2013 Roadtrek RS air conditioning problem
I have a 2013 Roadtrek RS on the MB Sprinter with a 11,000 BTU Dometic Penquin air conditioner. The AC does not seem to be sufficent to cool the van. When it is over 90 out, I can only get the temp ...
Forum Discussion
It's all well and good to say that an AC unit will only lower the temp 20* or 25*. But let's say it's 105* in the unit, and it cools the air 20* to 85*. Now it's drawing 20* cooler air through it, and it should cool the inside even more. That other thread mentioned includes this quote from rvtrax.com:
The issue is whether the heat sources (the sun, mostly) are reheating the inside temp back to the same as before. A larger AC capacity can prevent this from happening, of course. I know people who had a 5K BTU room AC in their TT and it wasn't doing the job, but they replaced it with a 12K BTU and it cooled very well. To simply say that it's only going to cool down 20* or 25* seems inaccurate to me. After all, if one could hook a 3 ton, 14 SEER house AC to the B, is is only going to cool the interior 25*? No. In 30 minutes it will be like a freezer in there.
One can either increase the supply of cooling, or decrease the supply of heat entering the unit, or a combination of both.
One idea I had this spring for traveling in hot, dry areas was to get a portable swamp cooler. AC works, in part at least, by removing humidity from the air. Higher humidity gives AC more to work with. I figured I should be able to run both the AC and the swamp cooler. The swamp cooler, blowing directly at me, gets me damp and makes my skin feel cooler. Then the AC draws in the moist air, dries it out, and returns it at a lower temperature. Seems like the swamp cooler should contribute 5 or 10 degrees. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I did not find myself in a high heat situation in my travels this summer (pleasant, open-window sleeping temps every night, woohoo!) and did not get to test the idea.
The factory specification is approximately 20°F cooler air exiting out the discharge than the ambient room temperature entering into the filter. Air conditioners only remove the heat from the air, so if your RV temperature inside is 90 degrees the discharge temperature would only be approximately 70 degrees.
The issue is whether the heat sources (the sun, mostly) are reheating the inside temp back to the same as before. A larger AC capacity can prevent this from happening, of course. I know people who had a 5K BTU room AC in their TT and it wasn't doing the job, but they replaced it with a 12K BTU and it cooled very well. To simply say that it's only going to cool down 20* or 25* seems inaccurate to me. After all, if one could hook a 3 ton, 14 SEER house AC to the B, is is only going to cool the interior 25*? No. In 30 minutes it will be like a freezer in there.
One can either increase the supply of cooling, or decrease the supply of heat entering the unit, or a combination of both.
One idea I had this spring for traveling in hot, dry areas was to get a portable swamp cooler. AC works, in part at least, by removing humidity from the air. Higher humidity gives AC more to work with. I figured I should be able to run both the AC and the swamp cooler. The swamp cooler, blowing directly at me, gets me damp and makes my skin feel cooler. Then the AC draws in the moist air, dries it out, and returns it at a lower temperature. Seems like the swamp cooler should contribute 5 or 10 degrees. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I did not find myself in a high heat situation in my travels this summer (pleasant, open-window sleeping temps every night, woohoo!) and did not get to test the idea.
