Solar shack-air conditioning

[Bluedog225]

Good morning,

I’m in the process of insulating my conex. It will be my power shack. Mylar and 2” polyiso foam. I plan to box off the back 8’ to hold the SOK rack batteries, inverter, etc. A total of about 64 square feet that needs to be cooled. I plan to have enough solar to cool from say 10 am to 5 pm and charge the bank.

I’m trying to figure out the best cooling options. I plan to run the unit on a timer during solar production hours to keep the worst of the heat down. This summer lots of over 100 eff days. Watts, surge, solar capacity, etc are not much of a concern in this application. Really hot days are sunny.

I’m most concerned about reliability. I’d rather have holes in the floor than in the wall.

The Midea Duo, (about $600) portable unit has pretty mixed reviews. Pretty big holes in the floor.

A Mr. Cool (about $1,500) mini split has better reviews but more than twice the price and more complex to install. Smaller holes in the floor.

A traditional window unit could be boxed in and vented through the floor but that would be cludgy and seems like a bad idea. Or I could mount a window unit on the internal dividing wall, and have two 6” holes in the floor with an intake/exhaust fan for the “hot“ side. Frankly, this would be the most reliable option. Window units are pretty robust.

Or, I guess, I could put a hole in the side of the conex. Really want to avoid this.

Right now, I’m leaning towards a Midea Duo. Easy to install. Plug in and done. Much cheaper than the mini split.

And I can get it a Costco. I’ll pay extra to keep from getting screwed by all the shady return circus.

What do you guys think?

 

[Rednecktek]

Everyone I know that has the Midea heat pump free standing units has waxed glorious about how much they love it. It heats well AND cools well too but doesn't make a significant dent in their power bill.

Plus, their tube-in-tube vent is just a round hole which is easy to do with a hole saw as long as you miss the cross support underneath.

There are other brands of mini-splits that are MUCH cheaper than Mr. Cool that are still well rated, you're paying for the name. The holes would be about the same size though unless you really wanted to drill exact size holes for each penetration.

Whichever way you go, throw some duct tape on the bottom side and you can back fill with grow foam to keep the draft down easily.

 

[Koldsimer]

LG makes some really nice inverter window units. That would be the route i would take simply because of the cost, energy use and ease of installation. I used their 14k btu unit to cool my entire house before i had the dual 12k pioneer units installed. I was amazed that one 14k window unit could keep my house cool enough in the dead ass middle of summer here in east texas.

 

[JRH]

Good morning,

I’m in the process of insulating my conex. It will be my power shack. Mylar and 2” polyiso foam. I plan to box off the back 8’ to hold the SOK rack batteries, inverter, etc. A total of about 64 square feet that needs to be cooled. I plan to have enough solar to cool from say 10 am to 5 pm and charge the bank.

I’m trying to figure out the best cooling options. I plan to run the unit on a timer during solar production hours to keep the worst of the heat down. This summer lots of over 100 eff days. Watts, surge, solar capacity, etc are not much of a concern in this application. Really hot days are sunny.

I’m most concerned about reliability. I’d rather have holes in the floor than in the wall.

The Midea Duo, (about $600) portable unit has pretty mixed reviews. Pretty big holes in the floor.

A Mr. Cool (about $1,500) mini split has better reviews but more than twice the price and more complex to install. Smaller holes in the floor.

A traditional window unit could be boxed in and vented through the floor but that would be cludgy and seems like a bad idea. Or I could mount a window unit on the internal dividing wall, and have two 6” holes in the floor with an intake/exhaust fan for the “hot“ side. Frankly, this would be the most reliable option. Window units are pretty robust.

Or, I guess, I could put a hole in the side of the conex. Really want to avoid this.

Right now, I’m leaning towards a Midea Duo. Easy to install. Plug in and done. Much cheaper than the mini split.

And I can get it a Costco. I’ll pay extra to keep from getting screwed by all the shady return circus.

What do you guys think?

I bought the 148 dollar Midea college apt unit.… works great.. what if it fails after a couple of years… well,…. I buy a new one ..what if it fails again… well… I buy a new one …etc…
Im not buying a 1500 dollar Victron unit… im buying somthing cheap to stay cool….
I figure that 75 dollars a year and 30 min change out time ain’t a bad bet…
hey, it may last awhile longer..cool … thats even better…
perspective is important in purchasing.

 

[Redflyer]

I have a small solar shack....600sf. Got the ceiling insulated before the 110 degree showed up in NV.

I installed an LG 8000 btu window unit in the side of the building. I didn't get the whole thing insulated in time, but put curtains up around the AC and inverter/batteries. Kind of like a hospital room. So far it's working well.

What I really like about the LG with Think IQ is I can control it from anywhere. I look at the inverter temps on Solar Asst, then adjust the AC accordingly. The weak point is WiFi. If it went down, I might be toast. But the LG also has a 'scheduled' feature....where I can set a on/off time as a back up.

I like the LG so much, I bought a 12000 btu window unit for the bedroom...to run off solar only. I know the mini-splits are probably more efficient, but the window unit made more sense for my situation. I can now control both window units in the same app. Might go with the LG fridge when we need to upgrade.

 

[Crowz]

I put a 5k window unit (the old kind with knobs aka no digital controls) my workshop for my setup and use an emporia smart plug wall outlet switch to control it.

I have it set to run only during the day and I can control it from my phone if needed.

 

[ArthurEld]

I'm using a 6k window unit to cool my 8x12 solar shed. It works great.

 

[JRH]

I'm using a 6k window unit to cool my 8x12 solar shed. It works great.

It’s Been Even a week now..the set up with the little ac unit is doing great..
the ac unit is drawing very little power to keep it cool even when the inverter and SCC is running hard in full sunshine…About 200 watts per hour according to the kilowatt meter..
at max thats the power of 1 battery a day and few mins charging time.… probably gaining that much by the inverter and scc putting out more power running much cooler …no derating at 70F.

need to have it on from around noon to about 6 pm +/- and it just cycling back and forth.
I would rather have to give up about a free kilowatt of power in the dead of summer and everything in the trailer including the batts stay 70 than save that amount of power and everything be 90- 100F ..and everything running hot…

just my veiw , that all.
J.