small camper cooling, pass the crack pipe.

I have been trying to determine how to cool the camper I am wanting to build on the front of my jeep trailer. I came across these and I am seriously considering trying to build a cooling unit with them. The total volume of the camper will be around 400 Cu Ft and well insulated. I am hoping to keep the power draw under 1kW at 12 Volts including the fans. They should not have the same current load that a normal AC compressor has at start up and can be run from a solar array during the day with a small generator at night. I know they will not cool down quickly but I am pretty sure they will work. It’s just a matter of how many I will need. Just keep in mind cost is not the primary concern. Power consumption is.
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/PJT-10/450/LARGE_THERMOELECTRIC_DEVICE_.html

 

Neat idea!

 

Hmmm, I didn't like the 55deg cool side...but the guy in the review says he got 41* with a fan on the hot side, so it may work.

Good Crack!!

 

http://www.hitechbuildingsystems.com/HVAC/index.php?gclid=CPrG5_m_mI8CFReQGgodVQGfeQ

Check it out.

 

Interesing but I bet the current load is higher then I want for a camper.

 

About 2K watts IIRC. Teardrop camper people are using them.

Yeah more then you wanted but hey if it is worth doing it is worth overdoing right?

 

I am trying to build something that I can run off a solar array. Conventional compressor driven AC units have a high start up current that PV systems can't handle.

 

Cool idea. I would have it setup so you can charge off of your vehicle if it is cloudy or something also. What is your plan for battery(s) and such?

 

Havnt gotten that far into the project yet. Probalby 2 deep cycle batteries and If I keep within my power specs a Honda EU2000i generator for nights.

I just ordered 4 of those for prototyping and testing to see how many I will need.

 

Check this site out for tips and info about small campers in general. Good people over there allbiet a little crazy about their hobby, unlike us
http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/

 

Cool, thanks for the link.

 

No prob. I used to hang out over there when I was planning on building a teardrop after finishing Chia. Those plans have been shot down so off to find something else.

 

You could use a capacitor bank for the compressor startup.

But with the peltiers it looks to be a lot cheaper even if you had a bunch of them.

I would put them all into a removable panel, that you could take out, flip and put back in so you can have a heater if needed.

 

heatng has crossed my mind too. But supposidly you can reverse the power through them and have the same effect. I will have to play and see what I can do.

 

I once saw a little swamp cooler someone had made for a small off road teardrop camper. They used a permanent magnet dc 12v fan mounted in an ammo can. That thing had very low current draw (don't remember quite what it was but I do remember being surprised how low it was. You could set up a small battery bank and solar array and not need the generator, also it could be set up to charge/run off your jeep (eliminating the solar panel).

 

Got the devices today. They are bigger then I thought and I may have to go to larger/more fans for circulation. But I think they will work.

 

Interesting devices. I was thinking that if you had reversible fans you could set it to blow cold air into your camper and exhaust the hot air out. Then reverse the direction of flow when you wanted heat. Neat.

 

Even easier then reversing the fans. Supposidly (i have not tested yet) you can just reverse current through the device and it reverses the heat transfer so it becomes a heater. Not as efficently as the cooling but should work.