Lower Bay Mini Split AC size

[luvrbus]

There is nothing more miserable than a bus with marginal cooling, with cold weather you can add clothes BTDT

[Scott & Heather]

True story ^.  Typically we've only seen 80-90 degrees ambient living in our bus. One summer we were in Wisconsin and it was 104 for a couple of weeks. Up until then, we only had one 13,500 BTU rooftop. It was doing the trick. Then those 100+ degree days showed up. Needless to say, we have two rooftops now. And that's plenty for our needs. But it's still 27,000 BTU combined. I can't figure out how you could go less than that and keep a bus cool in the summer heat.


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[somewhereinusa]

Mumsywumsy was not a happy camper this last weekend, only one air conditioner that wouldn't stay running in the day time because it would overheat and shut down.

Is lower cost to run the inverter types the only reason to buy one? Since it will only be run when I plug into power that I paid a flat fee for at a campground, what makes the difference? My understanding is that they run all the time, just at different levels, do they always put out cool air just different amounts? That does seem like it would be a plus.

Bob, where did you get your latest one at that price?
Just  as a rough guess would two 9's cool  this? Mounted on very front and rear walls. Forty feet long, 1 inch Styrofoam in walls, 1/2 inch in ceiling, 2 inch in floor?



Dick

[muldoonman]

All I know is 3 (14,000) Cruisair's  running at peak will get you hot in my coach on anything over 95 degrees days.  Gotta have a fan handy for sure. Put a 2 ton Mitsubishi Mini in my man cave last summer and that thing is solid. How do you duct the exhaust air on the condensing unit from bus bay?

[Ace]

The mini's have their own fan and their vented through a louvered or screen door on a bay door


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[TomC]

If you'll notice, most motorhomes are back to using roof tops. They are relatively cheap, easy to replace. I have three 13,500btu old style Colemans that have been flawless for over 20 years. Not as quiet as I'd like, but the performance out weighs the noise. I use two going down the road.
Mini-Splits sound good on paper, but are a bugger to work on. And how do you replace one on the road? Roof tops, any RV supply store will have them. Good Luck, TomC

[eagle19952]

If you'll notice, most motorhomes are back to using roof tops. They are relatively cheap, easy to replace. I have three 13,500btu old style Colemans that have been flawless for over 20 years. Not as quiet as I'd like, but the performance out weighs the noise. I use two going down the road.
Mini-Splits sound good on paper, but are a bugger to work on. And how do you replace one on the road? Roof tops, any RV supply store will have them. Good Luck, TomC

I have a commercial/residential AC system, Once AC techs get past the idea that it is planted in a  bus, I have no trouble finding a repair person.

RV AC tech's seem much harder to find (based on my experiance with others in parks) that actually know what they are doing. Mobile RV techs seem to do rooftop AC's as an after thought...

i am all in favor of some type of non rv rooftop AC.

[Ace]

 Tom I like the rooftops on my bus but in the case of my truck I don't have enough clearance on top of the box so I have no other choice than to go with a mini split or a cruise air type AC unit.
The minisplits seem to be cheap enough that they're almost comparable to a rooftop that when one goes bad you can almost afford to replace it rather than repair it.

[Darkspeed]

This ads a new twist to the plot..
I have a friend who is using a 48V DC mini split.
I was planning on having a 48V battery bank anyway.
It would be pretty cool to be able to run the AC even if for limited duration without shore power or generator.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Home-off-grid-dc-compressor-48V_60161414956.html

[robertglines1]

I will not lead anyone down the mini-split road! Just hate noise of roof tops. It really screws my hearing up. I have a vacum pump and recharge kit ($65) that comes with fittings and gauges. I do my own hvac work. I have 3 separate units so if I loose one there is backup. Total 30,000 btu. Bus in shop today 96 F outside I turned 1-9 and 12 on 45 minutes later they we cycling at 72 F inside. Not for the weak at heart ...No comparison in noise factor...It is a busnut thing to do different.  I swore off discussing them in public forum because of mixed results by others.  I like them enough I now own 5. Bus was first now have 2 in house.   

[TomC]

Ace-the same reason I converted two Duo-therm Penguins (roof top 15,000btu cool only units) to basement. But, as I understand from Clifford, the Penguins have been cheapened up. For A/C in the cab, I bought a Duo-therm basement 8,500btu cool/heat unit (heating coil). I think with 38,500btu of cooling, I'll be fine considering as I'm working on it now, I have a 10,000btu portable for A/C that keeps it cool enough to work in. Good Luck, TomC

[Scott & Heather]

Two questions:

1. TomC, I've seen/heard of people converting roof tops to basement units. Is there something more than fancy ductwork to make this work? Can you elaborate?

2. Concerning mini splits flanges cracking or coming loose, is there a way to just solder all the copper connections to prevent connection leaks? I don't know much about HVAC, so maybe I'm being naive here.


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[Darkspeed]

Scott, you can solder these inline at the unit to keep the lines from cracking due to vibration ( http://www.unisource-mfg.com/products/oneproduct.php?categoryid=50&productid=203 ) . In addition if you mount your unit on Isolators it will last much much longer ( http://www.vibrationmounts.com/Products2.htm )

[Darkspeed]

Not to throw this off the rails but I am planning on using a 48VDC 12K BTU DC compressor + a Vintage Air IV Magnum in the dash of the bus for driver AC/Heat/Defrost.

Im starting to wonder if this ( or a second one) could be used as a primary AC if the bus was insulated well enough.


http://www.masterflux.com/

http://www.vintageair.com/2014catalog/Pages%20from%202014%20VintageAir%20Cat%20rev%208-15%2044.pdf

[solodon]

It seems the Masterflux would be an option for use with the OTR driver a/c unit.  Interesting.