1100 BTU / 12V AC

[RogerD]

Just came across this 1100 BTU / 12V AC

120-150 watts / 12.5 amps

https://www.zerobreeze.com/

 

[JT646]

Interesting.....Might work well IF:

* You have a decent battery bank + Solar...and
* Have a way of venting the unit to the outside...and
* Use it only for a well insulated area....and
* 'Wall off' (blankets or divider of some sort) a SMALL section of your VAN or RV....such as a 4'x7' area around your bed.   This is less than the 50 square feet limit that is listed on their site.

Maybe Cyndi will splurge...and do a test and review for us .

 

[johnny b]

https://vanlivingforum.com/search/?...38babf20c28ed6b3d0&sortby=lastpost&order=desc

Here's the other threads on it.

Kickstarter had projected a price of 399 last year...now it's $650 w/o battery, $900 with.

"I don't think so. Homey don't play dat!"---Homey D. Clown  

 

[jonyjoe303]

The unit actually uses close to 200 watts, the original wallwarts they issued were melting because the unit use more watts then the adapter put out. The lithium battery pack was a 4S battery (over 14 volts), it won't run off of 12 volts or very poorly. 

I read some reviews and it had too many dissatisfied customers. Inside a van the 200 watts it uses will heat up your van more then what it cools. The unit would have to be outside and only the air coming in. Maybe the second version they build will be better.

A swampcooler would actually work better then the zerobreeze, it wont introduce any heat in your van. Its a good idea but the technology is not there.

 

[RogerD]

Interesting.....Might work well IF:

* You have a decent battery bank + Solar...and
* Have a way of venting the unit to the outside...and
* Use it only for a well insulated area....and
* 'Wall off' (blankets or divider of some sort) a SMALL section of your VAN or RV....such as a 4'x7' area around your bed.   This is less than the 50 square feet limit that is listed on their site.

That is exactly what I was thinking.

I'm planning on building a rear partition for a 5000 BTU unit and was going to make it so I could wall of the bed area. That way if needed, I could possibly make it have longer cycles.

 

[RogerD]

The unit actually uses close to 200 watts, the original wallwarts they issued were melting because the unit use more watts then the adapter put out. The lithium battery pack was a 4S battery (over 14 volts), it won't run off of 12 volts or very poorly. 

I read some reviews and it had too many dissatisfied customers. Inside a van the 200 watts it uses will heat up your van more then what it cools. The unit would have to be outside and only the air coming in. Maybe the second version they build will be better.

A swampcooler would actually work better then the zerobreeze, it wont introduce any heat in your van. Its a good idea but the technology is not there.

I sent them an email and brought up what you have said going to see if they respond and what they have to say.

 

[lenny flank]

1100 BTUs----it's a toy.

 

[jimindenver]

It is a cool breeze that blows on you, not cools your van down.

 

[velojym]

Yeah, when I saw the thread title, I thought "Cool!" (no pun intended...)

But my potential long-term outlook involves NM or AZ, so the ol' tried and true swamp cooler would fit the bill for me just fine.
Heck... you can build a swampie from junk if you were so inclined.

 

[lenny flank]

I have my doubts about swamp coolers. Most of the DIY designs one sees on the Net are simply not powerful enough to do anything useful (and of course in most areas of the US they are physically incapable of working effectively). I have asked in several different forums for real-world depictions of how effective they are, with some photos of actual thermometers and a description of how much water they actually use. Nobody ever posts any, which leads me to believe that very few people actually use them.

 

[velojym]

Uhm... I can't speak for various DIY designs, or even the compact ones being offered these days, but the ones I lived under for most of my life worked great.
Also, we had a roof mounted one on Dad's Chevy van that kept it cool in the hottest weather. It took up no more room than any other roof a/c and worked just fine off the van's electrical.

Swamp coolers are a pretty mature and proven technology, so long as they're used right and well designed.

 

[lenny flank]

Can you give us some real-world measurements? What kind of air temp drops did you get in a van. What was the amount of water usage per hour?

 

[velojym]

Given it was in the '70s, I'd be hard pressed to give you exact numbers. However, 70 degrees in the house wasn't hard to maintain with a home unit, and the water was just tapped from the house water supply.

A portable unit might need a daily refill, for every few days, depending on the size of the reservoir.

This may help:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Can you give us some real-world measurements?  What kind of air temp drops did you get in a van. What was the amount of water usage per hour?

Add power usage and inside & outside relative humidity.

 

[lenny flank]

Alas, that doesn't help, since a home unit is a different animal than a van unit.

 

[lenny flank]

Add power usage and inside & outside relative humidity.

The power draw is of course a lot less than an AC, since evaporative coolers essentially run off a fan. BUT evaporating enough water in a short enough time to be useful as a coolant will require a substantial fan (a five-dollar Walmart fan won't do the job), which may indeed be a non-trivial power draw.

 

[velojym]

Again, my experience is anecdotal, but we didn't have to fill the reservoir on the van's system very often. Also, Dad didn't have to modify the electrical system at all to power it. It worked great. I will say, we didn't use it while parked, so you'd want to be able to power the fan and pump from a deep cycle and maybe solar if you want to use it while stationary.

If that and the above link aren't enough, google is your friend... or just get a refrigeration unit and go ahead and declare supremacy.

 

[lenny flank]

Well, I have no dog in the fight-- my preferred method for dealing with heat in the van is to simply not be in the van during the hot day.

I just prefer real-world measurements and numbers to "gee, it worked great for me!", especially when many of the claims I hear are simply impossible under the laws of physics.

 

[velojym]

Yeah, evaporation cooling is right up there with unicorns

The math was in the link I provided, it goes a lot deeper than I usually bother to explain, especially since I'm not trying to sell it anyway. I do what works for me.

 

[lenny flank]

Well, here's the math:

One pint of water will, as it evaporates, extract roughly 1000 BTU of heat energy from the surrounding air. So in order to get the same cooling effect from an evaporative cooler as from a small 2500 BTU portable air conditioner, you would need to evaporate around 2.5 pints per hour. This comes to 20 pints for each 8-hour period--roughly 2.5 gallons of water. For cooling equivalent to a typical small window AC unit of 5000 BTUs, double those figures--you would need to evaporate about 5 pints per hour, or roughly 5 gallons of water a day.

PS--house units and van units are still entirely different animals.