adding AC

CaptnJohn · 09-07-2016, 07:27 AM

Ordering a Brisk Air II for the bedroom of my Cougar 303RLS. The price difference of the 13,500 instead of the 15,000 BTU. Any reason not to go bigger?

MBD · 09-07-2016, 03:00 PM

get the 15K BTU

CaptnJohn · 09-07-2016, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBD

get the 15K BTU

Probably overkill in the bedroom as that one is not ducted, but figure bigger will not hurt for the minor cost difference.

Jgkopp · 09-07-2016, 07:01 PM

Enjoy your meat locker!

It probably depends on how hot it will be outside when your using your rig. You may get some additional noise with the 15K. We had a 13.5 in our bed rm in a TT and it was added and was our meat locker even out at Lake Havasu with it 120° outside. Our bed rm had one slide. Your call, but probably not that much of a difference anyway. By the way a smaller unit is a better dehumidifier as it allows the unit to operate with longer cycles of being on and extracting water from the air due to the cold coil. When it is off and the fan is running it is putting this leftover moisture (on the indoor cooling coil) back in the rig.

John

CaptnJohn · 09-07-2016, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jgkopp

Enjoy your meat locker!

It probably depends on how hot it will be outside when your using your rig. You may get some additional noise with the 15K. We had a 13.5 in our bed rm in a TT and it was added and was our meat locker even out at Lake Havasu with it 120° outside. Our bed rm had one slide. Your call, but probably not that much of a difference anyway. By the way a smaller unit is a better dehumidifier as it allows the unit to operate with longer cycles of being on and extracting water from the air due to the cold coil. When it is off and the fan is running it is putting this leftover moisture (on the indoor cooling coil) back in the rig.

John

Never thought of the humidity aspect. My plan is / was to miss the heat and keep the boat on the Atlantic during summer when schools were out. So ~~ school is back in session, the holiday is over and I head 500 miles from the coast to the mountains. Never figured it would be 99 degrees 2 days in a row and not much lower in the forecast. One 15K unit is not enough for the 5er. Was 84 in here this afternoon! So double???

MBD · 09-08-2016, 04:13 PM

do what you like - but the opinion you asked me for is "get the 15K BTU." If you don't need all it can give, put it on a lower setting. Or get the smaller unit-when you are somewhere that is hot as blazes, and the 13.5K ain't big enough-there is no way to "turn it up" to make it cooler. I think the adage is ..."it is better to have it and not need it rather than need it and not have it."

notanlines · 09-09-2016, 04:52 AM

I'm with MBD on this one. Size does matter.

PerryB · 09-09-2016, 03:27 PM

I'm going to buck the popular opinion and say get the 13.5k unit. It'll be a little quiter and draw a little less power. You'll be nearly doubling your cooling capacity ( it WILL be double if the original is 13.5, but I'm betting its 15K). With that much capacity you'll be able make it plenty cold inside. Like John said in post #4, enjoy your meat locker !

Dave W · 09-10-2016, 02:30 PM

Ours that I added to the BR this spring is a Dometic Penguin (lower profile) 13.5 Btu. A couple days ago in Boulder City at 105*F and no shade in sight that BR was C-O-L-D at 72*. We used a small fan to push some of the chilled air to the main living space - it helped that ducted 15K Btu unit maintain 76* there.

Timon · 09-10-2016, 02:36 PM

If it's not ducted then it's all going into just the bedroom. If you have too much capacity you can have issues such as freeze up. If it's designed for 13.5 I'd likely stay at that level unless you plan on being it really hot temps most of the time you're RVing.

Dave W · 09-10-2016, 02:44 PM

Pull the electrical box cover. It will tell you on a label the ampacity of the circuit. I've forgotten what mine was but it covered 13.5 Btu a/c's. Not sure if it will handle 15K a/c. It's 12 awg wire so should be fine for either but Keystone may be in a CYA position and say it's lower.

CaptnJohn · 09-10-2016, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave W

Pull the electrical box cover. It will tell you on a label the ampacity of the circuit. I've forgotten what mine was but it covered 13.5 Btu a/c's. Not sure if it will handle 15K a/c. It's 12 awg wire so should be fine for either but Keystone may be in a CYA position and say it's lower.

