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Old 03-22-2021, 12:34 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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12v air conditioner

Hi!

Does anyone have experience or knowledge about this type of air conditioner unit? In theory, sounds like a good solution to some issues. Like maybe you wouldn’t need shore power or generator to run ac? Any opinions or insights appreciated! Thanks.


https://www.nomadiccooling.com/produ...r-2000-rtx-12v

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Old 03-22-2021, 12:50 PM   #2
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Being a bit of a devils advocate here:

Electricity is electricity. You need your system to be able to support your electrical loads.

Consider what kind of 12v draw this is will on your vehicle 12v system. Do you need a bigger alternator, more batteries, etc. to run it?

For $3,000 I think you could go with a traditional solar/inverter/ac unit and have a lot more flexibility with powering other appliances/systems.

As a specialty item it probably will make it harder, and generally, more expensive to repair or get parts.

Dometic is a known brand and has been around for a long time. If they've been making a similar unit for many years, it seems someone is using them, but for a skoolie?? Seems to be targeted more to over-the-road truckers.

Personally, I'm going to use a small 5k btu window rattler unit (~$150-200) that will be run off shore/gen power only. This greatly reduces my setup costs and makes everything simpler.

Even if you went with a 5k btu mini-split unit, you're still in the $500-750 range.

Best of luck.
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Old 03-22-2021, 01:33 PM   #3
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Let me see. 71 passenger bus in Texas 2000 watts = just under 7000 btu. When parked I think it will provide half of your cooling needs maybe one third if in south Texas. When driving it just won’t cut it. The added heat from the engine will swamp it. 10-58 amps of draw will require a lot of battery. Now multiply that by 2 or 3 and you will have some idea how much battery you will need. Dometic makes nice stuff I’m not knocking them. This type of A/C is going to be the norm in trucks due to no idle restrictions. So keep looking at the systems they use and go from there. Most truck sleepers are around 7-8 foot long plus the cab, so if your bus is 33 foot you will need 3 maybe 4? I don’t know for sure. I’m not saying it won’t work. It just may cost a LOT.
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Old 03-22-2021, 01:39 PM   #4
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Here is something interesting. I am not affiliated with them in any way.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-C...0AAOSwPc1dqDPi

Reading the specs is interesting too.
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Old 03-22-2021, 03:21 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by s2mikon View Post
Let me see. 71 passenger bus in Texas 2000 watts = just under 7000 btu. When parked I think it will provide half of your cooling needs maybe one third if in south Texas. When driving it just won’t cut it. The added heat from the engine will swamp it. 10-58 amps of draw will require a lot of battery. Now multiply that by 2 or 3 and you will have some idea how much battery you will need. Dometic makes nice stuff I’m not knocking them. This type of A/C is going to be the norm in trucks due to no idle restrictions. So keep looking at the systems they use and go from there. Most truck sleepers are around 7-8 foot long plus the cab, so if your bus is 33 foot you will need 3 maybe 4? I don’t know for sure. I’m not saying it won’t work. It just may cost a LOT.
Thanks! Thought it sounded too good to be true (if you could afford it in the first place!)
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Old 03-22-2021, 05:01 PM   #6
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There are top quality super energy efficient aircon units in the marine market that run direct off DC

but at 48V and yes super pricey.

The process of boosting low voltage up to high is very inefficient.

And it really is not realistic to think you'll run so many Wh per day off battery stored energy anyway.

So since you need a genset while off grid anyway mains-powered units are **so** much cheaper.
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Old 03-22-2021, 06:35 PM   #7
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Howzabout a 12V swamp cooler?
I likewise abide in the Lone Star, and will presently complete an evaporative cooler I'm building within a 5-gallon bucket.
While it'll be worse than useless in muggy weather, I expect it'll help considerably once nature's thermostat hereabouts resets to the Crispy setting.
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Old 03-22-2021, 09:34 PM   #8
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swamp coolers are great in the dry parts of texaslike west texas and even to some externt austin.. but dallas and houston? ha! humidity is killer. and swamp cooler will still cool but everything is limp and damp.. clothes, sheets, etc


thjere are a lot of newer A/C systems coming out and this arena will only grow as vehicle electrification grows..



ProAir LLC offers a hybrid road A/C, Parked A/C.. I havent inquired about it to see what it does and how much it costs.. id like to add parked A/C to my dev bus this summer.. theres a lot of chinese A/C units just like diesel heaters so the arena is growing and im researching already..


last summer i got my road A/C where it needs to be on the DEV bus.. 100,000 BTU kept me 75 inside in 105 degree houston , dallas, san antonio heat and humidity.. (thats with a stock 30 year old bus and non tinted windows)...



I dont expect parked A/C to be able to keep it that cold in that heat.. however I will plan on parking in the shade, or mainly wanted non-idle A/C for when I overnight in a rest area or parking lot on a long trip..



my portable unit stuffed in a window works OK but its horribly inefficient having the compressor inside.. the cabinet itself gets quite warm..
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Old 03-22-2021, 10:04 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by s2mikon View Post
Here is something interesting. I am not affiliated with them in any way.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-C...0AAOSwPc1dqDPi

Reading the specs is interesting too.
Love the "can not ship to Puerto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii"... when HQ is in China. Silly people. Of course it CAN ship there.

Anyways, interesting little mini-split (well, micro-split maybe?)
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Old 04-03-2021, 04:19 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rustymetalgirl View Post
Hi!

Does anyone have experience or knowledge about this type of air conditioner unit? In theory, sounds like a good solution to some issues. Like maybe you wouldn’t need shore power or generator to run ac? Any opinions or insights appreciated! Thanks.


https://www.nomadiccooling.com/produ...r-2000-rtx-12v
That's a lot of moolah. You can get a great single head mini spout for about 800 bucks or a multiple head unit for a grand. Spend the rest on solar, lfp batteries and inverter.

Ruth and I have about 18kw of repurposed lfp batteries, 8kw powerjack inverter, 12 327w solar panels with 3 makeskyblue controllers. It's a beefy system that makes us never need the generator or shore power. We have about 3700 invested in our solar and another 750 in the mini split. We stay comfortable in the Chihauaun desert all summer long.

The solar affords us the ability to have a deep freeze, 2 fridges. Cook on electric day and night. Pretty much life as if we were grid tied but free from the grid.

My point is that 12v a/c will require a large battery bank, alternator, ac to dc converter when on shore power. Being g 12v it will be less efficient than a 24 or 48 volt unit and will influence your other appliance purchases to fit the system you have to build to support the a/c unit.

I'm frugal so for me it would be a hard pass.
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