Surviving a month in Houston with only one Air Conditioner

[8amps]

Hi HOC,
We are in Houston, TX for another month and the rain has stopped and it has heated up quite significantly. Today is a balmy 93. There was a momentary downpour today which lowered the temperature. I think two days ago it was 106 and yesterday was over 100. Needless to say, the AC has been running nearly non-stop. I read the User Guide on AC & Heating where it said to get ahead of the heat. Am I reading it correctly to leave it at 60 and put the fan on high? We have it on auto now and it is set at 79. We are gone during the day and have been turning it up a bit (82 or so) to try to give the AC a little break. But after reading the User Guide, it sounds like we shouldn't do that. We set it to 72 at night. Before it got so brutally hot, we kept it at 75 during the day when we were here, and 78 when we left.

We have single pane windows but have the silver reflector things in all the windows which helps tremendously. In the morning, when the sun is on the door side, we put out the awning to keep the direct sun off that side. However, in the afternoon, there's no relief on the off-door-side from the direct sun. The fridge is laboring too. We run a portable Vornado (?) fan in the bedroom and the ceiling fan in the living room.

So far, we haven't been uncomfortable temperature wise. At this moment, I'm more concerned the AC is going to give out running continuously. We could add another AC but that's a big expense for a month and for something up to now in nearly 2 years of full-timing we haven't needed. Not even sure if we're prewired for that or not.

 

[MTPockets]

I can understand your intention to 'rest' the A/C, but when you get home and turn the temp down, you are now working against the warmer items in the trailer; furniture, cabinets, bed, etc. you say you've been comfortable so I wouldn't worry about it... Stay comfortable.

 

[danemayer]

Direct sun and high humidity in Houston are a tough combination for the air conditioners in large RVs. They usually can't keep up with intense afternoon sun. If you get the RV cooler in the morning, the air conditioners will still lose ground on a hot afternoon, but the end result might be 82 rather than 89.

But then again, if you're comfortable, maybe you should keep doing what you're doing.

 

[hoefler]

The only time the A/C can catch up, is at night. Keep in mind, your A/C is doing 2 things, removing humidity and cooling. The humidity has to go down before it gets cool. Turn it down at night and DO NOT turn it up during the day. It is a constant Yo Yo. By leaving it down, it has a head start on maintaining the temperature. Use the foam squares in the vents, the skylight in the bath is also an uninsulated area. I had to replace my inside dome and found it was open to the roof dome. I painted the top side of the new dome and stuffed R30 insulation in the attic, that made a huge difference.

 

[jassson007]

We are just down I 10 from you in SWLA and our two ac's have a hard time keeping up. I keep our bedroom on 68 and downstairs on 70. Last week during the high temps it got up to about 79 or so in the living area but would catch back up a lot quicker in the evening since it didn't have to cool as much. I will not ever have another rig with just one AC after living in our sob tt with just one.


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[jbeletti]

Hi Mary and Phil - great to hear from you guys!

Yes, the bedroom should be pre-wired for a second AC. It would go in place of the Fantastic Vent Fan.

Hope to see you down the road somewhere this year again. Stay cool!

 

[TxCowboy]

We're just south of you on the Coastal Bend. Our neighbor has a Big Country with TWO AC units and his can't keep up during these hot afternoons along the coast (high temps + high humidity). He has his ACs set to 65 and his RV only cools to 79 in the late afternoons. I checked his outlet temps and the ACs are cooling the air down to 50 to 55 degrees so they are definitely cooling. He just has more RV than cooling capacity.

I'm also betting that your AC is in the main living area. I bet your bedroom feels like a sauna!

Having only one AC in a Big Country is asking a lot out of that AC in this south Texas heat.

 

[jayc]

We're just south of Houston in Dickinson and our a/c's are doing okay keeping up with the summer heat. This is where we are from and this is our first summer at "home" since we retired in 2008.

