RIGID HVAC a/c unit

[0truck0]

I have read a few reviews on this but cannot conclude how it will work for me.
Most reviews are van people with poor poorly insulated to no insulated vans, with lots of zero insulated glass that traps heat. These review are useless feedback for me as the van is a fail from the start so, yes, a small ac will fail for sure in a metal can. That is not me.

RIGID Micro DC Aircon - Built for Smallest Space Cooling.

RIGID Micro DC Aircon - Built for superior comfort.

www.rigidhvac.com

This is the RIGID 1,800 btu air conditioner. Probably originally intended for electronics rooms, but perfect for small campers if you need cool air but not necessarily to cool the entire space; my goal is to keep me cool and comfortable.
My trailer is small, has minimal glass (windows) and heavily insulated. My needs are mostly for sleeping in humid areas that do not get below 70 or even 65 deg at night, but do need something cool blowing on me in the daytime sometimes or on rainy days. Typically is just me in the small trailer.

I have a 9200btu roof AC that is over-kill and way too loud, runs 1 minute out of 10 maybe (compressor cycle), and since I cannot sleep with it on is useless, and is a big thing on the roof for something so useless. My generator will run it 9.5 hours on less than a gallon, so it will make it thru the night, with me awake the whole time so I know this for a fact...

There is no remedy for the roof ac noise.

1800btu might not be enough to cool the 5x12 foot area during the day, but at night with no sun on the shell, and cooler temps it might be enough.
Really, would just having the cooled air blow directly on me be enough? Again, Im one person.
Benefits are that it does run on 12v, will be outside and I would just run tubes through the walls (floor) and is small and light.

If I remove the roof AC then there is room for 300 more watts of solar.

So, anyone use this or have experience with this in a heavily insulated space? Again, anything with lots of windows is not considered insulated at all (a giant piece of glass next to a R300,000 wall is still considered not insulated).

 

[justinm001]

Why not just get a portable inverter type AC unit? Sure they're 120v but a cheap inverter will do the trick.

Is your trailer really that tall you can't put solar above the roof AC?

 

[RCinFLA]

1500-1800 btu's is not much. Maybe good enough for your bedding area but not much more.

5kbtu - 6kbtu is good for about 200 sq ft with 8' ceilings, so 1800 btu would be good for about 65 sq ft floor area.

Typical auto air conditioner is 18 kbtu to 30 kbtu output.

RV's are not known for having good insulation to outside.

 

[0truck0]

65 is about my sq footage, lol. This is not some junk factory-built RV, so as stated, has very good insulation. Im not going to build panels on top of roof ac units, it still has to go down the road. thanks for sharing

 

[justinm001]

65 is about my sq footage, lol. This is not some junk factory-built RV, so as stated, has very good insulation. Im not going to build panels on top of roof ac units, it still has to go down the road. thanks for sharing

Unless your trailer is 13ft or taller you have plenty of room to put above the AC. 13'6" will fit on any highway and there's not many spots that are under that. I'm right about 13ft and rarely an issue.

There's only so many types of insulation types and space to insulate. If you have some secret super insulation I'd love to hear about it. I'm assuming I have the best insulation possible for my rig.

Maybe work on insulating your roof AC better to deaden sound. Some of mine I can't hear if on and with ducting can't feel it.

 

[400bird]

65 sqft, but probably not 8' tall inside,
Seems like the little AC unit would be in the edge of functional. How would you feel about using a curtain to block off part of the area to keep some coolness near you? Also it would probably take hours for the initial cool down.

I've got a similar liquid chiller cooling something like 400 lbs of battery. It will run for about an hour - 90 minutes to cool from 95f down to 88f
This is with direct contact liquid cooling.

