Air condition unit

David & Ann

David & Ann

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I am thinking of installing an air condition unit in the habitation area. Questions????
What type? What size? What does it run on, Gas or electric? I have blow heating by gas. I have 2x60watt solar panels and a 1 Kw Inverter. How much does it cost (a) to buy, (b) to fit? Is it worth the expence at the end of the day?. I spend 3/4 months in Europe each year. Your advice would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance. :confused:
 
David & Ann said:
I am thinking of installing an air condition unit in the habitation area. Questions????
What type? What size? What does it run on, Gas or electric? I have blow heating by gas. I have 2x60watt solar panels and a 1 Kw Inverter. How much does it cost (a) to buy, (b) to fit? Is it worth the expence at the end of the day?. I spend 3/4 months in Europe each year. Your advice would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance. :confused:
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Ok about 3yrs ago I bought a 240v Telair unit and a telair (Yamaha) 2.4kW on board genny to run it. It is 12000BTU I think and also has a 1KW heater unit built in.

The air con unit was about £1k and the genny was about £850.00.

They perform really well and the genny is very quiet (petrol).

At the time I was told the 12v version was not up to it so I went for the 240v but since then I am told the 12v is much better though how good I have to wonder.

A big thing is size of your rig and do you go abroad?

Hope this helps.
 
I've fitted a smallish Waeco (now Dometic of course) unit, it came with its own 240V inverter to run off the leisure batteries. It self senses when on hookup and bypasses the inverter.

So far I am quite impressed with it, removes humidity and cools down the living area quite rapidly, I've also used it whilst driving and running off the leisure battery/alternator. Downside they can be noisy.

I think I posted about fitting it last year some time.

As for whats available - all aircon units run on some sort of electrical power to compress the gas refrigerant and run the fan - think of how a fridge works and you have the same principle as to how an AC works. Reverse cycle - ie fan blows air over the hot parts to warm the cab are usually more expensive than the cooling only units - if you have heating already its no point in having an AC with heat as well.

All of the 12/24V units are really only designed for truck cabs, they can maintain a cool temp but cant effectively reduce it - generally they rely on the vehicle AC and then maintain temp overnight.

There is a Dutch company that sells 24V roof mount AC units and they are really very good and have a price that wipes out the Dutch national debt.

There are websites around with sizing calculators for AC, type in room dimensions and it will give you a result in watts.

Do some homework about where you will fit it in the roof - as you may need a frame to support it's weight and have head space in the living area.
 
we have one came with the Kontiki, blows cold or 'warm' air from the 240 feed so you need a hook up. It works very well but TBH I have considered taking it off as we did not use it all summer and it is taking away from our payload. Its noisy so you could not use it at night which is the only time in europe I could see it being used. If I had the money and the choice I would buy a van with cab air con which runs off of the engine like my car, thats when I need it most.
 
Truma do units that can be fitted under a seat if you have room, Its a good to keep the weight lower down in a motorhome
 
We have a 12v fan which you fill with water - not aircon but makes a surprising difference for 10 euros.
 
hi Mastodon,
was just wondering where did you buy your fan from?
 
Mastodon said:
We have a 12v fan which you fill with water - not aircon but makes a surprising difference for 10 euros.
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They work really well in dry air, when its humid they make it feel even hotter as the humidity rises. In the US they refer to "swamp coolers" an ice chest with a fan that sucks the cold air out - again the problem comes with humidity.

At home (sub tropical Australia) we use the air con to dehumidify and its surprising how comfortable 30C with 10% humidity can be and how unbearable it can be at 25C with 90% humidity.
 
I have a dometic B2200 it works on hook up or the generator. It does warm the air a bit on a cool evening but couldn't be relied upon to be the sole heating system.
It does cool very well on hot days. From memory it cost maybe £1000-£1200. I can't say i've used it that much but if I was going away for 3-4months I probably would.
 
David & Ann said:
I am thinking of installing an air condition unit in the habitation area. Questions????
What type? What size? What does it run on, Gas or electric? I have blow heating by gas. I have 2x60watt solar panels and a 1 Kw Inverter. How much does it cost (a) to buy, (b) to fit? Is it worth the expence at the end of the day?. I spend 3/4 months in Europe each year. Your advice would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance. :confused:
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Hi
Just looked on Ebay--Item Number 290368192686 Waeco air con unit for sale at £300.00 buy it now price:D
Why not take a look?;)
Bye for now
Freddie:D
 
We've got a Telair unit on our van.
The trouble with these units is the amps used on start-up because most sites abroad have a six amp hook-up, and though ours uses 4.8amps when running it needs 9.8 at start-up!!
Last year at our prefered site in Spain the hook-up was 10amps, this year it's been reduced to six and typically all the other sites we like the look-of are only using six aswell.
Our unit hasn't been run for two years now and when we get a new (to-us) van we won't be paying-out for habitation air-con.

regards...nige
 
Having had both I think dash a/c for travelling and stuck in traffic is far more important than lounge/roof a/c! After all when stopped you can get out and under some shade, have a beer etc. (Mind you it's even better to have both!)
 
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