RIGID HVAC a/c unit

[timselectric]

This is a very interesting product. It might be perfect for my solar power room, in winter. When I'm heating the rest of the house. I'm tempted to try it out because it's priced low enough to be worth a shot.

 

[justinm001]

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.

I'm almost certain the Coleman is an AC motor so not speed controllable like DC fans. The problem when having multiple fans together in the same plenum is if one pulls more air than the other is rated for it can break the bearings of the fans since it'll spin the fan without it even being on.

Like a wind pinwheel thingy you can blow with your mouth but if you use a leaf blower you'll break it. But it has to be pretty well over the rpm

 

[wme]

Not an answer to the question, but...https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BWFQNPJS

 

[0truck0]

Been playing around with foam...
If I can run the fan at 75% this will help.
Removing the inside shroud completely gets rid of high freq noise, not any quieter, but it does help. With that gone i make a tube of foam rubber for the output and running through the tube catches a lot of noise. is fine for the air to dump on the floor, I do not need to aim the air in my situation and it does not get sucked back in, is blowing out too fast.
I will have to make new air filters, but this might be a fix assuming I can control the fan speed....

 

[0truck0]

I'm almost certain the Coleman is an AC motor so not speed controllable like DC fans. The problem when having multiple fans together in the same plenum is if one pulls more air than the other is rated for it can break the bearings of the fans since it'll spin the fan without it even being on.

Like a wind pinwheel thingy you can blow with your mouth but if you use a leaf blower you'll break it. But it has to be pretty well over the rpm

Not understanding your logic. Im not sure you know how this works. There are two fans. They are NOT connected, not on the same shaft like older models. There are two fans, two fan motors that do not care what the other one does. They do not blow on each other, do not need the other to do anything for the one to run or not or from speed zero to full blast. It already has two speeds so there is different speeds already.

Yes, everything is AC current. Are these fan motors different from other AC current fan motors that they cannot be controlled? A fan speed control dial is easy to find, they use them on ceiling fans in homes everywhere. How is the Coleman motor different? DC current fans are much harder to control but these are not in any way involved other than I discussed the fan blades turning slower and being more quiet.

 

[Skypower]

What I’ve been seeing a lot of lately is are small inverter mini split condensers attached to the rear of RVs. I seen them on boats too. There’s a good reason. They are cheap, efficient and quiet. I don’t know if you have room on the back or even want to, but that way you can leave the unit on the roof alone. I had 16k btu MarinAir heat pump (water to air) on the boat I used to have. Man that was nice and quiet at night ZZZ zzz. Just had few people come knocking “hey your bilge pump has been running a long time” lol. I know what it like to get rid of a noisy problem, good luck.

 

[efficientPV]

I have to laugh. A friend mounted an AC unit on the trailer hitch of camper and created a duct box and two flexible hoses. Only cold air was feed into the trailer.

 

[wme]

There are portable 12v AC units designed for tents. They are waterproof so could live on the trailer tongue with just 2 hoses going inside.
Here is a long winded review of one of the better ones (heat pump)...

Basic info 5100btu cooling and 6100btu heat, funs on 400w solar, optional battery 8 hr run on low.

 

[justinm001]

AC motors generally can't be variable speed you have 2 speeds because the motor is wired to have a low and a high speed. DC motors are different and use PWM to basically pulse on/off so many percent so they can be controlled to a specific percent.

Ac fan speed controllers lower the voltage which might work for low powered fans like a ceiling fan but fans in air conditioners use a lot of power. Also most new ceiling fans use DC motors for this reason.

That's why I suggested ripping out the original fans and adding multiple DC fans then adding a controller to set the speed to the exact percent you want. Just find the size and cfm to meet your needs.

 

[0truck0]

ok. The inside fan is a squirrel cage and the outside one is a propeller type blade. (and again, no, they do not share anything, do not share bearings, do not share parts, only share the wall outlet).
Yes, i would rip the guts out and redesign the interior fan and use flat fans, but this is getting more complex than I want to.
Im going to try to just redesign the interior shroud and see how that goes before moving ahead.

Yes, all the options are good ideas for some builds, just not mine. I mentioned right away the mini split will not work; its due to space. The portable units are just a bad version of the original Rigid unit I was hoping that someone had used one and could chat about it, fingers crossed still. WIndow units, meh, too invasive. A window unit using hoses instead, well, about the same exact install task as the Rigid, so that just brings me back to can I use the Rigid question or do I have to have more btus...

It is really appealing to add another 300 solar to the roof and to remove the big object off the roof at the same time.
It is really appealing to have option to run ac off batteries also, and the extra 300 watts helps that a lot too....

So all that said, I really just need to find someone with experience on the Rigid before moving ahead. Opinions are nice and all, but first-hand knowledge trumps all.