 

[0truck0]

thanks, no Im not planning on ever putting junk on the roof, will be glad to get the roof ac off. Unfortunately I do not do quick short drives that dont matter. I have crossed the country more times than I can count and a roof full of junk is not the way to do long drives. As I said, there is no way to remedy the roof ac noise, literally that is what I mean, no way to remedy the roof ac noise. My post is about anyone who has the RIGID unit and can share experiences, thanks for
Yes, good insulation, but dont want to chase rabbits on insulation when Im really looking for specifics on RIGID

 

[400bird]

I should say my chiller is from Ridgid, but that's about as similar as I've got. I'm not sure who is suggesting putting stuff on the roof, you mentioned putting more solar up if you pull down the roof AC unit, that's as close as I see.

 

[justinm001]

thanks, no Im not planning on ever putting junk on the roof, will be glad to get the roof ac off. Unfortunately I do not do quick short drives that dont matter. I have crossed the country more times than I can count and a roof full of junk is not the way to do long drives. As I said, there is no way to remedy the roof ac noise, literally that is what I mean, no way to remedy the roof ac noise. My post is about anyone who has the RIGID unit and can share experiences, thanks for
Yes, good insulation, but dont want to chase rabbits on insulation when Im really looking for specifics on RIGID

Why isn't there a way to remedy your roof AC noise? And why do you think this device would be any quieter? My 13k ac units were completely quiet before I ripped the roof and ducting as I'm replacing the units.

Cross country isn't an issue with height it's the back roads and inner city that causes issues but even then I've never seen anything under 12ft on a public road.

The thing is 1800btu, you emit 350+btu. It's not going to do much of anything

 

[0truck0]

I sleep with my face 4 feet or less from the AC output. I mean I can explain all the details, but is really just easier to understand that when the guy says there is no remedy that he means there is no remedy to fix the roof ac noise. Remedy mean "fix", so this issue cannot be solved with trying to fix it. Im already satisfied that the Rigid will not be a noise issue, I am only looking into the cooling ability.
I know that less btu means less cooling ability, that is not the question either.
The Rigid unit is outside the vehicle completely... those who have one will already know this is kinda why I was asking those who have one. The air comes in through pipes and pipes can be muffled to soft enough to have solved the noise problem. By virtue that the unit is so much less btu also is going to be more quiet.
Other options would be a house window unit, but then we are back to noise, the only difference is that a window unit can be located more than 4 feet from my face (in my case it would be 2.5 feet from my face - only option), not on the loud ceiling and can even be piped in and muffled behind a barrier, but still requires cutting a big hole in the vehicle which is worse than putting a bunch of garbage on the roof, and I am not wanting the roof unit gone to make space for more solar, this is just purely a bonus, and I am not at all concerned with the height of the rig either.
A mini split has already been ruled out. You will just have to trust the guy that that option has been ruled out for this particular instance.
We are back to the Rigid unit, so I am curious from anyone that owns and operates one what their experience is given that they do not have huge plates of glass involved in the rig.
The portable ac units are pretty much the same things as the Rigid, so for ability to cool is about the same thing. I really do not want the AC inside when I can have a Rigid one is outside.
The only feedback I have heard about the Rigid unit is from van people who have lots of heat glass and typically do not even insulate the metal body interior, is just one big oven they are trying to cool... few who have a well insulated rig have reviewed this other than what I see on the Rigid website and I am not real interested in those reviews for cherry-picked reasons.

 

[400bird]

There are cooling/heat load calculators online that will help you see how well it will cool at the listed BTU. One, typically required, input is insulation value. So knowing that will help improve the accuracy.

Ridgid calculated my heat load and came out about the same as reality later proved.

 

[justinm001]

Easiest way to figure out is however your 10k btu roof AC cycles the rigid will come on 5x to 10x as much depending on how well the rigid is insulated on the outside and how well the ducting is and how far.

If your trailer is super duper insulated then remove some of the roof insulation to create ducting on the AC. Then cover the ducting with additional insulation. It'll take a couple inches of space max.

Another thought is just modify your AC control unit and maybe just add a silent lower flow fan. Run AC for a couple minutes at a time but fan for a much longer time to slowly push that cold air without it freezing up.

