Danhard A/C

[Greg In Austin]

Originally Posted by msponer

Greg,
I suspect that running the Danhard instead of the factory AC does not improve fuel economy. The Danhard is still drawing power from your alternator to run. You may just be moving the load from one pulley to another.

Matt

.....BUT the Danhard is running on 110, so it goes through the house batteries and the inverter. SO, yes, there is likely a load on the HD alternator, but I am not sure you could find any significant load. Even the sun on the solar panels would decrease any load on the alternator.

....and, Yes, it did seem to make a difference in fuel economy.

We have another trip planned for this summer that will have us going a few thousand miles and we will be doing the same thing again with the AC.

[Greg In Austin]

Originally Posted by carringb

My van has the factory rear AC. Fuel economy is not impacted unless the frant and rear blowers are on high. That sucker draws a lot of power (plus more air through the vents means continuous duty for the compressor vs its normal intermittent duty with vents on low). But it also cools the rear of the van to 32 degrees if the front is blocked off and its on high. It'll actually put frost on anything placed near the vents.

...but my comparison would be around whether your fuel economy is impacted when the Van AC is on? versus when it is off?

[carringb]

My van AC, front or rear, does not not impact fuel economy (or at least its impact is less than .1 mpgs) under most blower settings. It is not noticeable until I have the rear blower on high.

My AC setup uses the same compressor and condenser for front and rear AC, and then it splits to the respective evaporators (the rear one is by the rear door).

[daveb]

One of the main issues to look into is if the secondary AC is running, will there be enough spare power avaliable to supply a good charge to the house battery system. With the Starcool I had to add a 200 amp alternator (which I have posted on in several threads) to run everthing and supply a reasonable charge. I found that the house batteries were loosing a slight amount of charge while driving at night with the Starcool running. That's no good. I'm not sure of the Danhard load but I still prefer to be pumping in at least 5 amps to the house battery system while driving at night with all the necessary equipment in operation including the AC. And yes the starcool is a poor stand alone AC.

[bentriderken]

Originally Posted by Greg In Austin

I agree it is a nice system.

Our 2008 was built with a Danhard as well. Living in Texas we used our AC plenty.

It will run on battery alone, and that is nice, but it will also run on a Honda 2k generator power sharing with house batteries. ...and it can run indefintely that way....

What do you have in the way of a converter, inverter, and/or hookup that allows you to share the Honda generator with the house batteries?

Thanks,

[Greg In Austin]

Bent,

We originally spec'd a newer model Xantrex/Trace inverter. RS2000 I think. It was a smart inverter, but even though both Danhard and Xantrex said it should work, it would not consistently.

SMB TX put in their standard Xantrex Prosine 2000 and it powershares just fine.

[vlamgat]

Originally Posted by Greg In Austin

Last summer on a cross country trip to DC for 4th of July, we used our Danhard while driving, instead of using the factory van AC.

We did this to increase fuel economy by not having the belt-driven compressor running.

Greg - while perusing this thread, a question comes to mind: presumably you were running the Danhard off your inverter when you were operating in this mode? Surely this would deplete the house battery? What size is your alternator?