2020 grey wolf TH poor AC
AC unit won’t keep trailer cooler than 83 at night ! Any ideas ? I checked top unit every thing looks good! It can’t cool when full sun and 95 in FL , lol ??
Forum Discussion
heat gain (or loss) is dominated by wall area, not interior volume. And the greater the interior volume is the smaller the ratio of surface area to volume is.
Trailer has lots of surface area not much volume
Compared to a house, also add in the heat gain through the trailer floor. In a house ground temps is usually pretty constant around 50F no matter where in the country you are. In a trailer temp under the floor is close to outside ambient
Then factor in the window area vs. total area compared to a house.
Then add in the low R factor of trailer walls and windows.
All this adds up to lots of BTU needed to cool a small volume.
But then if you go buy a room AC unit for a house a 13K BTU AC unit is usually only claimed to cool a pretty small room, something similar to a TT but in a place with much higher expected insulating value and fewer windows.
So in a TT you need to be able to move lots of BTU to keep it cool even though the interior volume is small. All driven by physics and construction limitations
Same problem occurs trying to heat a trailer in cold weather. A 30K BTU furnace in my trailer will often barely keep the trailer warm near freezing while and 80K BTU home furnace keeps by 2600 sq ft house nice and toasty at 15F and cycles less than 50%.
Trailer has lots of surface area not much volume
Compared to a house, also add in the heat gain through the trailer floor. In a house ground temps is usually pretty constant around 50F no matter where in the country you are. In a trailer temp under the floor is close to outside ambient
Then factor in the window area vs. total area compared to a house.
Then add in the low R factor of trailer walls and windows.
All this adds up to lots of BTU needed to cool a small volume.
But then if you go buy a room AC unit for a house a 13K BTU AC unit is usually only claimed to cool a pretty small room, something similar to a TT but in a place with much higher expected insulating value and fewer windows.
So in a TT you need to be able to move lots of BTU to keep it cool even though the interior volume is small. All driven by physics and construction limitations
Same problem occurs trying to heat a trailer in cold weather. A 30K BTU furnace in my trailer will often barely keep the trailer warm near freezing while and 80K BTU home furnace keeps by 2600 sq ft house nice and toasty at 15F and cycles less than 50%.
