Date:         Tue, 14 May 1996 19:28:43 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ddes@anet-dfw.com (David Schwarze)
Subject:      Re: Sweating W/O Air conditioning

At 6:35 PM 5/14/96, LAYTON@suvax1.stetson.edu wrote:
>I am going to put an extra window unit where the stove is.  The smallest
>window A/C unit I could find was 5000 BTU.  Does any one know if a smaller
>unit is manufactured and if anyone has ever done this to a Westfalia?

I saw it done to a VW in the junkyard once.  Not a sightly installation.
Those things are bulky and heavy!  Take up too much space for me to ever
consider one in my bus.  IMO, of course...

>I wonder if it is possible to convert my factory air to run on the 110v
>so I wouldnt have to get an extra A/C unit at all.  With the heat and humidity
>in FL it feels like 120 degrees, even at nighttime.  Any help would be greatly
>appreciated.  Thanks a lot.

Yeah I hear you.  It gets that way here in my new home (Dallas) as well.  I
have often thought about using the existing A/C without running the engine.
Much more efficient than dragging two A/C systems around.  All you would
have to do is install a large A/C motor (I imagine a one HP geared down
would do, even though people say the A/C takes more than 1 HP, but this
might take some experimentation) to drive the compressor, and do a little
creative wiring so you could run the blower with the ignition off.  You
would have to have a battery charger/power supply to sustain your van's
battery.

The real problem is how to have the compressor attached to the engine via a
fan belt and at the same time allow the compressor to be driven by the
electric motor when the engine isn't turning.  You would either have to
remove the fan belt from the engine and attach it to the electric motor
every time you parked (not out of the question I suppose) or rig some kind
of freewheeling device to the engine crankshaft so the compressor pulley
could turn faster than the engine.

One other possibility is to drive the compressor with a large *DC* motor
ALL THE TIME.  This probably wouldn't work due to the power requirements of
the DC motor, but it sure is tempting, because you could mount the
compressor somewhere more convenient than next to the engine - you wouldn't
have to cut any tin!  One possibility would be to attach a second
alternator to the engine solely for the purpose of driving the A/C motor.

No matter what you do, driving the compressor with an electric motor is not
going to be very efficient.  If you can make the whole thing work at under
15 amps @ 110V, it might be worth your trouble.  If it takes more power
than that, you should know that a good portion of the plug-ins at
campgrounds limit you to 15 amps, so you probably wouldn't be able to use
it anyway.   Just some thoughts, hope they help...

-David

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David Schwarze                   '73 VW Safare Custom Camper       (Da Boat)
Dallas, Texas, USA               '73 Capri GT 2800                (Da Beast)
e-mail: ddes@anet-dfw.com        '87 Mustang Lx 5.0          (13.986@100.81)
http://www.teleport.com/~des     '93 Weber WG-50                  (Da Piano)
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