tx2sturgis said:
I looked into doing this back when I was planning my build in a limo and didn't know about the Sportsman inverter-generators. The two reasons were cost and mounting flexibility:
- Honda's GX50 engine costs $800 less than their EU2200i generator and still puts out 1,500 watts of power (enough for me).
- It's 1/5th the size, can be stripped down and mounted in any orientation, and isn't heat sensitive.
I was hoping to shoe-horn it into the engine compartment and connect it to the car's existing refrigerant circuit. You could give the system a hermetic seal by using something like this (not hard to make).
Unfortunately there were a few big problems:
- 1,500 watts isn't enough to cool a car down quickly after it's been sitting in the sun, so you either need something bigger than a GX50 or you need to mount a smaller compressor in parallel with the car's engine-driven compressor. There wasn't enough room for either option. Alternately you could air condition continuously, but the GX50 needs its oil changed every 50 hours.
- The thermostatic expansion valve in the car's evaporator core might not pinch down enough for the much lower flow rate that a 1,500 watt motor can drive.
- You need a car with an electric fan to cool the condensor core, and it needs to run from battery when the key is out. Ditto for the blower.
- If the blend door is powered by engine vacuum, it won't work.
- Most cars don't have the space or access to make it work, and in a stepvan/shuttle/schoolie it's probably not worth the bother.
