So I bought an airplane air conditioner (portable) to cool the camper...
You can find a similar product and read up on how they work (watch a nice "demo" video) by clicking here:
http://www.arcticaircooler.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPEpTABfFEE
This is the unit I purchased, photos below (half the price of the one listed above):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0645507930
Inside, looking at the pump:
It is a 44 quart cooler that is 22" wide x 16" high x 14" deep, and is 29" tall when counting the venting tube.
NOW FOR THE TEST:
After sitting in the sun @ 93 degrees, I put in the air conditioner. Inside (the reading from an inside/out thermometer said) it was at 99.4-100.6. Let's call it 100.
In 30 minutes, it went to 89.8 to 90.6. Let's call it 90.
HOWEVER, IT FELT LIKE IT WAS MORE IN THE LOW 80'S, MAYBE HIGH 70'S (
and the humidity was gone)...the only way I can equate how it felt different than what it was would be like when you turn your heat back on on a cold day, lets's say a cold snap comes back in Spring and you forget to turn your furnace back on. You may have come back to your house after work to find it 61, it hits 64 and feels really warm, yet it still will go to 67 (or whatever you set it at) before turning itself off and you wonder why you really need it set THAT much higher when 64 feels great. (I really hope that made sense. Someone with a thermo dynamics or HVAC background can explain that better.)
At 35 minutes, I hopped in (& stayed in) for 10 minutes. It went from 88.3 to 86.7.
At 45 minutes, I turned it off.
So, in my opinion, it worked!!
------------------
This is not to be confused with a swamp cooler, or blowing air over ice.
Would a 5,000 BTU home window air conditioner or Pet Cool be more effective/faster? YES. (And obviously the window unit would be cheaper, than the airplane unit or Pet Cool. A Pet Cool, if you can find them, are around $500.)
But I chose to build my camper differently:
1) I chose not to wire my camper (based on speed in finishing it & my knowledge/abilities).
2) I did not want to a) cut a hole in my sidewall (damage integrity/provide entry-way for water or water derioration); b) take away from valuable storage space in the galley; and c) place it in the front wall bec. I did not want it to drop cold air on our heads nor wanted to hinder the light/view from the big window there.
This is to be a temporary unit and used only when needed. We don't typically have the heat of the West or Southest, or humidity you can find in other parts of the country.
------------------
The size is incredibly deceiving as to how much ice you can get inside the cooler. (When you look at a cooler just as a storage vessel for ice, things change.) I purchased a small bag of ice, for the test, and then added all of the ice from our freezeer, and could have easily purchased at least one more small bag of ice. Or maybe started with a big bag and added/gone from there.
------------------
I've seen people hang window units off of their trailer doors so that it falls in line with the window on the door (but I want to still be able to use both doors at any time), some others would leave air conditioners on the ground and just vent the cold air through a ducted tube through a door window, while others would cut holes in the walls for return ducting with dryer hoses dropping the cold air in from above (through the roof vent), and others just used AWESOME ways of incorporating a standard window unit. While not knocking those, bec.whatever you prefer and how it works, it is up to you. I just chose this way to cool down my camper, and wanted to share it with others here.
You can buy ice from a lot of locations, and while most of the camp sites we will use will probably have electricity (I can purchase a 12v to 110 converter plug), if not, I can hook it up to our car and run it for an hour or so (or as needed) to cool things off. In my long-term plans I would like to add a deep cycle battery and run it off of that, but again that is in the (distant) offing.
For me, this is a simple solution when needed. Hope it helps. ;-)
