High Wall A/C Unit

[qtla9111]

A local office trailer manufacturer uses a high wall A/C or here we call it a minisplit. Compressor is outside and thee air unit is mounted on the wall. He mounts his on the tongue but the unit has no converter. It plugs direct into a 110 outlet and a fuse box inside the office.

I would like to eliminate the obnoxious roof air unit that has driven me nuts since I started rving 15 years ago. The trailer vibrates, drones and freezes us out. We tried reducing the unit size in one rv but the results were the same. I would replace the roof air with a dome.

That said, I was considering mounting the compressor or the outside unit on a reinforced bumper. The wall unit would be mounted in the living area above the window. The tubing would be run under the rv and up through the entertainment center cabinet. The distance would be less than the 4 meter maximum and the unit would be a 9000 btu or 3/4 ton unit.

Question is, how would I tie the unit into the rv electrical system? Would it be best to just plug it into the 110 hookup at the rv electrical post or when boondocking directly to the generator?

Some of my ideas are half-baked as I know little about electricity but would have someone do the installation.

Thanks in advance.

[qtla9111]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, it is a 120 not a 240 and includes the heat pump. The other option I had was to install two window units in cabinets. The microwave under the cooktop is useless to us and it would make a great front area location. The bedroom cabinet would be over the bumper and into the wall. The window unit idea sounds very complicated and you would have to cut into the sidewalls. We had a cabinet air on our 2000 Trailmanor, it was a great idea. All of this has to do with comfort and I just can't stand the noise and size of the roof air.

I will update this summer if this becomes reality.

[Golden_HVAC]

Hi,

Yes minisplits are made that run on 120 volts. You might also consider a heat pump too. They generate a lot of heat with very little electricity used.

Somoene asked about how much heat a electrical heater will make- at what cost. To compare, you need about 22 KW to make 80,000 Btu's of heat. In my case, it was $0.10 per KW or $2.20 to make 80,000 Btu's.

80,000 Btu's is about what you get out of a furnace burning 1 gallon of propane. Your local costs can vary.

Each gallon of diesel is about 135,000 Btu's and burned in a Aqua Hot can produce about 100,000 Btu's of heat, or about 28 KW worth?

Anyway a ductless heat pump can produce 80,000 Btu's while using about 4-5 KW of electricity, or about 50 cents. So way lower cost to heat with a ductless heat pump.

Problem? Running the electrical and freon lines can creat a problem in some case, but it seems that you will locate this next to a cabinet, and can run the drain to the ground, freon and electrical line (1/2" sealtight) in that area.

The drain pan is a problem, as it is not designed to be off-level, and is also not very deep. So moving the RV with a wet drain pan, and it probably will leak out a couple ounces of water. Shutting the A/C off a couple of hours before leaving camp, and it will dry out on it's own. You would normally level the RV so that probably will not 'become' a problem. You might have the drain on the left or right had side of the indoor coil. If that side is lower, it will speed the drain process - say 1/4" lower over the distance of the 3' wide evaporator unit? However if the drain outlet is on the right, but your tubing goes through the cabinet on the left, then you will need it perfectly level, so that the water will flow to the right inside the drain pan, then flow to the left and down the cabinet wall inside the drain tubing.

There are optional drain pan pumps, if all that does not work out. Yet the drain pan pump needs to be cleaned every year or so.

I bought the heat pump for my home at AcWholesalers.com They offer ductless units too. Check the EER rating, in addition to the weight. You can run a higher EER unit on less wattage, that you typically do not pay for at the RV park, however it will be easier on the generator to start a high efficiency unit than a lower EER unit.

10 EER means that it will take about 1,000 watts to get 10,000 Btu's of cooling. While a 25 SEER unit will get 25,000 Btu's of cooling per KW of electricity. So a 20 SEER 10,000 Btu unit should be consuming about 500 watts! While a 10 SEER unit would use 1,000 watts.

Good luck!

Fred.

[KD4UPL]

I would tie it into the RV electrical panel. I would just use the circuit breaker that formally went to your roof AC unit.
If this unit is 120v that makes it easy. Most of the mini-split's I'm familiar with in residential construction are 240v AC. I would make certain this one is 120v. However, a 240v unit will work just fine if you have or can install a 50 amp service in your RV. The 50 amp service will provide 240v.
If this unit made for office trailers specifically? If it's intended for stationary use I would wonder if the manufacturer will warranty it when used in a mobile environment.