Air Conditioning Question

[Arne]

insulation is better, but if it is white, it should be ok. Dark colors will absorb a lot more heat.

He can try it as is, and go from there.

you are right.... diagram is about 1/3rd of the way down the page..

http://home.howstuffworks.com/ac.htm/printable

[8ball_99]

Duh ! I just figured out why my 5,000 btu on high wouldn't keep up !

All I had exposed out of my A/C neich box was about 2" of the rear of the unit.

Boy do I feel stupid ! Time to redesign the neich with intakes for the side vents I guess.

LoL no big deal. I haven't seen your setup so I can't say what would be the best fix. But one option is to leave the unit as is and close the vent that connects the rear of the unit into your living space. Then just add a vent in the rear cargo area to allow outside air in. Or even better if power isn't a huge factor (I'm guessing its not since your running a AC) install a small fan in the rear area to help pull air in so your AC isn't starved of air.. The fan on the AC would pull air on its own but if you add a vent with a fan you can have a much smaller vent then what you would need with out the fan.

[edcasey]

Duh ! I just figured out why my 5,000 btu on high wouldn't keep up !

All I had exposed out of my A/C neich box was about 2" of the rear of the unit.

Boy do I feel stupid ! Time to redesign the neich with intakes for the side vents I guess.

That shouldn't be too hard to fix Bob. It reminds me of something that happened a few years ago. A major RV manufacturer attempted to use a 10,000 btu household A/C in a 16 ft camper. They made a box above the refrigerator for it to mount in. They put a vent in the side of the box to allow air intake for the compressor fan. The problem was where they put the vent was actually through the side wall of an interior closet. When the air conditioner was running, the condenser fan would push out cool interior air out through the condenser. The air conditioner was taking whatever cool air it produced and blowing much of it outside. It was also creating a vacuum inside the camper so warm air was being sucked into the camper through window and door seals. It did eventually cool but would take much, much longer than it should have and the compressor seemed to run almost constantly. After just one year, they abandoned the idea and went back to a roof top air conditioner. This design was done by professionals who should have known better.

[8ball_99]

I think it stinks that roof top ACs are 500+ when you can pick up a window air for under 100 bucks Even a 10k window ac is under 200.
Nothing wrong with using a window ac it just takes up more space inside.. Thats the only reason I didn't install one in mine. If you can just get fresh air from outside to the side vents on the AC you will be good to go!

[Arne]

reminds me of california house builders that installed panels on roofs that were imported from australia (which 25 years ago, was way ahead of us in solar use). The instructions said to install them facing north... and they did. bummer, dude.