BigSwede
The Credible Hulk
Toward that point, I am curious how the condensation evaporator works. Hopefully it doesn't put the water vapor back into the cooled space...
Finally a real 12v air conditioner? - Indel Sleeping Well Cube
- Thread starter adam88
- Start date
I read somewhere, can't recall where, but it vents it outside. It would make no sense for it to vent it outside. This is probably what kills the efficiency a bit... would be easier to have a drain and let water flow out, but for a portable unit that doesn't work.
I am in discussion with Unmanned and should be receiving one of these U-Go units soon. Indel B cube is a relabeling of the Italian Autoclima U-Go.
Jostelli over at Sprinter forum has one and has had good experiences with it.
DANFOSS, SMALL, PORTABLE, REMOVEABLE, 12V DC are all key benefits, and most of the year I don't need an AC in the van at all. I can curtain off my Sprinter van to reduce the cooling requirements and restrict to just the sleeping area, or wherever. I have not seen a unit with these specs at a better price, we shall see how it performs. I do not want an AC window unit hanging out the back or side of my van and the roof is full of solar with a bit of room left for soft luggage, satellite, or bridging ladders.
Jostelli over at Sprinter forum has one and has had good experiences with it.
DANFOSS, SMALL, PORTABLE, REMOVEABLE, 12V DC are all key benefits, and most of the year I don't need an AC in the van at all. I can curtain off my Sprinter van to reduce the cooling requirements and restrict to just the sleeping area, or wherever. I have not seen a unit with these specs at a better price, we shall see how it performs. I do not want an AC window unit hanging out the back or side of my van and the roof is full of solar with a bit of room left for soft luggage, satellite, or bridging ladders.
Rbertalotto
Explorer
36 amps?....An hour and a half and your battery is at 50%.......Better have LOTS of batteries and a huge solar farm to charge them. Otherwise you are better off running an inverter generator.
rayra
Expedition Leader
$1500-2000? This is ridiculous. And likely only brought to market in Europe due to a dearth of A/C (or much need, for that matter).
The battery draw is extreme, which means you're running your vehicle. And in America that means if you are running your vehicle, you turn your vehicle A/C on. So what then is the point of this rig? Other than putting it in a tent or camper with no/low insulation?
A 5000btu / room AC A/C is <$120. They consume on the order of 550 watts / 5 Amps at 110VAC. 12VDC, ~46A, even higher power consumption, worse efficiency, but on the same order of power requirement. Either way you are running a vehicle with a higher capacity electrical system, more batteries, or a medium generator.
Main difference is you get a $100 1000watt DC inverter to run the wall unit. So for <$250 you get the same cooling capacity, about the same cubic and weight and power costs. vs this $2000 system. The price differential is almost as ridiculous as the idea of using a house / window A/C. How anybody can call $1500-2000 a reasonable price for a niche product is beyond me.
There are plenty of roofmount 12V Air Conditioners, thanks to the huge RV market in America. 2-3x the capacity at half the price of this import unit.
http://www.campingworld.com/search/index.cfm?catname=air-conditioners&type=c&ID=114
The battery draw is extreme, which means you're running your vehicle. And in America that means if you are running your vehicle, you turn your vehicle A/C on. So what then is the point of this rig? Other than putting it in a tent or camper with no/low insulation?
A 5000btu / room AC A/C is <$120. They consume on the order of 550 watts / 5 Amps at 110VAC. 12VDC, ~46A, even higher power consumption, worse efficiency, but on the same order of power requirement. Either way you are running a vehicle with a higher capacity electrical system, more batteries, or a medium generator.
Main difference is you get a $100 1000watt DC inverter to run the wall unit. So for <$250 you get the same cooling capacity, about the same cubic and weight and power costs. vs this $2000 system. The price differential is almost as ridiculous as the idea of using a house / window A/C. How anybody can call $1500-2000 a reasonable price for a niche product is beyond me.
There are plenty of roofmount 12V Air Conditioners, thanks to the huge RV market in America. 2-3x the capacity at half the price of this import unit.
http://www.campingworld.com/search/index.cfm?catname=air-conditioners&type=c&ID=114
This seems much better suited to cooling a cab with the engine running, or short bursts of AC during rest stops, as opposed to cooling a camper off grid/off-gene.
