Smallest, most low profile AC for van to run off solar?

[robertellis]

These AC units I'm looking at online are freakin' huge! Looks like with solar panels, fan, & AC - I'll pretty much have zero storage space. Any feedback out there on the smallest, lowest profile AC unit that can run off solar? I'm converting a Nissan NV2500 High Roof. Fairly small van compared to others. 

Thank you!

 

[tx2sturgis]

Solar powered A/C on a van mostly does not work...you have too little roof space.

Solar powered A/C on an RV with plenty of roof space for solar panels and plenty of space for batteries, CAN work, many have done it, but even then, they do not generally have unlimited A/C all day long under any and all conditions. 

Besides, you will have to ALWAYS park your van in the sun to get power, OR you could just park in the shade, set up a camp chair, pop a cold one, and then you might not need the A/C. Of course, heading up in elevation and generally farther north helps too.

If you just need a roof-top A/C for shore power situations, the Coleman Mach 8 Polar Cub series is fairly low profile, and rated for smaller RVs.

 

[jimindenver]

It's easy to get enough panel on a van to run a efficient 5000 BTU window A/C. It takes a pretty good sized RV to get enough panel to run a rooftop A/C.

 

[tx2sturgis]

When the OP mentioned 'low-profile' in the heading, I'm thinking that they are referring to a rooftop unit...as far as I know, window units are not referred to in that way.

So, with a rooftop A/C unit on a Nissan NV, you have very little space left for enough solar, adding to the fact that rooftop units are generally higher BTU with a higher power requirement.

If the OP is willing to pop a small window unit into a back door or maybe a small portable A/C floor unit inside, or maybe one of the small Climate Right units (neither of the last two are energy efficient) hanging on a rear hitch rack, then that leaves a fair bit more roof space.

But you still really need to have either tilting panels or portable panels...and a big battery system....its a lot of hardware to try to keep a van cool that's sitting in the sunlight all day. Maybe adding some panels to the sides of the van would ramp up the power production during low sun angle, yet still hot, afternoons.

Still, heading for the shade in a cool high elevation forest or wooded area might be a lot easier and cheaper.

 

[jimindenver]

Somewhere I have a link to a true 12 volt roof unit that is 9000 BTU and pulls 600 watts running. It's only $2000 if you can get them to ship.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Oh yeah, the 12v commercial rooftop units generally targeted to trucks and vans used in commerce and business....

With all the other goodies needed, we are starting to blow past a normal budget....but if the budget has a lot of allowance for this stuff, yeah, anything is possible.

I'm just a bit more practical.

A few years back I posted here that it would be cool (no pun intended) if the commercial truck climate control APU's were available in a smaller size for RVs and vans....I still think that it would be possible to design and build a small, quiet, easily mounted unit...of course, the commercial units are in the $5000 to $10,000 range...and that will buy a lot of gas to get you to a cooler place to hang out...for several years in a row!

 

[maki2]

You could get a Dometic under bench AC unit. They use them in the truckers bed cab area. That way you have the roof for solar

 

[jimindenver]

Getting to a cooler place is always a great response IF you CAN get to a cooler place. Some have a reason to be where it is hot or get caught in between cool spots. Then all you have is a easy bake oven and a really great concept. Finding out what you can do within the limits of space, time and budget beforehand is likely a good idea. Remember that it will be 95 degrees at 10,000 ft if it's 105 in Denver. So the cool spots are not always all that cool.

 

[tx2sturgis]

I get that too...I'm not arguing that it can't be done, but it wont be cheap.

But, for the money, (many thousands of dollars when it's all said and done) a person can spend a few cool nights in air-conditioned motels along the way if traveling, and/or pay for electricity to run the roof unit at a campground or, if far enough away from the neighbors, they can run a portable genset.

Failing all that, again, if traveling, they might travel until around 9 or 10 or 11 at night, then maybe idle the engine and run the AC for a few hours early in the evening...then after midnite, it usually cools off to sleeping temps...in most of the higher elevations and northern latitudes, at least. 

That was usually my S.O.P. when trucking or when RVing.

But yeah, if money is no object, then just about anything is possible.

And yeah, if the van is off-grid parking in a hot urban environment where none of the above solutions will work, then by all means, open up the wallet and let the spending begin! 

I've seen some of these solar and lithium powered RV A/C setups...and they were NOT cheap.

 

[user 423]

A unit in a rear window (or door) would fill the bill for low profile...

 

[robertellis]

Thank you for the input, everyone! The more I think about it, the more I don't want to take up valuable roof space with an AC unit. I'd like to be able to have enough room to sit on top +1 and a couple beers - with solar and the Maxxfan I just ordered. I'm thinking maybe just have a Yeti generator on hand fully charged up and a portable AC/heater should the situation arise where it's an absolute necessity. 100% solar is the goal - with maybe a couple exceptions.

 

[highdesertranger]

just a heads up, those "Solar generators" are NOT generators at all. they will only run an AC for a very short period of time and a heater even less. highdesertranger

 

[robertellis]

just a heads up,  those "Solar generators" are NOT generators at all.  they will only run an AC for a very short period of time and a heater even less.  highdesertranger

 I was referring to a power bank - like a YETI Goal Zero. But they aint cheap.

