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I am always fantasizing about having a energy efficient air conditioner for van life, anyone seen any concepts in tech news or anything?

A 3.1 cu ft mini fridge can be bought at Walmart for $130
Nearly the same tech needed for a mini AC

I have yet to understand why a 1000 btu miniaturized version of a 5000btu window unit has not been made?
I do believe the components are readily available?

Something about 10in wide x 12in deep x 7in tall using 500watts max startup surge and 100 watts running...on DC

All in the $500 or less price range. Millions would be sold if they were reliable
Tripp Lite does small ACs for IT server racks that could be easily retrofitted to van/camper use. 2,000 BTU for a bit over $500.

 
Tripp Lite does small ACs for IT server racks that could be easily retrofitted to van/camper use. 2,000 BTU for a bit over $500.


Interesting find.
I wonder if anyone is using one for the vehicle?

Amp Draw Nominal ----- 2.47A (That would work)
Electrical Consumption ----- 276 Watts Max (I wonder if this includes startup surge watts ??)

This "seems" like a viable option. I wonder why more campers aren't using them?
 
The main problem with that server rack air conditioner (and most of these other small units) is the exhaust hose. Hot air gets blown out, somewhere, and if you exhaust it outside of the room(or the van) like you should, you need to have more air coming into the room(van) from somewhere. In a van that would be outside air which is, presumably, hotter than the air inside the van (otherwise, why would you need airconditioning?).

Plus, 2000 BTU is pathetically small for a vehicle that is parked in the sun in 90º+ heat. So, not only is it not enough to cool the vehicle, you have a continuous supply of hot outside air being pulled right back into the vehicle you are trying to cool.

If you can find a 2 hose unit you might be able to do it. but that 2000 BTU is still too small for trying to cool a big tin can sitting in the sun.

This might be an option. If you can find one. https://www.forestair.ca/en/fiche-produit-mini
 
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A good LG/Mitsu/Hitachi/Daikon mini split 10,000 BTU system draws around 600W at full rated cooling. At the min of 1,000 BTU they are around 200W.

Those units are about the top efficiency you can get.

That's a 10:1 range of cooling, for 3:1 range of power consumption.
When operated at minimum power setting, you burn 3.3x as much battery power for a given amount of cooling.

Seems to me it would be better to toggle chiller on and off, keeping a thermal storage medium within some temperature range, and blow room air over that with variable speed fan. Ideally a phase-change material would be used. Making ice would be too much temperature drop (reduced efficiency), so maybe some more exotic phase-change material, or just a mass of aluminum.
 
The main problem with that server rack air conditioner (and most of these other small units) is the exhaust hose. Hot air gets blown out, somewhere, and if you exhaust it outside of the room(or the van) like you should, you need to have more air coming into the room(van) from somewhere. In a van that would be outside air which is, presumably, hotter than the air inside the van (otherwise, why would you need airconditioning?).

Plus, 2000 BTU is pathetically small for a vehicle that is parked in the sun in 90º+ heat. So, not only is it not enough to cool the vehicle, you have a continuous supply of hot outside air being pulled right back into the vehicle you are trying to cool.

If you can find a 2 hose unit you might be able to do it. but that 2000 BTU is still too small for trying to cool a big tin can sitting in the sun.

This might be an option. If you can find one. https://www.forestair.ca/en/fiche-produit-mini
Not true - look at the pics. There's discrete paths for the cooled air and heat discharge. 2000 BTU is indeed small though. There's a 5000 BTU version as well, with obviously higher power requirements.

Then of course, there's also cheap window AC units people have been retrofitting for vehicle/camper use for ages. $120 at Home Depot will get you 5000 BTU.
 
There is a fella on FB that custom builds truck campers and he recommends this unit. https://www.cruisencomfortusa.com/marineseries He used them back when he custom built boats. Not cheap at around $4K but he says they work very well, and last.
marine euipment is always well built and reliable...and sooo expensive.
You can buy a lot of walmart $150 window units for $4k to make up for any loss in reliability(although the do want around 500w) hehe
 
There is a fella on FB that custom builds truck campers and he recommends this unit. https://www.cruisencomfortusa.com/marineseries He used them back when he custom built boats. Not cheap at around $4K but he says they work very well, and last.

That one I believe, like most boat HVAC systems uses the water the boat is floating in for heat exchange.

Note that it says it will work in salt or fresh water. Not sure how you would use that in a van.
 
Not true - look at the pics. There's discrete paths for the cooled air and heat discharge. 2000 BTU is indeed small though. There's a 5000 BTU version as well, with obviously higher power requirements.

Then of course, there's also cheap window AC units people have been retrofitting for vehicle/camper use for ages. $120 at Home Depot will get you 5000 BTU.
If you exhaust the hot air out of the van, where is the make up air coming from?
 
