Portable Air Conditioner?

[havasu]

As we spend most of the time in the desert with temps well north of 100F, good a/c is something that we really need.

I have 13.5k units (ducted) and could upgrade them to 15k units but I am considering a portable a/c unit.

After I removed the couch from the slide, I have a perfect space for one where I could actually install a vent in the slideout for a semi-permanent installation.

I am thinking about a dual hose version - one that sucks and blows air from outside to cool rather than one that sucks air from the coach and blows it outside and which creates negative air pressure in the coach meaning that it sucks hot air in somewhere else.

Anyone have any experience of using a portable a/c in an RV?

[TyroneandGladys]

havasu wrote:
Thanks - I did check out Home Depot but they only have the single hose design and they don't work in an RV - it needs to be a dual hose.

In a basement the single would work great as it pulls the cooler air from the rest of the house.

Believe it or not the portable AC does not know if you have put it in a house a workshop a garage or a RV. If you do not believe me go get it from Home Depot put the window adapter that come with it in one of the windows in your RV the adapter will work on sliding windows, Run the single hose from the AC to the window adapter and you will see it works great, After seeing this then make your one permanent vent. If I am wrong, which I am not, and the AC does not work right return it to Home Depot.

[TyroneandGladys]

WARNING the descriptions used are very basic and are extremely simplified. In a air conditioner with a compressor you have two coils the coil on the inside of the house absorbs the heat of the air passing though it and the coil outside releases that heat to the air passing through it. If a a air conditioner is doing a good job there will be a 10 degree difference in that temperature in the air in the inside and what is coming out of the air conditioner In a portable air conditioner you have both coils in the house you duct the air that has passed over the coil that would normally be outside. Now if you start bringing in outside air to cool and put in the inside and it is 110 outside you will be dumping 100 degree air on the inside and it will not get any cooler than 100 until the outside temperature goes down, I have a portable air conditioner with a compressor for use in a home in Colorado and it only has one hose to exhaust the hot air outside and it works fine no problems with pressure. Now I have seen evaporative coolers that draw in outside air and then pumps that air in the house and that air does need to be vented outside for proper cooling, You should never mix the two.

[havasu]

Thanks - I did check out Home Depot but they only have the single hose design and they don't work in an RV - it needs to be a dual hose.

In a basement the single would work great as it pulls the cooler air from the rest of the house.

[wannavolunteerF]

My DD & SIL put one in their walkout basement of their S&B here in GA, and it really made a difference in July & August with the basement not heated/cooled with rest of house. It did make a little noise, but not anymore than a window unit or the regular units in most RV's. They bought theirs at Home Depot and went to that type, because their HOA wouldn't allow window units.

[havasu]

I've pretty much convinced myself that it is the way to go - a window air is out as some of the parks we stay in won't allow them - but a couple of nicely finished vents in the side of the slide won't attract any attention. Some of the units look fairly sleek and so I can probably build a nice cabinet around one of them for a semi-permanent install - with say an extra 10k btu combined with the 27k we have already, we should be able to handle anything that is thrown at us 🙂

[gcloss]

I had a portable A/C unit at home for a few years. It worked great, but it was very noisy.

[Pauljdav]

Sounds like a sound plan to supplement what you already have.

[Son_of_Norway]

I have a window air conditioner that I mount in a back bedroom window when we are camping with hookups during very hot weather. I only have 30-amp service so I can only run one of the roof air conditioners when I'm hooked up to power. I decided that it wasn't worth re-wiring the coach to run them both. In combination with the front air conditioner I can easily keep the coach at a comfortable 70-75 even when it's 105 outdoors. I bought it from someone off Craigslist for about $50. I have a mount that it sits on and an insulated frame that covers the window opening around it. I plug it in separately to the pedestal. It works very well for the family and keeps the coach at a much more comfortable temp than running just one of the roof units.

Miles