Air conditioning in a minivan - any thoughts??

[urbankid12]

I'd recommend getting a 2021 Toyota Sienna hybrid. They have a battery to cool off the interior temp much like semi-truck does but not as noisy. They will turn the engine on and off depending on battery needs. If your at a campground then putting up shade cloth if you don't have good shade on top of it can only help.

That or get a used Toyota Prius or another hybrid as they can do the same thing at a cheaper price and for more efficiency.

Other options are Seeking higher elevations, eliminating spicy foods completely during warm months ( I know difficult, but for it was a MAJOR noticeable change, plus cutting down on the coffee and getting more restful sleep also helps cut sweat!)

Getting a passport and heading to Alaska or Cannada for summer can be a great option.

Use time zones to your advantage! heat of the day can be 2PM-6PM and if your classes are in one time zone being in a different time zone (where the sun is not at the same peak) can push your class to a cooler period of the day.

Why not consider renting office space or commercial space? I mean during the peak of summer they have shared office options or head into a small town and see if you can rent a cool space for a few months? ( I recently got an apartment again and went to a rehabilitation thrift store and got a really nice desk and office chair for under $50 total Heck even got a NICE old waiting room chair as a backup for $5 which made the total 50 bucks!)

You could even try subleasing space from an existing business.. see if they will let you pop into an office to conduct your zoom classes during the day for a fee. Or a public Library you can rent a private study room I think once a week or so... perhaps that could be a backup option.

Renting a storage locker could be an option if they have good data signal and if they were OK with it (smaller locations might not be so strict but stay out of the urban locations as they will say no)

Maybe you could try to find a student who would be willing to provide a professional space to host the class if they can attend the class for free?

Maybe you can find a gig house sitting where you can host your classes while getting paid to walk a dog and water plants as well?

Maybe a combination of these options might work well. I'm from Minnesota and it took a while but being overweight I managed to adjust to the hot summer Texas heat. cutting out coffee, spices, and just spending more time in the heat allowed me to acclimate to warmer temps, plus not being stressed helped me tons to keep from sweating.

A family member of mine lived in a very small town in a rural place and there employer rented office space from some old warehouse building but they turned it into a decent office building but it was still mostly empty because it was a small town! It wasn't the type of building you could bring clients to because they still had the commercial freezer plastic dividers to keep the cool in however it was comfortable in there for sure.

Van life during winter is easy just drive to Southern Arizona and your good... summers are the hard part.

 

[Malamute]

Old thread, but I researched the options and decided the safest and most practical setup for my use was to install a 5000 btu window AC unit in the right rear passenger window of my 4runner for summer. I use a small Honda generator in a rear cargo box for power. It runs fine on eco mode with the AC, they really dont use much power, despite what some think. I run a similar one in my cabin and the monthly cost is about $20 when its running 24/7 on Maximum Arctic Blast setting.

I set mine up for travel in the summer to keep my dog cool when I stop or in case I got a flat or broke down on the road. I end up using it more for running around town and can take the dog without worry when going into stores. It will run on eco mode about 5 or 6 hours, and takes a gallon of gas to refill it. I keep a couple one gallon gas cans in the cargo box with the generator and fill them all up as needed when I get gas for the 4runner.

I now paint the outside part of the window AC unit with matching paint to my vehicle, it blends in pretty good after that. I used some 3/4" aluminum angle metal to make the frame that holds the AC in. Once done it takes me about 15 or 20 minutes to install or take out at the end of the season. I run the AC at 62 degrees and the dog is usually sacked out asleep not even panting when I leave her in the truck, and everything feels cold. I also dont leave her very long, and plan to get one of the alert things that texts you in case the temp gets above a certain point.

 

[DannyB1954]

I see this is an older thread, but it may be possible to plumb in an electrical compressor to the existing vehicle air conditioner.
I installed refrigeration equipment into delivery vans and some models worked off of the engine and had a seperate electrical compressor for when they were parked at night. The same concept could be applied to the A/C system of the vehicle.
Mounting the compressor, modifying the hoses would be the issue. A battery charger could power the fan, May need to run a seperate circuit to the fan.

 

[CosmickGold]

ANY AC unit simply uses so much power that it's hard to provide power for it in the constraints of a minivan.

That is so true. Any unit that uses a compressor to cool the air is going to pull far too much electricity from your battery to use for more an about an hour, which won't get you through the long hot days of summer. (And who wants to be out in the wilderness somewhere with a run-down battery?)

I'd love to have a real air conditioner in my van, but it's just not practical. Even my 400 watts of solar power couldn't handle the smallest air conditioner they make. So what I use instead is a little evaporative cooler like this one . . . .