 

[8amps]

Use the foam squares in the vents,

Foam squares in the floor vents? (Surely not the AC vents). I need to vacuum those out anyway so it'd be a good time for the that. I am also going to make one of the silver reflector things for the door window. One thing I noticed is the cabinets on the ODS (full sun in the afternoon) get quite hot. I usually keep my onions and garlic in one of them, and in the afternoon, it smells like I'm cooking in here. The front cap and thus the front closet radiates heat as well. I was thinking to put silver reflecting stuff in the back of those cabinets. Not that it will be reflecting anything of course, but for the insulation effect, and also I have a roll of it. Would that do anything or am I wasting my time?

- - - Updated - - -

We're just south of Houston in Dickinson and our a/c's are doing okay keeping up with the summer heat. This is where we are from and this is our first summer at "home" since we retired in 2008.

We're in Katy right now but next week we'll be moving down to Kemah for 4 weeks, which I don't think is that far from Dickinson. Perhaps we can meet up for dinner/coffee/Mexican Train/whatever!

- - - Updated - - -

We're just south of you on the Coastal Bend. Our neighbor has a Big Country with TWO AC units and his can't keep up during these hot afternoons along the coast (high temps + high humidity). He has his ACs set to 65 and his RV only cools to 79 in the late afternoons. I checked his outlet temps and the ACs are cooling the air down to 50 to 55 degrees so they are definitely cooling. He just has more RV than cooling capacity.

I'm also betting that your AC is in the main living area. I bet your bedroom feels like a sauna!

Having only one AC in a Big Country is asking a lot out of that AC in this south Texas heat.

Yes, we only have one AC and it is in the living area. Up to now, our bedroom has been fine in the evenings. Fan helps a lot. I'm dreading it not though, since I have a really hard time sleeping if I'm too hot.

We're pleased with how cool it has kept it. That really hasn't been the problem. I just don't want it to keel over from working too hard. I guess we'll see how it goes in the next couple of weeks. We have a Carrier which I believe don't make RV ACs anymore. I haven't checked the temp of the air coming out, but again, it is cooling it fine so far.

 

[Bob&Patty]

NO....foam squares in all the ceiling vents.

 

[TandT]

Two air conditioners are a must, especially in the South or the West. Trace

 

[JohnD]

NO....foam squares in all the ceiling vents.

You mean those Camco Vent Pillows? (that's what I call them, anywayz).

We have three of them . . . one for each vent.

 

[Westwind]

I think Bob means the bath vent, fantastic fan vent, I'd cover the floor heat vents ( could be pulling in moist air thru the furnace).

 

[8amps]

I think Bob means the bath vent, fantastic fan vent, I'd cover the floor heat vents ( could be pulling in moist air thru the furnace).

Ohhhhh, that makes sense. We are near a Camping World, guess I will pop over today. I have the silver reflector stuff in the bedroom vent, more for light block, but it helps with heat too.

 

[jimtoo]

Hi Mary and Phil,

This is the vent cover they are talking about.

Jim M

 

[hoefler]

We have a 4' tall tower fan that we set in the door way of the bedroom blowing air into the living room from the bedroom. We set the bedroom A/C about 2* higher than the living room A/C. This keeps it from cycling when the sun goes down and the living room A/C is able to maintain temp. The fan keeps the air circulating and since the bedroom is such a small area for the A/C up there, it is much cooler there. The fan pushes the cool air into the living room. At Hollywood Casino in Tunica, we can maintain a 72* temperature in 112* heat with no shade and asphalt everywhere.

 

[jmgratz]

Set your temp on about 68-72 and leave it there. If you only have one AC unit good luck in cooling the RV in the summer heat in Houston. We are in the Houston-San Antonio area most of the time and are lucky if we can cool our unit to 77 in the summer heat. We also use a tower fan to circulate the air and be sure and run the ceiling fan. An a Big yes to the foam covers for the exhaust vents. Also we cover the skylight in the bathroom shower with a aluminum cover.

 

[8amps]

Thanks everyone for the helpful hints!