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adamis's avatar
adamis
Nomad II
Apr 30, 2024

12v DC Air Conditioning Conversion Progress

Well, I'm knee deep into my Spring camper project. I posted about this earlier about all of the work I plan on doing but this update is specifically to the AC conversion. As a recap for those that didn't see my initial post, I am removing the roof AC unit and replacing with a under the dinette 12v DC unit. This is going in place of the furnace (which is being replaced with a Wave 3 Catalytic heater and is sufficient for my climate).

The AC unit I purchased off of Aliexpress for around $550 plus $250 in shipping. The price seems to fluctuate quite a bit by the way so if your interested in this project, keep checking those prices often. One note... This unit is actually a 24v DC unit but they include a 24v to 12v converter if you order it that way.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804887330541.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.7eff1802VDiAyq&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

So far the install has been fairly reasonable. The most difficult part is needing to change how the outside air is routed. This unit has the outside air vents on the bottom of it (for install in a van conversion where it would pull from air through the floor. I didn't want to cut any fiberglass to vent the air downwards so I'm rerouting the air to go out the side to make use of the existing hatch for the old furnace. The biggest part of my time is spent puzzling through how I'm going to fit the various pieces and what type of ducting I'm going to use.

I am recording all of this and will eventually have a video on YouTube to show how I did it for anyone else contemplating the same project.

For anyone wondering why bother doing this? Many reasons I suppose. First, I couldn't stand how tall the existing roof top AC looks on the camper. It stands out like a sore thumb. It's also susceptible to low hanging branches. It is a lot of mass high up on the camper impacting ride handling. It is inefficient and loud. The best part is that this new unit I will be able to run on battery and solar for most of my needs thus making it way more useful.

 

  • adamis's avatar
    adamis
    Nomad II
    May 02, 2024

    A few more pictures to share. I did end up removing the divider in the seat that separated the small compartment from the larger compartment. In these pictures I still have the piece of wood where the divider went but I eventually removed it because it was difficult to work around and served no purpose. Initially I was thinking of moving my battery to the small compartment but as of now, I'm leaning towards running the cable provided to where the existing battery is. The AC unit itself is 24v but they provide a 12v to 24v DC converter. The 24v wiring they provide is really quite long and will snake easily through the camper to get to the back where the battery is. The only real difficulty will be in getting the wire around some of the tighter compartments with limited access. It will be a bear to get it done but I don't foresee any show stopping issues. As part of this build I am also removing my oven / stove and replacing it with just a two burner stove. When I do that it will likely free up quite a bit of space to snake the wires around.

     

     

  • adamis's avatar
    adamis
    Nomad II
    May 21, 2024

    Got an update for you all! The 12v DC under dinnete Air Conditioning conversion is about 90% complete. I'm waiting on a few additional parts but everything is in place, wired up and running. I've done a couple of preliminary tests so far with pretty good results. For my battery I currently have a single 100AH Battle Born battery (that is almost 5 years old at this point). I also have 200w of solar on the roof (that will be expanded to at least 400w and possibly 500w or 600w soon). With a 100AH battery, 200w of solar in late afternoon, with the AC in eco mode, I was able to run the AC for almost an hour and pulled 45AH out of the battery. This would give me close to 2 hours of runtime on a single 100AH battery. I can't complain with that result, it's actually better than I suspected.

     
    The AC was in eco-mode so in the video the cool air was only 60+ degrees. It gets colder on non-eco mode but I haven't done complete testing yet. Eco-mode seems to run the compressor less but doesn't necessarily lower the amperage draw when it is running. Amps drawn tend to be around 50 to 60 amps when the compressor is running.
    I will follow up with more in depth testing once I have everything 100% finished. I have a complete video series I've been recording and will release when the project is complete.
     
    Lastly, for those that haven't seen my previous posts, I'm moving the AC off the roof to eliminate the height, weight and gain additional solar capacity.
     
  • greenno1's avatar
    greenno1
    Explorer II
    Jun 14, 2024

    Hey Rob looks like your busy or have been.

    Haven’t been on this site for awhile but wanted to make a few suggestions for ya.

    Take Jim’s advice and go with a mppt controller for your solar. I finally got around to swapping out the Zamp units that came with my camper when I got it back in 18’ and I get approx 30% more daily generation as compared to before. I also added another 390w of solar on the roof giving me a total of 925w.

    If I can fit that much on top of my rig WITH an A/C unit up there your’s will be a piece of cake.