Thanks Dave. When ordering I asked the parts guy if wired for 15K and he said yes but hold. He checked with the service mgr and he was told Cougar 5ers are all prewired for 15K. The PIA is fishing a wire for the thermostat.

sharker6 · 09-14-2016, 10:25 AM

I'd stay with the 13.5 because if you ever lose one side of 50 amp service it will still run and you'll have AC in the bedroom, your 15K won't run, don't ask me how I know. Also, if you ever run a generator you can run the front AC on a smaller genset and have more juice for other accessories.

Outback 325BH · 09-14-2016, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharker6

I'd stay with the 13.5 because if you ever lose one side of 50 amp service it will still run and you'll have AC in the bedroom, your 15K won't run, don't ask me how I know. Also, if you ever run a generator you can run the front AC on a smaller genset and have more juice for other accessories.

Lot of confusion in this post...

First: the size of a/c (13,500 vs 15,000) has no bearing on which leg of 50 amp service it is connected.

Two: if one leg of 50 amp service is dropped, all things on that leg are not energized. All things on the other leg are energized. (Dropping one leg is probably part of a bigger problem, but not discussed here.)

Three: EACH leg of a 50 amp service has 50 amps available, so dropping one leg doesn't affect the amps available on the other. A 15,000 a/c would run fine.

There are others factors in determining which size a/c to install, but the above are not it.

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sharker6 · 09-14-2016, 11:15 AM

It's not confusing at all if your Losing one leg of your 50 amp service at the pedestal, like the campground I'm staying at now. Electrical service in different campgrounds vary.

Outback 325BH · 09-14-2016, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharker6

It's not confusing at all if your Losing one leg of your 50 amp service at the pedestal, like the campground I'm staying at now. Electrical service in different campgrounds vary.

I wasn't confused, you are.

Losing one leg of 50 amp service does not change the amps available on the other leg.

I think you may not understand how 50 amp 240 volt service works.

If one were to disconnect one leg of a 50 amp service, the other leg is fully intact and all 50 amps can be drawn from it.

Your post implied that installing a 13,500 a/c would be better in case you lost one leg. That is incorrect for all the reasons I stated.

A 13,500 on the leg that was dropped will be out of commission. A 15,000 on the leg that was not dropped will continue to function normally.

Your post made no sense at all. And by "no sense", I don't mean I don't understand... I mean, it was plain incorrect.

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CaptnJohn · 09-14-2016, 06:54 PM

My mind was made up on the 15K and now it is not. Guess I'll flip a coin in the AM when I arrive. Asked parts man at CW and both are in stock. He suggested the 13.5K to save a few $$$ as only the bedroom and bath are planned for this unit. He said should the main AC go out a fan placed in the stairway will send cool air to the kitchen area and he feels do as well as a 15K unit would. Either one gets the heat strip. BTW, the $$$ difference is not a factor for me.

**chuckster57** · 09-14-2016, 07:30 PM

50A RV explained:
http://www.myrv.us/electric/

CaptnJohn · 09-15-2016, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckster57

50A RV explained:
http://www.myrv.us/electric/

At some point I heard the 120 outlets in the truck should not be used with a battery charger. Anything else they should not be used for? I thought they could be used for anything and have 2 in my truck from the factory. Not a problem charging phones or a laptop..... at least not yet.

Dave W · 09-15-2016, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptnJohn

At some point I heard the 120 outlets in the truck should not be used with a battery charger. Anything else they should not be used for? I thought they could be used for anything and have 2 in my truck from the factory. Not a problem charging phones or a laptop..... at least not yet.

The 2011-? Ford outlets are only 150 watts - it is in my 2011 owner's manual, p101. That's less then 2 amps (something like ~1.3)

"The 110V AC power point outlet is used for powering electrical devices
that require up to 150W. Exceeding the 150W limit will cause the power
point to cut off the power temporarily to provide overload protection."

Those outlets wear out very quickly too (the Ford replacement says Made in China!!)

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