Not sure why a mini split like a cruisin comfort is out of the question either

 

[0truck0]

Yes, I understand why you dont understand why one thing is out...

If my 9200 btu compressor runs 1 min out of 10, and the Rigid is greater than 1/10th power, (1/6th say) then if it runs 10 out of 10 minutes then will equal the same, but IDT it works like that in reality?
I am afraid to lower the fan speed bc the condenser will freeze up. Ideally that would be a fix otherwise. The roof unit has two fans.

 

[justinm001]

That's exactly how it works but it's how much the compressor cycles and not just the fan as the compressor is actually cooling. I think 1/10th is reasonable as you'll get quite a bit of cooling lost from it being outside along with ducting. Also running longer is more energy efficient but less cooling efficient as it can only cool the coils so much.

If you're only running the AC now 1 min out of 10 then icing shouldn't be an issue as long as there's some form of air flowing through the coils as the fan will be running constantly. By the time the coils even get to freezing the compressor is off and then it has 9 minutes to warm up and then the cycle repeats. Plus the AC should have a freeze sensor that'll shut off the compressor automatically.

If I were you I'd just add some large high speed PC fans that are variable speed with a speed controller knob then fine tune the speed to keep you cool but not loud enough to hear. As long as the air has to flow through the fan and properly sealed (duct tape) you'll be fine.

 

[RCinFLA]

Average human adult puts out about 360 btu's of heat and some humidity from breath which eats up a bit more A/C btu's to condense.

 

[Quattrohead]

They look great for your specific application being low voltage DC and fairly small output. I guess no one here has one but there are plenty of opinions and plenty of people that aren't reading your actual question. That's the nature of the interwebs. If you do end up getting one I'm sure a review here would be most welcome.

 

[Q-Dog]

The FAQs say it can cool up to 2 cubic meters. If you sleep in a closet it should be OK.

 

[0truck0]

Forums will take a while, days weeks, before the right guy reads a post....
Yes, the Rigid has appeal since it can run off batteries too, but that is not the motivation, but is a lot easier than cranking a gen and keeping gas in a gen or being in a no-generator area...
My only reservation is one day I will be stuck parked in the sun on a humid day and sitting there with the Rigid's air tube in my hand trying to keep cool, but hasn't happened yet, so wont let that dictate life.

I should be able to put the speed control on the inside fan (that blows across the evap) while the outside fan runs at normal speed. Yes, this would solve most of the noise. The compressor literally kicks when it shuts off, but I can get used to that, and the outside fan noise is negligible.
This is a Mach 8 Cub if that helps. 9200.
Im always on Low Cool, never High, but could run the fan normal speed until the camper is cool, then slow the fan?

So, there is nothing that can go wrong with this? If the fan is too slow to put heat into the evap then there is a freeze sensor that will shut off the compressor? Always?
When I say 1 out of 10 mins, this is at night, after the inside has been cooled off from AC and the walls and everything inside are cool, so the AC is only having to maintain temps, not to cool everything down.

I have a DC speed control on my Fantastic Fan and I can get that do near silent running and it still moves enough air so this is ame principal and should work.

Anyone done this?

And, no, the Rigid would not be going on the roof; that is not how it is meant to work. It is intended to go inside in a compartment, but outside works too, and if outside nobody would use non-insulated pipes nor set it in the sun, not leave it to gather heat, you do the things needed of course...

 

[justinm001]

The only possible risk I see is you could over rev one the PC fans when the big fan is working. So either buy cheap fans or nice high quality ones.

 

[0truck0]

Why can't I just control the Coleman's inside fan? Easy enough to wire a control into it... How would I over rev a fan? IDK what this means. How would that hurt anything?
The Coleman Mach 8 Cub has two fans. One fan to blow the inside air, one fan to blow the outside air over the coils...
Inside fan always runs, outside fan only runs when compressor is on.

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» RV Fan Speed Controller | Professor Mark Csele

I am still leaning towards the smaller DC unit