    Doesn't make sense to have a ton of solar if you can’t store it all.

    Get some 314ahr EVE LifePo4 cells and build yourself (2) 12v battery’s giving you a capacity of 628ahrs total. Real easy to do. Battery’s, BMS, 3k Inverter for less than 2k and your saving weight on the battery’s also. 
    Give me a jingle and I can walk you through everything.

    Hope your doing well.

    Mike

     

     

     

     

     

  • StirCrazy's avatar
    StirCrazy
    Moderator
    May 02, 2024

    ok so I don't see a listing for what type of freon it uses so it much be one that you add water ?  so basicly a fancy swamp cooler.  if this is the case how are you going to controle the moistuere in the rv? 

    • adamis's avatar
      adamis
      Nomad II
      May 06, 2024

      No, it is not a swamp cooler. It is an actual AC unit.

  • adamis's avatar
    adamis
    Nomad II
    May 02, 2024

    No, this is not a swamp cooler, it is an actual AC unit. Early testing I did yesterday with an inside camper temp of 88 degrees it was blowing cold air around 57 degrees and that was after running for just a few minutes. I'm in the middle of finishing up wiring details and such but I am continuing to record my process so others can watch the full build experience and gather from it what they may.

    • StirCrazy's avatar
      StirCrazy
      Moderator
      May 03, 2024

      interesting, they are pretty vage on ali express on any detais on how it works, but at full power 70amps (12V DC) thats not to bad, I was looking at a roof top unit made by the same company that uses freon and is a 12V system, but its only 2200 btu of cooling, and uses 60amps at 12V on max power.   

      • adamis's avatar
        adamis
        Nomad II
        May 03, 2024

        On my unit, internally it actually runs on 24v. If you purchase the 12v unit, they provide a 12v to 24v converter. This actually is pretty nice because I was able to put the converter really close to my battery compartment and I'll snake the 24v lines through the camper.

        I measured about 50 amp draw on high on the 12v side. I'm working on wiring now as I am going to make the face mounted control panel remote so I can move it somewhere visible. Once I have that done I'll be doing more testing and get more testing information.

  • Camper_Jeff___K's avatar
    Camper_Jeff___K
    Nomad III
    May 05, 2024

    Interesting,  I have seen 12 volt DC units but they cost 2500 to 3000. I know a guy who installed one on his van a while back and he loves it. I don't recall the specific details but it does the job fast, doesn't seem to rough on his solar and lifepo batteries. I'll be interested to see the video when you post it.

    • adamis's avatar
      adamis
      Nomad II
      May 06, 2024

      Thanks. I'm plugging away at the project little by little as I have time. Goal is to have it all together before end of June so it's ready for Summer trips.

      • StirCrazy's avatar
        StirCrazy
        Moderator
        May 08, 2024

        coming along, was there any info on how it works in the box, ie is it refrigerant based or a different type of cooling, I can't find any info on it at all aside from what the seller says and all  they give you is frequency conversion cooling, what ever that is as I cant find anything with thoes words eaither except how to cool frequency converter hardware haha

    • adamis's avatar
      adamis
      Nomad II
      May 06, 2024

      Currently I have 200w of solar and 100AH LiFePo4. I have plans to expand to 400w of solar but will see if it's possible to add even more once the AC unit is removed. for battery, I don't really plan on changing out my battery in the near future but I may see what the largest capacity LiFePo4 I can get either in the battery compartment or in the opposing Dinette seat (should be able to set quite a bit in there I think).

      • valhalla360's avatar
        valhalla360
        Navigator
        May 06, 2024

        So how are you planning to power it?

        50amp is 600w. Even at noon with no losses, you are pulling 200w off the battery bank. 

        100amp-hr is 1200w-hr. Most of the day,  solar will put out a fraction of the rating.  In ideal condition you might get 3hr if you start with a full battery bank. 

  • bigfootford's avatar
    bigfootford
    Nomad II
    May 21, 2024

    Looking good!  

    Notice your Solar controller is PWM..  When you decide to upgrade your solar I would get panels that have over 18 volts VMP and a good MPPT controller.  I have 200watts of solar, 2 100's.  Their ISC is 4.5 each and the VMP is 23v. My MPPT controller is Morningstar.  On a good harvest day I get 14 amps from those 2 panels!  If the controller was PWM I would see a max of 9 amps!  

    Great that your Battle Born is still pumping the electrons!  

    Hopefully your AC unit will provide the needed cooling.

    Jim.

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