. . . . powered through a USB cable. I set it where it blows directly on me rather than expect it to cool the entire van. (There are a variety of models of these little coolers on Amazon to choose from.)

Both kinds of air coolers work the same way, they both evaporate a liquid into a gas, which cools as it expands. The difference is that a regular air conditioner evaporates its liquid inside a pipe, then pumps it back to the compressor to be squeezed back into liquid form again, ready to be evaporated again for more cooling. But it's this "squeezing" process that takes so very much electrical power to perform.

An evaporative cooler does exactly the same thing, but with water as the liquid being evaporated into gas, cooling as it expands. The difference is that this time, the gas is not pumped to an electricity-guzzling compressor to be squeezed back into liquid form and reused. (So your battery will certainly thank you --- a lot.) Instead, the evaporated water is simply released into the air, and new water is brought into the cooler to be evaporated.

This is a tremendous savings of electrical power, but it has the serious downside of giving you a van full of water-soaked air to deal with! So now you've got to let that cool --but very wet -- air out a vent or window, replacing it with more hot air from outside. (Bummer.)

So what have you accomplished? Not very much. That's why I let my cooler blow directly on me, enjoying its refreshingly cool air before that air heads back outside through the nearest vent or window.

But is this self-defeating process of cooling -- just to bring in more hot air -- worth it? Yep, it is.
(Just don't run out of water. )

 

[PeterPiper]

That is so true. Any unit that uses a compressor to cool the air is going to pull far too much electricity from your battery to use for more an about an hour, which won't get you through the long hot days of summer. (And who wants to be out in the wilderness somewhere with a run-down battery?)

I'd love to have a real air conditioner in my van, but it's just not practical. Even my 400 watts of solar power couldn't handle the smallest air conditioner they make. So what I use instead is a little evaporative cooler like this one . . . .
View attachment 29776
. . . . powered through a USB cable. I set it where it blows directly on me rather than expect it to cool the entire van. (There are a variety of these little coolers to choose from on Amazon.)

Both kinds of air coolers work the same way, they both evaporate a liquid into a gas, which cools as it expands. The difference is that a regular air conditioner evaporates its liquid inside a pipe, then pumps it back to the compressor to be squeezed back into liquid form again, ready to be evaporated again for more cooling. But it's this "squeezing" process that takes so very much electrical power to perform.

An evaporative cooler does exactly the same thing, but with water as the liquid being evaporated into gas, cooling as it expands. The difference is that this time, the gas is not pumped to an electricity-guzzling compressor to be squeezed back into liquid form and reused. (So your battery will certainly thank you --- a lot.) Instead, the evaporated water is simply released into the air, and new water is brought into the cooler to be evaporated.

This is a tremendous savings of electrical power, but it has the serious downside of giving you a van full of water-soaked air to deal with! So now you've got to let that cool --but very wet -- air out a vent or window, replacing it with more hot air from outside. (Bummer.)

So what have you accomplished? Not very much. That's why I let my cooler blow directly on me, enjoying its refreshingly cool air before that air heads back outside through the nearest vent or window.

But is this self-defeating process of cooling -- just to bring in more hot air -- worth it? Yep, it is.
(Just don't run out of water. )

I can see this possibly working in arid climates, but what about where there's already air saturated with water?

 

[PeterPiper]

Old thread, but I researched the options and decided the safest and most practical setup for my use was to install a 5000 btu window AC unit in the right rear passenger window of my 4runner for summer. I use a small Honda generator in a rear cargo box for power. It runs fine on eco mode with the AC, they really dont use much power, despite what some think. I run a similar one in my cabin and the monthly cost is about $20 when its running 24/7 on Maximum Arctic Blast setting.

I set mine up for travel in the summer to keep my dog cool when I stop or in case I got a flat or broke down on the road. I end up using it more for running around town and can take the dog without worry when going into stores. It will run on eco mode about 5 or 6 hours, and takes a gallon of gas to refill it. I keep a couple one gallon gas cans in the cargo box with the generator and fill them all up as needed when I get gas for the 4runner.

I now paint the outside part of the window AC unit with matching paint to my vehicle, it blends in pretty good after that. I used some 3/4" aluminum angle metal to make the frame that holds the AC in. Once done it takes me about 15 or 20 minutes to install or take out at the end of the season. I run the AC at 62 degrees and the dog is usually sacked out asleep not even panting when I leave her in the truck, and everything feels cold. I also dont leave her very long, and plan to get one of the alert things that texts you in case the temp gets above a certain point.