 

[timselectric]

I'll let you know. I just ordered one.

 

[rustythorn]

you could get one Rigid unit, but leave room for a second one in case one is not enough

 

[0truck0]

Thanks timselectric. I cant wait. Your build thread looks like a building. is that what you will use it in or do you have a small vehicle?

The prob with 2 Rigid units is I need twice the battery power; I have enough for one unit to run all night.

I removed all the interior shroud pieces. I think I paid near $200 for these parts originally. I played around, and did make a flat panel over the ceiling. i put holes for intake, one big rectangle for output. Put foam rubber around. Taped the sharp edges, all the sorts of things already talked about in roof units. It is more quiet, maybe enough, still louder than I want. The plan is to make a foam tube out of eggshell foam rubber and have it hang down 6-10 inches like a tube and that will dampen a few more decibels and help direct air. This would be for night time only so does not matter is hangs in the way of walking. There is just noise the squirrel cage makes pulling air through the inside of the unit that cannot be modified easily, and that sound gets out.
I had to lengthen the control wires so I could relocated it to a cabinet. The roof unit is about flush with the ceiling is a big plus as the ceiling is low to begin with.

 

[justinm001]

Here's how mine looks, it's like an airplane roof. A bit hard to see with the slides in but there's a huge sheet of insulated plywood wrapped in leather silencing then the ducting is some thin metallic foam then the left the inside of the ducting open to act as a plenum for a return and put the return vent as far away from the actual AC return to silence.

I'm replacing the ACs and remodeling the roof along with the rest of the coach.

Interesting that they make the ducting longer than the vents, not sure how that affects airflow

 

[timselectric]

Thanks timselectric. I cant wait. Your build thread looks like a building. is that what you will use it in or do you have a small vehicle?

It will be used for my solar power room, in winter.
When I'm heating the rest of the house. To pump cool air directly into the AIO's. Was planning on using a mini split, but don't really have much room.
If it doesn't work out for that, I'll find another use for it.

 

[timselectric]

Maybe mounted on the back of the 48v mower. lol

 

[0truck0]

Not the best pics, but
I remove the plastic thing. The holes are intake and the rectangle the output. I extended the wires and will put them in a loom all neatly secured later.
The holes still need a filter.
You can see a little of the foam ruber in the hole, seems to help a little.
I plan to make a sock tube to hang down a few inches to baffle the sound more and to direct it so there is separation from intake. This would only go on at night sleepy time.
Put your hand up in there with it not having run and you really feel the heat from the sun. It needs more insulation above. With this design I can easily put another panel over this to close it off in winter, after stuffing some insulation padding up inside.
The controls are out of the pics, but just mounted on the end of a cabinet, easier to use now too. That left the temp sensor not in the intake airflow, but will see if this is a good or bad thing, it might cycle less often and the temps might swing more between cycles.. or less, I dont know yet.

 

[Batvette]

”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."

You know this how? Youve seen their vans, and know they dont have insulation?
Most people that self build van conversions are pretty thorough. Theyre on the same mission as you. And since they dont want people peeping in their living space, theres usually a barrier of some kind behind the front seats. In fact the vast majority of vans like sprinters etc, have no glass at all behind the front seats.
It sounds like youre rejecting reviews that dont agree with the decision youve already made. You can do that, but the results are predictable.
For comparison, the zero breeze 2 is rated at 2300 btu, considerably higher than the rigid unit. Theres enough bad reviews on that to conclude its barely effective at all. The number of used ones for sale reflect that.
If you buy this Rigid unit, please do come back and let us know how it works. A lot of us are looking for solutions like this, but personally I dont believe <2k btu is even worth the trouble.
I put a vornado window fan in the sunroof of my honda odyssey. Its like a tower blower on its side, uses only 28 watts on high and is virtually silent. I bet its more effective than that little Rigid unit. If theres a downside for your application its that I cant leave it up there in the rain. However theres probably a similar method you could employ to introduce cool air to your environment.

 

[400bird]

For comparison, the zero breeze 2 is rated at 2300 btu, considerably higher than the rigid unit. Theres enough bad reviews on that to conclude its barely effective at all.

I'm not sure comparing to a portable AC unit is a good comparison. The portable unit needs the hot air ported outside and the exhaust tube running though the van to outside is in efficient. I doubt the 2300 btu rating on that unit reflects real world cooling.

I think that's also one of the units that pulls in air for the hot side from inside the conditioned space, heats it, an exhausts it outside. Meaning the make up air is sucked in from outside, pulling in hot air.

 

[justinm001]

”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."

You know this how? Youve seen their vans, and know they dont have insulation?

OP uses magic insulation with no windows so he has a perfect R value. Already asked for his magic insulation recipe but didn't get any info