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starcraft69's avatar
starcraft69
Explorer
Aug 12, 2017

A\C insulation part 2

For part one please see

A/C Air duct sealing


Part two :

The A/C unit on top of the rig gets blasted by the sun. The air intake and exhaust housing box is metal and gets hot. To help lower the temps in the box I insulated the out side with reflective bubble wrap. I also put a strip down the center of the A/C unit cover.


As you can see there is no protection for the intake/exhaust box



Or the unit cover



You can imagine how hot this gets in the sun



Partly wrapped in the insulation





Complete wrap





This modification cost around $20.00 and took 45-60 min I have read that with this mod and the vent mod in part one I can expect to gain 4-6 degree cooler in our 30' fifth wheel. Hoping we can cool down to 74-76 degrees in 100+ temps before mod I couldn't cool any more then 80 degrees in 100+ temps.
  • DiskDoctr's avatar
    DiskDoctr
    Explorer
    Aug 14, 2017
    I like the Reflect-X idea!

    On our new to us camper this spring, I pulled the shroud and covered a bunch of the very thin foam covering on the side of the plenum with aluminum duct tape. It helped a great deal with sealing it and reinforcing the old foam.

    I believe I am benefiting from the reflective tape, but had I thought about the Reflect-X, I might have added it, too. I was unsure how hot the metal of the compressor would get.

    I'll be you could get about 80% or better of your results just by covering the underside of the top surface of the cover, though getting it to stick could be trouble :E

    I'm putting your mod on my to-do list, thanks! :C
  • Hunter11's avatar
    Hunter11
    Explorer II
    Aug 14, 2017
    Our unit came with two Dometic Penguin ii AC units both with black shrouds. I went on the roof not long ago when it was 101* outside and used my infrared thermometer and got temp readings of 145* on both shrouds with the AC units running in the full sun. I then took the shroud off the rear unit, scuffed it up a bit and spray painted it gloss white. Same situation as before only this time the white shroud had a temp reading of 114*. Needless to say I pulled the front AC unit shroud and painted it white as well. To me a drop in temp of 30* could do nothing but help.
  • suprz's avatar
    suprz
    Explorer
    Aug 13, 2017
    drsteve wrote:
    westend wrote:
    I'd suggest to get some white paint on that shroud. I'd bet it lowers the temp about 10 degrees inside the shroud.


    X2


    X3! If my rv came with a black shroud on the AC, first thing i would do is replace it with a white one. On a roof of an RV nothing should be black or a dark color
  • dkreuzen's avatar
    dkreuzen
    Explorer
    Aug 13, 2017
    Blacklane wrote:
    Do you realize that there is already several inches of Styrofoam insulation inside the metal box? Sure every bit helps, but I'm not sure this will be a dramatic improvement. I think the insulation inside the plastic shroud will reduce the outside noise, though.


    I just had my A/C apart and there is only 1/2" of coated fiberglass insulation on the inside of the box.
    I plan replacing the inside with insulation as thick as will fit.
  • ksg5000's avatar
    ksg5000
    Explorer
    Aug 13, 2017
    When I clean the evaporator coils I have to remove that metal shroud - hope you cleaned yours before you applied your insulation tape. My AC unit is covered by plastic shroud so heat via sun isn't an issue and the inside of the metal shroud is insulated.
  • drsteve's avatar
    drsteve
    Explorer
    Aug 13, 2017
    westend wrote:
    I'd suggest to get some white paint on that shroud. I'd bet it lowers the temp about 10 degrees inside the shroud.


    X2
  • Blacklane's avatar
    Blacklane
    Explorer
    Aug 12, 2017
    Do you realize that there is already several inches of Styrofoam insulation inside the metal box? Sure every bit helps, but I'm not sure this will be a dramatic improvement. I think the insulation inside the plastic shroud will reduce the outside noise, though.
  • westend's avatar
    westend
    Explorer
    Aug 12, 2017
    I'd suggest to get some white paint on that shroud. I'd bet it lowers the temp about 10 degrees inside the shroud.
  • starcraft69's avatar
    starcraft69
    Explorer
    Aug 12, 2017
    DiskDoctr wrote:
    How hot does the AC unit/metal get? Is it at risk of melting the plastic of the bubble wrap?


    No it gets hot from the sun beating on it and no the sun wont melt the bubble wrap insulation.
  • DiskDoctr's avatar
    DiskDoctr
    Explorer
    Aug 12, 2017
    How hot does the AC unit/metal get? Is it at risk of melting the plastic of the bubble wrap?

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