Our ultimate goal is to make the Airstream Off-Grid not relying on gas, propane or electrical hookups to meet our needs. During the warmer summer months the Airstream can get pretty warm inside – especially when in full sun! (Aluminum is a VERY good conductor!) With the weather heating up we began to look at different cooling options. Is it feasible to cool our trailer with an electric AC powered by the sun? What other cooling options are there? Read on for the answers to these questions. The Land Yacht was originally outfitted with a AC-powered roof-top air conditioner. It seemed to function well but it was large, heavy and in my opinion made the exterior look like dump. (Especially after gale-force winds across the Montana plains stole the plastic shroud.) Given these facts plus wanting an off-grid solution I decided to remove the roof top air conditioner. I added a roof vent to the opening where the old AC was installed so if we decided to upgrade to a newer, slimmer, unit we could easily remove the vent and install the new one.

Plus the vent adds some nice light and additional ventilation. I originally thought we would forgo an air conditioner altogether…the northwest summers are mild (with only a few short weeks of mildly uncomfortable heat) and the time we would spend in hotter zones would only be during mild winters. I installed two Fantastic-Fans (one in the front and the other in the rear) which can really move some air. I thought this would suffice… I quickly changed my mind as summer set in! Aluminum is a fairly good conductor of heat and when the Land Yacht is exposed to long periods of hot sun the interior is like an oven. Our dual set of fantastic-fans was no match for the sun radiating through the aluminum! Trying to have a toddler nap in an aluminum can in the sun is not a good idea. With this shift of thinking I began looking into various cooling options… I had seen on the Air-forums people tactfully installing window air conditioners. I liked this option given the Northwest summer climate…we could install / use the air conditioner in hot weather then remove it altogether when not needed.

My next question was, “Is there a good DC solar powered off-grid solution?” While there appears to be decent DC powered air conditioner technology it is expensive and I haven’t found a suitable non-permanent window solution. Until I find a fitting and affordable solution I purchased a small 6500btu window unit and I am going to run some tests to see if it would be feasible to power the air conditioner through an inverter with our future solar array. Update: After doing some math its not feasible to consistently cool the Airstream with our window unit. See the usage data below. We purchased a fairly cheap 6500 btu air conditioner for about $150 from Costco. If I was a little more patient I could have purchased a AC off of craigslist for about $75-$100 but we were going on a road trip and the weather was going to be HOT. I wanted our window air conditioner to be easy to install and easily stored when not in use. The brackets I made to hold the compressor are pretty basic…a piece of wood that that has notches router’d out to fit on the bottom of the window, a little support from the propane tanks via a threaded piece of steel plus a little foam and we are in business.

Can’t be more pleased with the setup! When we need the AC we simply throw it in the window, no bulky box on the roof and it does a good job cooling the trailer! The AC uses almost 5amps AC. Convert this to DC Amps and you get 45amps. do you have to put an ac unit in a windowThis means the AC would draw 270ah to run 6hrs per day. how does air conditioner work in a carTo only run the AC for 6hrs per day you would need over 500 Watts of Solar Panels + 540ah of battery capacity. what is the best central ac unit to buyFor our setup this isn’t feasible. In the future when we have more of a permanent setup an electric AC may be feasible with a larger solar setup. Meanwhile here’s our plan to cool the Airstream Off-Grid.

When we purchased the Land Yacht it had a large Coleman AC unit on the roof that worked fairly well. But this unit was big, bulky and the plastic shroud that covers it blew off in HIGH Montana’s winds as we drove it across country. So the fact that the AC is big, ugly and to replace the AC shroud would not be cheap ($200+) we decided to remove it. Here is our plan to keep cool during the summers: We installed 2 Fantastic fans (one at the front and one at the rear) in the trailer. These fans can be powered by our solar battery bank and can really move some air which will help us stay cool(er) and comfortable during the warmer months. (We plan to spend our summers in the NW which is very mild during the summers but the Aluminum can get pretty hot.) When off-grid we will likely be parked in the shade which can keep the inside temp 8-10 degrees less. For those times we have access to grid power and want to keep cooler we have a hand-me-down window AC unit that we will mount in the front window.

This will take a bit of creativity and fabricating but I have seen other Airstream owners use this same solution. If we end up using our AC enough we may eventually get a newer roof-top unit with a built in heat-pump. Meanwhile do you have any off-grid cooling solutions/ideas for a house on wheels? Would love to hear your ideas! POWER: DIY Portable Solar System LIGHTING: Simple LED Hack for RV’s HEAT: Small Wood Burning StovesIt seems obvious, right? Your air conditioner makes your home cooler. Well, while this is the eventual outcome, your air conditioner actually does much more than that. We’re going to talk about the four main functions of your air conditioner and how it performs those functions to cool your home. Believe it or not, creating “cold” isn’t actually a thing. Cold is just how we describe a lack of thermal heat. Your air conditioner does not “create” cold air, it removes heat from warm air. So, how does your air conditioner remove the heat from the air in your home?

The Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) describes how this works in great detail. But we’ll try to simplify it. Your air conditioner has three main mechanical components to cool your home: Basically, the air in your home moves over the cold evaporator coil that’s inside your home, which absorbs the heat from the air with refrigerant (a heat transfer fluid). The refrigerant in that coil then flows to the warm condenser coil. There, the compressor compresses that refrigerant to make it really hot, hotter than whatever the air is like outside. This allows the air outdoor to absorb the heat in the refrigerant that’s flowing through the outdoor coil until the refrigerant cools down and flows back inside where it can absorb more heat. The refrigerant flows back and forth until your home reaches the temperature set my your thermostat. So, why does this matter to you? Because when these coils get dirty, your air conditioner works less efficiently and cost you more money as a result.

This is partially why you hear people saying you need to get your air conditioner checked at least once a year for a tune up. Obviously, your air conditioner does not just absorb heat from the air and release it outside. It also has to move the air. That’s why there is a fan, which circulates the air from your home through a vent and blows it over the cooled evaporator coil. This cooled air is then blown through your air ducts, which are connected to all the different rooms in your home.Because there are options for how your air conditioner moves this air. For instance, there are now variable speed blowers that pick the most suitable speed based on the current conditions instead of constantly turning on and off. These variable speed blowers save you money on your electric bill and increase the comfort of your home by circulating your air for longer periods. So if you’re thinking about getting a new air conditioner, this is an option you should consider. Hot air can hold more humidity than cold air.

That’s why you see water droplets on a cold glass of iced water, because the air around the glass drops in temperature and the amount of moisture it can hold drops. Thus the moisture in that air condenses until it turns into water droplets So what does this have to do with air conditioners? Recall when we talked about the hot air being blown over the cold evaporator coil.  When the hot air is blown past these coils, moisture from the air condenses onto the coils and is captured. That’s why your air conditioner has a drain pan and a drain line for all the moisture it captures. So why does this matter to you? If the drain line ever becomes clogged, there will be a water overflow, which can cause drywall damage and even mold. Call a professional if your air conditioner’s drain line gets clogged. Finally, your air conditioner cleans the air because it has to filter the air flowing from your home to the air conditioner.If you don’t change the filter regularly (or install a poor air filter), your air conditioner will tend to break down more often and need more repairs due to buildup of dirt in the system.