 

[highdesertranger]

yep that is also what I was referring to. what model are you talking about? got a link? highdesertranger

 

[maki2]

 I was referring to a power bank - like a YETI Goal Zero. But they aint cheap.

 A Yeti Goal Zero is the same thing as a "solar generator".   A Yeti Goal Zero or similar unit can't store enough power to run an AC for very long.  A Yeti Goa Zero is a battery in a case with  an internal  battery charger and controller, aninternal inverter  plugs for input and output. That inverter might not be large enough to run an AC. The battery in the Goal Zero is not large enough to run an AC for very long. Look at the ratings for watt hours on it to figure out how long it can run an AC.

There are several videos on this subject of running an AC while boondocking on the youtube cheaprvliving channel. I suggest you watch those videos and they will help you understand how to set up a van or other RV for running AC off a solar panel with battery system. You are looking at a substantial financial investment of solar panels, controller, battery bank plus other electrical components and wiring to pull it off.

 

[Rabbit]

Real world experience, for what it's worth...

I had (and recently sold) a 6x10 heavily insulated (that matters, a lot) cargo trailer with 600 watts of panels, 7200 watt-hours of lead-acid golf cart batteries, and a 5000 btu air conditioner. These were enough batteries if fully charged to easily run the AC overnight and more, and enough panels to about break even (or usually a little better) running the air conditioner and little else all day in high-intensity-sunshine Florida. Note that the panels would _not_ both run the air conditioner and fully recharge the batteries-- only the fact that I traveled often during daylight (which allowed recharging on the move with the AC not running) made this system work so well for me. (Plus, I was willing to run a small generator as needed to top things off. This almost never happened in actual practice.) My guess is that this would _not_ be enough of a setup to satisfactorily run an AC unit 24/7 for most full-time folks, who don't move around as often as a pleasure traveler. (Though it's getting close.) In practice I started all my trips with a full charge, then usually got 2-3 days air-conditioning off of solar alone if I was willing to let my batteries run slowly down to 30% or so-- which I was, because I'm not a full-timer and this therefore didn't happen often enough to significantly shorten the life of the batteries. By then I'd be ready to move again anyway, and the batteries would recover as I did so. For someone with my specific, exact needs this setup was nearly ideal in terms of cost/benefit ratio. Besides, I didn't have enough roof-space for more than 600 watts anyway.

If I remember correctly Jim In Denver (who I consider to be an extremely knowledgeable and reputable source of information-- he helped me a lot and I remain grateful) once suggested about 1200 watts as being roughly what's needed to support a small window AC unit full time. I also have a 1200 watt off-grid system on my home-base mobile home, and having operated it for a couple years now I tend to agree with him. This is my backup power source for hurricanes, and is specifically meant to power a small air conditioner to cool a single room (plus a laptop and an LED light or two) if and when required, for as long as required. At least in Florida, 1200 watts of panels is indeed about right for this, leaving an adequate cushion for cloudier days. (Even with 1200 watts, two or three _extremely_ cloudy days in a row means getting out the generator.) If I mount a solar system on my newer, larger cargo trailer-- I'm still working out the cost-benefit analysis-- it'll be about that same size or, if possible, a little larger. As for batteries... At the time I built that 600 watt system, LiFePO4's were (for me) completely unaffordable. Today I'd wait for Black Friday-- when last year at least the sales were huge-- and spring for three quality 1200 watt-hour units instead. The weight and efficiency gains (I went to 6000 watt-hours of lithium on my home system last November) are IMO well worth the extra cost at Black Friday prices. If you can't wait until then, I'd go with the same six golf cart batteries I used in my original setup. They served me well.

Best of luck! For me, the solar turned out to be more fun than the rest of the build combined, and it'll probably be the same story on my newer trailer when the time comes. Making my own electricity has become my major hobby.

 

[crofter]

You could get a Dometic under bench AC unit. They use them in the truckers bed cab area. That way you have the roof for solar

The ideal solution. Too bad it runs on 230 volts. 
-crofter

Description: link takes you to dometic site
https://www.dometic.com/en/se/produ...-conditioners/dometic-freshwell-3000-_-151914

Also listed a 12v roof model

 

[crofter]

I want one of these.  -crofter

Description:  under bench AC marine unit, video

 

[DannyB1954]

I put 960 Watts of solar on my Dodge b250. Because I already had a roof vent I had to extend a bit on both ends of the roof mounts. I looked for the widest panels that would fit the width of the van. I used six 160 watt panels. They can run a 5,000 BTU window unit here in Southern Nevada from about 10 am to about 5 pm.
I only have 2 100 amp hour batteries. The nice thing about all that solar is the batteries get charged in the morning before I need the AC, (my 12 volt refrigerator drains the batteries pretty good over night).
If you want to have a look you can see it here.

The more insulation that you have the smaller the A/C unit can be.

BTW I also have a 700 watt propane generator that can run the AC if the panels are not adequate.

 

[DannyB1954]

On the Air Conditioners that they use on semi trucks, I used to install them. I worked on transport refrigeration units for 30 years. There is a 25 HP Diesel generator hanging off of the side of the truck to power it. They became popular when California restricted the time a truck could idle.

Ours were 120 volt so the driver could use common electrical appliances when they were not running the A/C. The generator had more capacity than the a/c needed, but not enough to run something heavy like the a/c and a microwave or hot plate.