12v air conditioner recommendations

[CazPaul]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a 12v air conditioner, not an evaporative one, a true compressor one, I realise they use lots of power, that will be sorted.

 

[Figaro]

There is a guy called Jason on Hymer club UK on Facebook, he installed a 12v system and claims it's good but his vents are at floor level so I'm not sure how effective an arrangement that is ?

 

[Barriesimpson]

I have the Bergstrom Open Air full converter air conditioner in the van. Excellent bit of kit - in 30 minutes I can reduce the temperature inside to 25ºC while it is 36ºC outside. It does use a lot of battery power, but as you have already said you will sort that out, no problem.

 

[CazPaul]

I have the Bergstrom Open Air full converter air conditioner in the van. Excellent bit of kit - in 30 minutes I can reduce the temperature inside to 25ºC while it is 36ºC outside. It does use a lot of battery power, but as you have already said you will sort that out, no problem.

Thankyou, did you get that purchased/fitted in the UK?

 

[Barriesimpson]

Thankyou, did you get that purchased/fitted in the UK?

I'm not in the UK rather the Canary Islands. I had it fitted when I bought the van for €1.800 all in.

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[CAB96]

There is a guy called Jason on Hymer club UK on Facebook, he installed a 12v system and claims it's good but his vents are at floor level so I'm not sure how effective an arrangement that is ?

It will be better than trying to pump it from above - EuroTrotters i think is the expert who will confirm.

 

[EuroTrotters]

There is a guy called Jason on Hymer club UK on Facebook, he installed a 12v system and claims it's good but his vents are at floor level so I'm not sure how effective an arrangement that is ?

Truma refer to low mounted vents as “comfort” option.

It is not ideal to have vents low.

Cold air is denser than warm air, so will fall from high vents creating a more even temperature.

There is usually a way to get vents high up, can take some work. But it is definitely worth the effort .

 

[CAB96]

Truma refer to low mounted vents as “comfort” option.

It is not ideal to have vents low.

Cold air is denser than warm air, so will fall from high vents creating a more even temperature.

There is usually a way to get vents high up, can take some work. But it is definitely worth the effort .

View attachment 1025129

OK, I was the wrong way up

 

[Murrays]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a 12v air conditioner, not an evaporative one, a true compressor one, I realise they use lots of power, that will be sorted.

After cooking myself in Spain in spring '23 I was looking for an efficient roof mounted AC unit to run off grid. Options for 12V systems were very limited and I ended up fitting a Velit 2000R early last year. Velit is a USA company (velitcamping.com) and they ship to the UK. I actually picked up my unit from a shipping warehouse in Stoke on Trent. Installation was very simple, just drop it in the hole and connect the power cables.
The unit seems well made (in China of course), performance seems pretty good and the unit is not particularly noisy on lower fan settings. Our trip to Europe last year was cold and wet, so it didn't actually get a lot of use unfortunately. Since I fitted it the price has gone up $150 so it's now $1,750 (about £1,350), though I found a $50 discount code somewhere.
The alternatives I considered were the Dometic RTX 2000 and the Indel B 12v Plenin. (I discounted buying a cheap Chinese unknown brand.)
At the time the Dometic was only available at 24V in the UK. It looks like they are now selling the 12V version here, though it's £3,165 on their web site and outputs 1,700W. The Indel B unit is around £1,500, and only 1,200W.
I wanted something over 2,200W and the Velit was really my only choice back then. The transaction was smooth, I paid in US dollars on their web site and everything went as it should. I wouldn't be concerned about ordering from them again. Velit also do larger and smaller units too if that's what you need, though the 3000 unit is not available at 12V I believe.

On the electrical side I built an additional 280Ah lithium battery (now at 560Ah) and increased the solar array to 840Wp, so I'm pretty much ready for any heat wave! Of course I anticipate it being cold and wet everywhere we go from now on. Here's a photo of the top of the van now, though there are plenty of photos on the Velit web site - in the reviews.

I hope that helps,
Steve.