Cooling Issues in my stealth camper
Hi everyone. I'm going off the grid as a travel nurse, and I have just purchased a 12 * 6 toy hauler. It comes with a portable AC, which the guy I'm buying it from says works very well at night but ...
Forum Discussion
roadnurse wrote:
It is a single hose portable I think.
A 'single hose' portable a/c btu rating systems is not accurate compared with the normal btu output seen on regular a/c units. The rating system for the portable single hose units will be updated in the near future, hopefully.
If your lucky, a single hose unit will give you half its claimed btu of real world cooling capacity in a given 'cooled space', in the best of conditions.
In the worst of conditions, as in a sealed 'air tight trailer' like you're trying to create with drywall,insulation,etc,,,single hose portable A/C unit will be like pissing into a 25mph wind.
They don't cool as well as a 2 hose unit since they take in make up air from the cooled space to blow outside with their one hose, to cool the condenser coil.
Jfyi,,,
So in the best case, the make up air is easy for the unit to pull in from other areas in the home, doors/windows/etc, not sealed well.
But this means new air is being pulled into the cooled area that needs to be cooled in addition to the recirculated air thats already in the room.
A 12,000btu unit needs 300cfm of air to cool the condenser coil. So a new continuous flow of added 300 cfm of air added to the cooled space, that needs to be cooled,then continuously being blown outside to be wasted not cooling the area. Not the best setup imo. A 2 hose unit that uses only outside air to cool the condenser is the way to go imo.
Unless your portable unit has an external drain connections that you connect to the outside, in Florida summer, very high humidity, you'll constantly be emptying the overflowing condensate container.
roadnurse wrote:
Call me cheap, but I go through the indignities of being covered in blood, pee and poop, and I'm trying to make as much as possible for a few years. I will be driving to one city for 3 days, then another city for 2 days, and then home for 2 days.
You're more hard core than me. I couldn't live in a 6x12' cargo trailer for days, after coming from a 8hour shift where I get covered in blood, piss, $hit, as you said above...
I'd probably be in a much better state of mind in more comfortable accommodations getting ready for my next shift, but thats just me...
jmo
