External vents for portable AC

[PrivatePilot]

G'day everyone!

I recently purchased an Emerson EAP01 1000BTU portable AC to experiment with on our tiny trailer. These things are hard to come by - seems they were discontinued but I managed to snag one on eBay. The goal is to just make the trailer comfortable for sleeping at night during hot & humid conditions - I know it's not going to cool it down during the day with solar load. I also wanted something that was going to happily run on my 2000w inverter genny without spooling it up to wide open.

Unlike most people who bought these things, I at least have realistic expectations, unlike those who bought them and found out they wouldn't cool their 1500 sqft apartment they somehow expected it to do.

Anyhow, venting the exhaust is going to be the main challenge. I've tried a few hack-ish setups (venting through the roof vent, venting through the side hatch via a long pipe addition) and neither were ideal. Venting through the roof vent needed the fantastic fan to be running (otherwise it just pushed a lot of the vented hot air back into the trailer, and then it seemed to be still hit and miss on effectiveness as it was sucking out a lot of the newly cooled air I think along with it) and venting through the long run of hose ended up presenting a much higher air restriction that caused the AC to lose a lot of it's effectiveness, which at only 1000 BTU, well, it needs every ounce it has to begin with.

I need some external vent options, but I need them to be usable mounted vertically instead of horizontally as the entire roof is curved on my unit, so side mounting is the only option. And they need to be weatherproof in this orientation...as yesterday for example we drove through 5 hours of rain coming home from our latest trip.

There's lots of vents out there that would work, but potentially not vertically without allowing rain in.

Suggestions?

[tony.latham]

This may help:



Tony

[troubleScottie]

Not clear what you need for venting other than a vent.

There are many threads on DIY AC including http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=44561 Similarly, there are topics on diesel and propane heaters. All share the need to bring or send out air.

Many of the DIY AC units center on using window AC unit externally to the TD, thus removing noise and vibration from the TD and not taking up living space. Obviously the unit has to tolerate weather. These systems are closed or open loop, air coming from the TD to the AC and back to the TD.

There are ideas on getting 3" or 4" tubing into and out of a TD using ports. The ports can be sealed/closed when not in use. The ports can be found at ClimateRighte, in boat stores and portable heater system like propex. In some cases there is tubing inside the TD, sometimes is is all external.

Also, there are idea on fans incorporated into the ducting to move the air. They are called inline duct fans, typically variable speed AC fans.

There are lots of vents like ClimateRight CRBFK Replacement/Additional Building Flange Kit or GARNECK Air Conditioning Vent Outlet Round Long Air Conditioner Ventilation Outlet or Side Wall Forced Air Vent Cargo Trailer Camper RV

[PrivatePilot]

Thanks guys.

To clarify, all I need is a single vent from the inside to the outside for exhaust. Here's the unit.



It's a single 4" vent on the back.

All the vents I'm seeing on places like Amazon seem to be designed in such a way that towing in bad weather would allow water intrusion.

The Climateright stuff was on my radar before I bought the Emerson unit but Climateright almost seems like it's getting out of of the business- a lot of stuff on their website is sold out. Wondering if ordering from them is even safe honestly.

[tony.latham]

Here's the unit.

There was some discussion about it somewhere in the past. Have you read the reviews on Amazon?

Tony

[PrivatePilot]

Almost all the negative reviews are from people who don't seem to have the most basic understanding of BTU's who then went and bought one of these expecting it to cool 1500 sqft or something. It's no surprise the results yielded poor reviews - the same thing happened with the Zero Breeze units.

It would be like buying a 100w space heater and then being upset that it didn't heat their apartment/house/whatever.

Some rudimentary testing in my camper shows that it does get the humidity out (a big part of the issue for anyone who lived somewhere or experienced places with pea-soup humidity), and once the sun set, it did start to noticeably cool things.

1000 BTU is small indeed, but it IS a true compressor based air conditioner and it does actually output some pretty cool air. But it also only draws a few hundred watts, meaning running it off my inverter generator while boondocking somewhere will have the genny still running barely off idle, and easily running all night on a tank of fuel.

[Philip]

When I vented my first camper for a climate right A/C. I used 3" RV black water caps. Those are flange mount with twist on locking caps.

https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-T1009-F ... 3253&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-T1020-W ... 5RW2&psc=1

Then jut get a 3" cam lock hose connection for the bulkhead connector.

If something breaks on the road those are common items at RV places.

[tony.latham]

Almost all the negative reviews are from people who don't seem to have the most basic understanding of BTU's...

Tony

[PrivatePilot]

When I vented my first camper for a climate right A/C. I used 3" RV black water caps. Those are flange mount with twist on locking caps.

https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-T1009-F ... 3253&psc=1

Thanks. I'm going to keep looking - it might look a little weird to have a sewer outlet cap at around the 6 foot mark on the side of the trailer.

[PrivatePilot]

On another note, I've done some testing. Setup rudimentary in the camper and just venting out the rear window (with a piece of cardboard with a hole in it for the hose) to provide a barrier (and blowing through the window screen, at that) it keeps the camper comfortable enough inside (at night at least) that I think it's going to do the job.

It's not perfect - I don't think there's much hope it's going to keep the trailer cool in the daytime in sweltering hot weather, nor cool it down super fast from hot to cold, but when setup rudimentary like and left running with the fan on low (which yields better vent temps) it has been noticeably cooler when I've gone out in the early mornings before heading to work and checked the results. Less humidity as well, which anyone who deals with humidity knows, is a big deal when it comes to comfortable sleeping.

The next test will be to let it run overnight and then see if it *keeps* the camper cool through the day, or loses ground.

[Shadow Catcher]

I realize this is inside out for you but the idea may work. I used 4" marine deck plates. Doing the math I found I need at least 5,000 BTU.

[PrivatePilot]

I realize this is inside out for you but the idea may work. I used 4" marine deck plates. Doing the math I found I need at least 5,000 BTU.

Hmmm... Actually, I really like this idea for multiple reasons:

1/ It's weatherproof when the cap is on.
2/ It's aerodynamic versus throwing yet another thing on the side of the trailer that sticks out.
3/ With the cap off there's zero restriction. Considering I'm thinking one of the biggest challenges with the AC I've got is that it becomes easily restricted on the outlet side (which then in turns decreases it's effectiveness by increasing vent temperatures) the zero restriction thing is very appealing.

I just wish they made them with a more concealed attachment method versus a bunch of screws.

[Socal Tom]

FWIW, my 5000 btu window shaker, set up like Shadow catcher shows above does a decent job keeping my 5x8 a decent temp, but I wouldn't call it over sized. I'm curious to see how that one works for you.

[PrivatePilot]

Did some testing. It's not going to keep it cold through the day, zero hope. I was pretty sure of that when I bought it.

That's OK as we don't spend much time in the trailer through the day anyways unless it's raining.

But at night it does drop the temperature, and more importantly, gets the humidity out of the air. Both will make for more comfortable sleeping.

I'll get some photos of the setup once I make more forward progress.

[Shadow Catcher]

Our tear has 1.5" of EPS insulation and the 5000 BTU is sufficient to keep the interior at 70. I went through the BTU calculator to find what I would need. https://www.calculator.net/btu-calculator.html