Portable Air Conditioner

I have a portable AC unit in my "Man Cave" in my garage. It is a one hose model and the cave is 16x10 approx. I have 9-10 foot ceilings. The AC unit is a 9000.

I vent the hot air out into the garage through a hole I cut in the wall. The exhaust vents out a large amount of hot air. The unit is pretty loud, but I just turn up the TV or tunes to compensate. I do not need to empty the water very often.

We have used it in a friend's pop up and he said it did a great job of cooling it down at night. They were very comfortable and very glad we brought it for them to use as they did not have a roof AC unit.

This is the unit we have...

Iceman31 wrote:
Picked up a used 9000BTU unit today, installed it and all is good.

Good stuff!
Kindly let us know how effective it is, how much it helped etc.

Picked up a used 9000BTU unit today, installed it and all is good.

I put a Frigidaire 5000 btu AC in my Avion C-11 and it will do a good job of cooling it as long as the camper is somewhat shaded. It is better if it can be located up high since cool air goes down and warm air rises, but there are only so many options.

By the way, it runs at just over 500 watts and my old Yamaha 1000 watt generator easily runs in along with my battery charger.

I have a portable one in my house. It works. I think it is about 10,000BTU. It is a single hose unit and blows the moisture out the hose. There is no need to drain anything.

As another poster said it blows a lot of air out that hose. So it must be sucking air from leaks in the house. I think a dual hose unit would be an advantage. Most models only have a single hose.

I calculated the remote units are 20% less efficient than their window mount brethren. You wins some some loses some.

Only buy the 2 hose one. Otherwise the air going out the exhust has been cooled and will be replaced with hot air. Remember what goes out has to be replaced with new outside air. Cost's more but will be more effecient.

It is a 50amp coach but only connected to 30 amp. Never use my electric water heater and out of habit with my previous trailer we always turn the ac off when using the microwave.

Are you also going to be running the Fiver's rooftop A/C? One or two units? And is this a 50-Amp Coach? If it's 50A, will you be connected to 50A shore tie or just 30A with an adapter?

I ask because wattage adds up fast if you only have 30A available. That 5000 may RUN at 500 watts but I think it'll demand somewhat more to start. If it's trying to start same time as the compressor in a rooftop unit you might find it taxes 30A. I doubt you'd be able to run microwave and electric water heater too.

I bought a 5000 a few years ago for my TT - no roof air. In the heat of the summer it was unbearable at night in there.

Although it did blow enough cool to almost take some heat out of a bowl of soup, I found it to be very ineffective. I pulled a jalousie window apart and rigged it there where I was set up for a couple weeks.

Instead of sweltering at 93, I sweltered at 89 instead. I realize it won't cool a whole TT but I thought it would at least make it bearable in there. I had to run it until nearly midnight before I could sleep.

I think mine is rated at 575 watts.

But! Having said all that, I think the AC's of today are no where near as good as those of yesteryear. In my stick house I have a 12000 in my bedroom. It is a very old unit and was well used when I bought it. It does an amazing job of cooling. I leave the bedroom door open with a fan and it cools one whole end of my house.

I have a nearly new 12000 in my kitchen. It will not even cool the kitchen down very much, much less any of the adjoining rooms. It is very poor at cooling even though rated for 12K BTU. It is less than half as effective as my old one.

I have a very old 8000 in my living room. I bought it new in 76. It still works after all these years and works very well. It cools the living room down very well, much better than the near new 12000 does the kitchen, 1/3 the size of a room.

So I really think the new AC units of today are very poor compared to old ones.