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TyroneandGladys's avatar
Jun 29, 2013

Keeping it cool when It is 100 Plus

A AC if working properly will cool the incoming air by 20 degrees. In other words if the temperature in RV is 100 degrees the air coming out should be 80 degrees. Some tricks to keeping cool in an RV when the outside temps go over 100 degrees are.
First start cooling early It is much easier to maintain a lower temp than to let it get to 100 degrees and then try to cool it down.
Second reduce the area to be cooled examples cabin area, overhead bed, bathroom and bedroom. After the sun goes down open up these areas if they are going to be used.
Third cut down heat from the sun on your RV and on the windows. Examples park where you can get shade in the afternoon if possible. If no shade is available either park facing West since the front of you RV is smallest surface area there will be less heat gain than the afternoon sun hitting the side of your RV or park with your awning side to the West and put your awning out to shade the side of your RV. Use a windshield cover on the outside of your cab windshield and door windows. Tint your windows if possible. Window awnings will also help. Cut Reflective Radiant Barrier to fit the inside of your windows or use aluminum foil. On our cab over window we have it tinted and a piece of 1inch solid styrofoam insulation secured to the inside of the window with double sided tape.
Fourth do not use the range or cook top when the sun is out if you must use these wait till nighttime.
Fifth maintenance clean your AC filters. Clean the outside coils on the AC on the roof.
Sixth use some fans a fan will not make it cooler but it will make it feel cooler

17 Replies

  • Nice thing about an RV is that believe it or not you can move them to a place where it is not 100 degrees. We were in Bishop, CA two days ago where it was 100 degrees. In Barsow it was 105 degrees. In Paso Robles it was 110 degrees. In Monterey it was 75 degrees. Took 5 hours to get from Barstow to Monterey but it was worth it. Two weeks earlier when we hit the high temps in the Bishop area we headed into the mountains and at 7,000 feet elevation it was 25 degrees cooler.

    Another consideration is the heat sink effect of asphalt. It is a lot cooler in the evening out in the open desert than in town with all the asphalt soaking up the sunlight all day long.
  • Just do not use reflectix if you have double pane windows. Same for some window tint. Read the packaging first.
  • Our AC's have three fan speeds. Low, High, and Auto. On high the fan keeps blowing even when the compressor cycles off thus using the rest of the cooling available in the condensor. Has made a big difference. Ditto on fans. I mounted a 12 volt one above the seating area I prefer and it make a big difference in comfort.
  • My AC chills the air by 30 degrees. If the air going into the AC(the temperature of the inside of the RV) is 95* then the air coming out is 65*. That's on MAX COOL. Once the RV is chilled down to 80* I change over to just COOL. The chill is still 30* differential between room temp and output temp, but the fan speed is lower speed. I set the thermostat cycling to 75* and the compressor starts to kick on and off to keep the RV at 75*.
  • We treat high temps the way we treat below-freezing temps. Reflectix over the Windows, insulation in the vents, close off the cab area. One source of heat that we have noticed is the conducted heat coming through the black window frames. If we spent much time in hot temps, I would probably paint the window frames white.
  • To clarify, the air going through the AC will be cooled 17~21 degrees but that doesn't mean the AC will only cool the inside (compared to the outside) of the RV by that much. This seems to get confused a lot.

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