How fast does camper cool with A/C?

[Wanderin_fool]

I just bought an 8000 btu portable. Initial run for a few minutes it seems to work well. I havent vented it yet, will need to fabricate opening.I cant justify spending close to a grand for a roof model with such limited use that I have.
My question stems from boating. I dont remove the camper for short weekends so the camper sits in the parking lot until we come off the water and plug into the campsite. I have heard it can take a long time to cool and lots of folks leave them on all day so its cool when they return. I cant imagine it would take very long at say 90 degrees in a truck camper, but what experience can you give me?
Thanks, Frank.

[Sentinelist]

Wanderin fool wrote:
I just bought an 8000 btu portable. Initial run for a few minutes it seems to work well. I havent vented it yet, will need to fabricate opening.I cant justify spending close to a grand for a roof model with such limited use that I have.

I couldn't agree more, and did the exact same thing as of today, so nice timing. I went with the Soleus Air KY-80 after reading good reviews on this vs. the LG or SPT models. My plan is to vent and drain it out the passenger side access hatch into the space of that corner of the truck's bed- I can even run the hose right to the hole in corner of the bed for the water drain! I will have to cut a hole in that passage door to accommodate both, however. Still working on the best solution for this. Of note, the camper is basically perma-mounted on my truck, so I'm not worried about stuff getting in.

In my Lance, this unit is sized about as perfect as can be for the roughly 1-square foot space on the floor under the fridge, between the bed and sofa. And hidden by the sofa too! While there is a 120V A/C receptacle directly above it by the fridge just for an air conditioner, I'm actually wiring up a subsystem with a battery bank and 1500w inverter in the cabinet right next to it under the sofa, so easy plug in there too.

I should have it in a few days, but I don't anticipate it taking long to cool the thing down, especially if I open the roof vents for a few minutes first.

[thejustin]

On my 6th RV and have yet to fire up the AC in any of them. Of course, me living in Alaska might have something to do with that, lol.

[BigBlockFord]

Pretty dang quick for our rig... Campers in general have a fairly small volume to heat/cool hence, provided there is decent insulation and the AC is in order, you should see quick results. Two examples...

In a recent run through the Redwoods, we stopped in Redding on the way home. 90 degrees outside, about 80 and slowly climbing inside (we just came from the coast). Dropped the jacks, plugged in, and fired up the A/C. Low cool yielded the first compressor cycle within 15 minutes; wall thermometer said 70. Closets and cabinets had to be opened to help equilibrate. Our travel buddies in a 29' class C waited about 3x as long.

Had a father-son trip on Crescent lake (Central OR) last year during July 4th week. 95 outside, 'bout the same inside (windows open all day during fishing). Kiddo (3 year old) fell asleep at the dinette table in the middle of dinner... queue the generator and A/C. 25 minutes later, the wall thermometer said 65 degrees.

My two cents- no need to run the A/C when you're not there, unless one of the furkids stays behind.

BBF

[popeyemth]

You might click on my name and look at my mod on converting roof air to a digital thermostat that shuts the AC off like a house unit when temp is reached.
Less than $25 works great in our Coachman .
Good Luck, Mike

[Golden_HVAC]

Hi,

It really depends on how large the camper is, and if you have slide outs. A normal camper with 8' long floor and say 3' tall cabover that is 5'X8' then you have about 64 square feet at 8' tall, along with 40 square feet at 3' tall. So a total of around 750 - 800 cubic feet.

A 2 ton (24,000 Btu) home air conditioner can cool 800 - 1,000 square feet while moving 800 cubic feet of air per minute! So 24,000 Btu's will cycle all the air in your your size camper every minute! But your A/C is only 8,000 Btu's so it will actually take 4 minutes to cycle all the air through it.

My guess is that unit will be large enough. That said, you have a portable A/C, so it will be taking cool air from the RV and through the condenser, then out the exhaust tube, so it will take a while to make up for the incoming outside air that is being blown out the air conditioner.

I would HOPE that you have a two tube portable air conditioner. This brings in warm outside air, then heats it even more, and then only blows out that hot outside air, not blowing the cold inside air out the condenser and hot air tube.

You might also want to consider making either a window vent, or perhaps a roof top vent adapter to blow the heat out and take in outside air when you need it.

Fred.

[jimh406]

It depends on how hot it is. Most 13500 but models have a high setting. You also can push the hot air out with roof fans.

[AKSuperDually]

wcjeep wrote:
Leaving ac on all day makes no sense. My 4 season rated camper starts to cool down in a few minutes in 90deg+ weather.

Mine has a thermostat.....so you could leave it on and maintain a desired temperature. Anything running in excess would be a fan, not the compressor.

[AKSuperDually]

I think the hottest we've camped in was about 90F. I just kicked it on low cool, as I was on a 110 connection...and came back in an hour and the camper was at 65F.

Recently on a hot day driving up the Alcan, I couldn't get comfortable at night after baking a meal and heating up the camper with the stove. I fired the genset (dry camping along the cassiar hwy), hit high cool, and it took about 12-15 minutes to get comfortable (likely 68F). Then I killed the AC & Generator, and went back to a circulating fan.

So....I'm not sure what size ours is (stock?), but it works pretty quickly.

[wcjeep]

Leaving ac on all day makes no sense. My 4 season rated camper starts to cool down in a few minutes in 90deg+ weather.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

It takes a long long time to cool down a hot RV. It is better to keep the air running and cycling during the day.