To my mind, non gene AC requires Lithium batteries to get around peukerts law, solar (probably in excess of 900 watts), and a very efficient AC unit, EERs in the low teens. Without those, you are into something that is stressing and decreasing the life of your batteries, or runs somewhat nominally, and doesn't really do what it was installed for.
To my mind, non gene AC requires Lithium batteries to get around peukerts law, solar (probably in excess of 900 watts), and a very efficient AC unit, EERs in the low teens. Without those, you are into something that is stressing and decreasing the life of your batteries, or runs somewhat nominally, and doesn't really do what it was installed for.
This sleeping well cube is the perfect size for the small cargo area space that I have -- it's also 12V and it's efficient for the 3250 btu that it's rated for. For those saying it's still too much power, and then recommend even more powerful units, i say 36A at 12v is reasonable efficiency. I will be using an LFP battery bank with more than enough power. If anyone has received this unit, I need to know 1 thing: Is the included remote IR (i.e., requires a direct line of sight)? I would also like to know the diameter of the duct hoses if anyone has this info. Indel password protects the user manual for some god unknown reason. In terms of price and for my application, on the high end of the price scale, there are custom AC systems, similar to those used for marine applications, that are custom installed for like $5000, which I have considered, so $1500-2000 is less than half the price if you think about it. If your budget cannot allow it, I would say go for something cheaper.
IdaSHO
IDACAMPER
To be clear, the spec sheet states that 36amps is MAX draw @ 12v
So the average is likely to be considerably less.
Also, to put that amp usage into perspective, a standard 5,000BTU household window mount unit have a running amperage draw of roughly 6 amps, while startup amperage ranges dramatically, depending upon circuitry.
But looking at averages for the 5k window unit as a comparison
6 amps @ 120V
That's roughly 50 amps @ 12V
Id say this small Indel unit is certainly a step in the right direction. Only hangup right now is cost.
But I'm sure they will not have any trouble selling them, so don't expect the cost to come down much, until they have a legit competitor.
Id love to see what the actual running or average amperage draw is.
Id assume its in the neighborhood of 20 amps or so, which would be more than doable with a decent sized solar array and healthy battery bank.
So the average is likely to be considerably less.
Also, to put that amp usage into perspective, a standard 5,000BTU household window mount unit have a running amperage draw of roughly 6 amps, while startup amperage ranges dramatically, depending upon circuitry.
But looking at averages for the 5k window unit as a comparison
6 amps @ 120V
That's roughly 50 amps @ 12V
Id say this small Indel unit is certainly a step in the right direction. Only hangup right now is cost.
But I'm sure they will not have any trouble selling them, so don't expect the cost to come down much, until they have a legit competitor.
Id love to see what the actual running or average amperage draw is.
Id assume its in the neighborhood of 20 amps or so, which would be more than doable with a decent sized solar array and healthy battery bank.
IdaSHO
IDACAMPER
That's the problem. The industry is seriously lacking small units.
And small units is what is needed.
Using a unit that it vastly overkill is not only inefficient, it doesn't work as designed.
It will cycle a lot increasing the average amp draw due to more startups, and it will not be able to effectively remove moisture.
Ideally you want an AC unit slightly UNDERSIZED for its space.
If it is over-sized, the air is cooled before the moisture is removed.
Bad news. Swamp city.
If it is slightly undersized, moisture/humidity is removed as it is cooled.
FYI. dense moist air feels warmer.
So a unit will work more efficiently in making things feel cooler if it is allowed to remove moisture.
Have you Guys looked into the Sleep Well Systems? The are no idle semi truck systems. They run on D/C, but they actually come with their own battery pack that includes a protection system for your vehicle batteries. They claim to provide up to 10 hours of cooling on the battery pack and the protection system won't recharge the battery pack unless your vehicle is running and your vehicle battery is at a full charge.
http://www.sleepingwell.net/Lit-Manuals.htm
http://www.sleepingwell.net/Lit-Manuals.htm
If you think those 13.5k (+) btu rooftop units run off DC without a HUGE bank of batteries and a mega inverter you're mistaken. I didn't look through every one available, but as a rule RV units run off 115 ac either while on shore power or being fed by a generator.
Some of those will pull 17 amps @ 115AC, or better on startup. So while they may be 2-3 times the capacity and half the price, you aren't running them on a few batteries and a budget inverter. At least not for any length of time likely to be useful.