If you exhaust the hot air out of the van, where is the make up air coming from?
It doesn't exhaust - it recirculates. There's a filtered intake and cold air output right below. On the back of the unit is the air intake over the condenser coils and the heat goes out the top.
 
It doesn't exhaust - it recirculates. There's a filtered intake and cold air output right below. On the back of the unit is the air intake over the condenser coils and the heat goes out the top.
If you put this unit inside a closed space and you don't exhaust the heat out of that space, all you are doing is using energy to circulate heat around inside the space. The heat has to go somewhere. There is no free lunch.
 
If you put this unit inside a closed space and you don't exhaust the heat out of that space, all you are doing is using energy to circulate heat around inside the space. The heat has to go somewhere. There is no free lunch.
Well, nobody expects a window AC unit dropped in the middle of a room to work either. Gotta use basic common sense and install correctly.
 
Well, nobody expects a window AC unit dropped in the middle of a room to work either. Gotta use basic common sense and install correctly.
Here is the unit in question, installed. Where is the makeup air coming from?
. Screen Shot 2021-04-10 at 11.18.01 AM.png
 
Here is the unit in question, installed. Where is the makeup air coming from?
.

Sorry, I don't mean to be rude but it seems you don't know how AC works. There is no "makeup air." AC does not "exhaust the hot air out of the van." Air conditioning is a heat pump, drawing heat off one air circuit and moving it to another. The SRCOOL2KWM is nothing more than a mini window AC unit. There's a cold path for the conditioned air over the evaporator and a hot path for cooling the condenser coils. The only thing unique about this unit is the hot condenser exhaust can be ducted, typically to a datacenter plenum.

021ymDH.jpeg
 
We are not talking about a window unit here.

If you were to install that server unit inside a van, where would the air to cool the condenser come from? And where would the hot air go?
 
So I've got a portable, I'm in Florida and like it chilled inside. 74 degrees during the day and 67 at night. My setup is on the first page.

My whynter exhausts the heat outside and right now we don't have the air input hose connected because I didn't want to cut another 6 inch vent hole I might not need in the side just to run hot and humid air from Florida through the system.

I read all the arm chair physicists posts that this was awful and wasted time, energy and whatever. I tried it out and it works just fine.

When the unit is running you notice the doors are a fair bit harder to open, obviously due to pressure differences but there is no noticeable air leakage at the door seals nor the fantastic fan vent or anywhere else for that matter. Yes, I know there's is air leakage, yes I know the rules of physics apply to my van what I'm telling you is the same is true for every structure, every vehicle etc and in the case of cooling the inside of my van it hasn't impacted performance at all. Much less to the degree that people stress about it.

We spray foamed the crap out of our van so we don't have a ton of gaps and cracks exposed so besides our seals the only other place air comes in is probably from the vent where it's already venting and where I would have placed the return vent anyway. That cabinet is a good spot because the air conditioner is there and it tends to over cool the area in its vicinity so we insulated the output to the vans inside and the minimal amount of air leakage from that cabinet isn't noticable even when looking for it. Even in the rear near the vent and the heat of the unit, there isn't noticeable temp, humidity difference nor is there noticeable air flow from the outside via the exterior vent.

Regardless, real world, venting that second hose hasn't mattered one bit.

Ymmv.
 
We are not talking about a window unit here.

If you were to install that server unit inside a van, where would the air to cool the condenser come from? And where would the hot air go?
srcool2kwm-front-l.jpeg
Well, if I were installing, I'd attach the rear of the unit to a louvered vent on the exterior of the van, slap a 90 degree elbow on the condenser discharge and vent it outside as well. I'd also mount the whole thing up relatively high in the cabin so the room air intake can draw in warmer convective air and add a deflector to the room air output to direct the cool downwards. Clear as mud?
 
We are not talking about a window unit here.

If you were to install that server unit inside a van, where would the air to cool the condenser come from? And where would the hot air go?

AFAIK,
A window AC unit was specifically designed to remove heat from a room.

The Server AC unit is designed to remove heat, or maybe more aptly, cool a server without regard to the room.
The assumption being that the room (environment) AC system will remove whatever heat is generated in the process.

AFAIK, you cannot have Air cooling without a corresponding transfer of heat....in the case of a window unit....to the outside.

In ANY pressurized, compressor AC system, there is a condenser, a compressor and an evaporator.

ONE gets hot, while the other gets cold. Yes, the heat MUST go somewhere.

It's the method of heat "disposal" that is in question here with this tripp Lite unit.

If it blows the heat out of the room with the black pipe shown, then air MUST be replaced in the room in question.
This is different than a window AC which has the condenser outside the cooled space.
 
I'm tapping out of this thread. If you cannot imagine scenarios where this Tripp Lite unit could be applied to your needs, then this isn't the unit for you.

I just tossed it out there because folks *are* using this unit to cool teardrop campers - even off-grid.
 
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