and 8 amps. Not a lot of difference but some.

We have a Xantrex Prosine 2.0 (2000 watt) inverter on board.

400+ DC amp hrs of 4D to work with.

Also remember that the Danhard does NOT run continuously the way the Van AC does. It will cycle on and off.

The alternator is not going to cycle on and off. I do not think the alternator is 200 amps, I think it is 160 or 180.

We do have 260 watts of solar up top to supplement things, but I would not work that into the equation.

I will give you a much better report on this in about 10 days.

terry · 06-21-2008, 10:40 AM

When it is hot my Danhard A/C is pretty much running all the time.

You do not have 400 amp/hourts to work with. It is recommended that you not discharge the batteries more than 50%. It would be more like 200 amp/hours.

I am looking forward to your report.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg In Austin

Well, I was at SMB TX today, and monitoring the Danhard, it was not pulling 9 amps continuously when on. It was at 7 and 8 amps. Not a lot of difference but some.

We have a Xantrex Prosine 2.0 (2000 watt) inverter on board.

400+ DC amp hrs of 4D to work with.

Also remember that the Danhard does NOT run continuously the way the Van AC does. It will cycle on and off.

The alternator is not going to cycle on and off. I do not think the alternator is 200 amps, I think it is 160 or 180.

We do have 260 watts of solar up top to supplement things, but I would not work that into the equation.

I will give you a much better report on this in about 10 days.

Greg In Austin · 06-21-2008, 12:53 PM

...and I checked again today and the Danhard is running at 7amps...

Yes, we do not want to over-discharge the batteries, but there are still 400amp-hrs (actually closer to 420) to work with.

Our Danhard rarely runs constantly, even when it is way HOT.

Yersterday when we were testing the Inverter we had to keep lowering the thermostat, finally bringing the van interior down into the 60's when the outside temp was in the 90's.

Today it was 91 in the van, I set the thermostat at 86 and I expect it will cycle off within the next 20 minutes.

Why would your Danhard run all the time? Especially why would it run all the time if the Penthouse were down when you are driving? There just is not that much volume to cool.

.

Greg In Austin · 06-30-2008, 10:31 PM

On day one of our trip we used the Fanrad for AC instead of the factory AC.

It cycled on and off, as one would expect, but this is different than the factory van AC, and thus we needed to play with the temp setting on the thermostat to have the right temp all the way through the 5 minute minimum cycle off.

The battery and inverter and charging system were able to run the Danhard with no problem for over 6 hours this way.

Also we got our best fuel economy to date on that day.

It is important to note that we only have 3k miles on the SMB so far, and average tank fuel economy has risen with every fillup. The exception was the next day when we were playing in the mountains of NC and TN a lot of the day and had a lot of idling. BUT the fuel economy that day we the 2nd best we have seen.

This leads me to believe that the Danhard will do fine and work well for cooling the van while in motion, and it will help fuel economy.

I will do this again on the trip home.

vlamgat · 08-15-2011, 12:04 PM

Greg:

On rereading this thread I wondered how this Danhard strategy was working for you this summer. I have the same set up. Now and agian my Honda runs out of gas leaving me the Danhard running on battery and inverter. I usually find that within minutes the battery is indicating yellow/red or red on the control panel. This has led me to believe that my system (one AGM battery plus 2000 watt Triplite Inverter) could not handle this without the Honda despite your comments to the contrary.

I have never run the Danhard off the alternator although I do have a 200 amp upgrade so in theory could do so. But since I have the Ford front and rear a/c units I believe as other seem to indicate that this is by far the more efficient way to go.

I have cause to park the SMB in the open on asphalt all day and find the ambient temps getting well over 100. At that level the Danhard with the Honda can keep the interior at about 86 (max) with reduced internal humidity at around 4 pm. But only if I curtain off the front driver and passenger seat, cover all the front windows and lower most of the blinds.

skrivan · 05-31-2015, 05:19 PM

Hello. Does anyone know if it's possible to run a rear factory AC of a passenger van using a honda-type of generator? Thanks

vlamgat · 06-02-2015, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skrivan

Hello. Does anyone know if it's possible to run a rear factory AC of a passenger van using a honda-type of generator? Thanks

I suspect it can be done but unlikely because the rear system is plumbed in line with the main. So to be able to power the rear unit you would have to have an offline shunt for a remote compressor powered by a 12 volt transformer driven off the generator; as well as a 12 volt feed for the A/C fan. You could set it up so that it could ONLY be run by the generator and once again I suspect that the inefficiency would not make it worthwhile. But its an interesting concept of creating some type of lug and play connectivity to an offline compressor and fan system that would power the entire a/c system the way aircraft use their APUs. I suspect this would require the vehicle compressor to be powered by an electric motor driven either off the alternator/battery or a remote generator. Possible yes but expensive to configure and install but in essence the same concept as the remote a/c supplied by SMB