View attachment 29758
View attachment 29759
View attachment 29760

As sad as it is to say, and as "unkosher" as that may look, I think you did the very best that could be done under the circumstances.
I pray someone will come up with a 2000-3000 btu window AC unit because all I REALLY need is cool air to breathe and on my face when it's hot.
I'm seriously considering rolling my own (2000-3000btu AC system). If I ever do I'll make a how to thread.

 

[CosmickGold]

I can see this possibly working in arid climates, but what about where there's already air saturated with water?

You are very right, PeterPiper. I didn't get into that. You can't fill air with more water that's already full of water. The evaporation -- along with the cooling process -- will stop.

 

[Malamute]

As sad as it is to say, and as "unkosher" as that may look, I think you did the very best that could be done under the circumstances.
I pray someone will come up with a 2000-3000 btu window AC unit because all I REALLY need is cool air to breathe and on my face when it's hot.
I'm seriously considering rolling my own (2000-3000btu AC system). If I ever do I'll make a how to thread.

Ive been using it for I think 3 summers now, maybe 4. Ive been very happy with it. The first one was an AC unit my dad had for his house, I bought a new one last summer when the old one (of unknown age and use) wasnt getting quite as cold as it used to.

Being able to reliably keep my malamute dog safe and cool in 80s or above temps makes me very happy. My cutoff point for taking her without the AC installed is 65 degrees.

The window AC units are constantly getting better and more energy efficient. The last one required a hard start capacitor to allow the generator to run on eco mode and start reliably, the newer ones seem to come equipped with them. No, I dont think you could run one very long just off a battery and solar (though in my research i saw someone that claimed they could do it), but they dont require all that much power in the realm of 120v AC powered things.

Edit: I just googled power use of 5000 btu ac and found this:

"How much electricity does a 5000 BTU air conditioner use a month?

A 5,000 BTU air conditioner costs an average of $0.065 per hour to run. If the AC unit is used for 8 hours per day, then it costs $0.52 per day. Running the air conditioner for one month will cost around $15.60."

This is pretty close to my actual use experience at my cabin. I run it 24/7 once it gets warmish out, to the 90s and 100 off and on through the hottest part of summer.

 

[PeterPiper]

Ive been using it for I think 3 summers now, maybe 4. Ive been very happy with it. The first one was an AC unit my dad had for his house, I bought a new one last summer when the old one (of unknown age and use) wasnt getting quite as cold as it used to.

Being able to reliably keep my malamute dog safe and cool in 80s or above temps makes me very happy. My cutoff point for taking her without the AC installed is 65 degrees.

The window AC units are constantly getting better and more energy efficient. The last one required a hard start capacitor to allow the generator to run on eco mode and start reliably, the newer ones seem to come equipped with them. No, I dont think you could run one very long just off a battery and solar (though in my research i saw someone that claimed they could do it), but they dont require all that much power in the realm of 120v AC powered things.

Edit: I just googled power use of 5000 btu ac and found this:

"How much electricity does a 5000 BTU air conditioner use a month?

A 5,000 BTU air conditioner costs an average of $0.065 per hour to run. If the AC unit is used for 8 hours per day, then it costs $0.52 per day. Running the air conditioner for one month will cost around $15.60."

This is pretty close to my actual use experience at my cabin. I run it 24/7 once it gets warmish out, to the 90s and 100 off and on through the hottest part of summer.

Yes sir. Good stuff, thank you.
I have an 8000 BTU unit that is fairly new and IIRC it draws about 6.5Amps running (at 120v) and about 17A on start up for about 10 seconds
A 5000BTU unit should be comfortable running with a 2000watt or greater generator.

6.5Amps @ 120v = 780watts...but on a 12v inverter it would draw far more amps
At 12v it would draw about 65Amps. (65A x 12v) = 780watts
That would drain a 100Ah battery totally flat in about 1.5 hours.

This becomes feasible on batteries at the 200Ah level....but.....you have to replace that capacity and it would take a lot of power to do that on a daily basis.
So, if you run the AC all night on 12v through an inverter and it cycles on and off using an average of say 40Ah / hour for 8 hours overnight you'd have to replace 320Ah the next day. That's a lot. If you made 50Amps it would still take just over 6 hours.

I think I would go your route if AirConditioning was a must have for now. But I'm seriously looking into building a 2500btu portable AC unit.
I have a good deal of experience with HVAC.

Another thought......

Keep in mind that your vehicles AC system only needs the engine running to rotate the compressor. A high efficiency electric motor could also turn the compressor at the desired speed (but you'd still need at least a small electric fan to move the air through the evaporator). I'd have to do a TON of research and calculations to determine if that route was feasible but it's a thought.