Seasonal Camper Air Conditioning Question

[Lowes48fan1]

I'm curious to hear from the seasonal campers on the forum regarding your AC when you are not at the campground. We're at the campground most every weekend and have been turning the A/C off when we leave. I've considered leaving it on and turning the thermostat up just to keep the humidity under control.

What do you do?

[nomad297]

I leave mine set at about 78

Bruce

[Iwritecode]

We are at ours every weekend as well but we turn it off every Sunday when we leave for the week.

There are times where we show up on Friday and it's like 90+ degrees in there though. Typically a good time to sit out on our deck or ride around on our golf cart to see what else is happening around the CG.

[str8t six]

you could either set the T stat at a higher temp or turn it off and raise up both vents to allow air flow.

[nomad297]

I have a couple of reasons for leaving the A/C on. One, I know is valid, but the other is just supposition.

The reason I know is valid is, it takes much less time for the whole RV to cool down and stabilize at 70-72 degrees the lower I leave the thermostat when I am gone. It’s not just the ambient air that needs to cool — everything in the RV needs to cool down to the point where it is no longer putting out the heat it has acclimated to. I have found that if I turn my A/C off, it takes at least 12 hours for it to stabilize at 70-72 degrees when the outside daily high temperatures have been in the mid-80s to low 90s for a week. If the outside temperatures are the same and I have left my A/C set around 78 degrees, it “seems” to only take about an hour for it to stabilize at 70-72 degrees. I have no scientific data to support what I just stated — this is just how it seems to me.

The other reason I have, which I don’t know whether it is valid, or not, is, I think it must be a bad thing for the trailer to go through a weekly “shock” of being heated to extreme temperatures, which will get well-above 100 degrees inside when the daily outside high ambient temperatures are in the mid-80s to low 90s, then cooled to 70-72 degrees for a couple of days. I just don’t think this weekly repetitive expansion and contraction of everything can be a good thing. Maybe it doesn’t or shouldn’t matter — I don’t know, but I want to err on the side of my supposition.

Bruce

[TheWolfPaq82]

As I know some seasonal areas by me.....two are still flooded out since March...but co-worker was at one that had Wifi and he had a security cam on his site that he'd watch from his phone. I was wondering if anyone has set up...or tried something like Google Nest ?? With the Wifi and a Nest Thermostat, you could turn your A/C on and off from home on your phone.

[TheWolfPaq82]

Originally Posted by nomad297

I have a couple of reasons for leaving the A/C on. One, I know is valid, but the other is just supposition.

The reason I know is valid is, it takes much less time for the whole RV to cool down and stabilize at 70-72 degrees the lower I leave the thermostat when I am gone. It’s not just the ambient air that needs to cool — everything in the RV needs to cool down to the point where it is no longer putting out the heat it has acclimated to. I have found that if I turn my A/C off, it takes at least 12 hours for it to stabilize at 70-72 degrees when the outside daily high temperatures have been in the mid-80s to low 90s for a week. If the outside temperatures are the same and I have left my A/C set around 78 degrees, it “seems” to only take about an hour for it to stabilize at 70-72 degrees. I have no scientific data to support what I just stated — this is just how it seems to me.

The other reason I have, which I don’t know whether it is valid, or not, is, I think it must be a bad thing for the trailer to go through a weekly “shock” of being heated to extreme temperatures, which will get well-above 100 degrees inside when the daily outside high ambient temperatures are in the mid-80s to low 90s, then cooled to 70-72 degrees for a couple of days. I just don’t think this weekly repetitive expansion and contraction of everything can be a good thing. Maybe it doesn’t or shouldn’t matter — I don’t know, but I want to err on the side of my supposition.

Bruce

Very valid points. Spoke with a 20yr HVAC engineer about programmable T-stats and he made basically the same point. 2-3 degrees is fine when away from home, but when you get into the 5-10 degree range, it will take longer to cool...or heat as the everything is at ambient temp and will radiate the heat or cold until it stabilizes to the normal (your comfort setting) room temp.
Don't know about the "Shock" as we did a lot of weekend only camping, so it was constantly sitting in driveway in heat and then a weekend of A/C...I couldn't say either way if it had any affect on the TT...but it is an interesting theory.

[Iwannacamp]

I think the humidity is harder on the construction material than the normal summer heat.

Just buy a 7 day programmable stat at set it where you want it to be. When we used to have people gone 8-5 every day we set the stat up 4 degrees(last one leaving) and it wouldn’t take 30 mins to feel the difference. 5 deg may not notice the difference, but to me 10 is a good temp for vacation type leave. If you normally set it at 75 and turn to 85 when you leave the RV isn’t going to know the difference and humidity and temp maintained. Have it programmed to return to schedule 12 hours before your normal arrival.

[whj469]

Year round at from 78 to 80, three units, unless I need heat a few days a year.