Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: mciai2000 on May 29, 2011, 02:45:37 pm
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Hello Happy Campers:
I have been running my ac this weekend and I seem to think that the compressor in the unit is rather loud when it runs. Am I dreaming this or is this standard with the ac heat pump?
David
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It's noisy! It's not ducted. It's the air moved by the fan that makes so much noise.
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Yeah, we kind of wish the fan cycled so we could at least get intermittent breaks from the noise.
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This last weekend we started running the A/C with the fan set to auto. The speed was set to high during the day and would cycle on and off as needed. At night we set the fan to on and the speed to low. The fan ran all the time but was much quieter than on high. The other thing it did was that it did not seem as loud and it was not as notable when the compressor cut in. When it cooled way down at night, I had to reach up and turn it off. Nice having a smaller well designed RV where everything seems to be within reach. (nod)
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My problem with it is that I am a very light sleeper and the cycling on and off drives me nuts. We bought a cheap fan at Walgreens and I use that to move air around in the coach-that is, if it's not too hot.
While I'm venting--the sound of the inverter fan cycling at night drives me nuts too. I guess I'll have to get used to ear plugs--But they drive me nuts too!!! Can't win.
Judi
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Judi, none of this should bother me, I'M NUTS roflol
Lets ask Bob, did you ever figure a way to turn off the inverter? :help
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The Tripp-Lite inverter in my 2007 also drove us nuts at night so we shut it off when we don't need 110v power. Not just because of the noise, but also for the huge power savings (12 amp hours). There is a little switch on the front of it. If you pull the head phone jack from the back side of the main control switch, then that will kill 95% of the power to the inverter (then drawing only 1 amp hour), putting it in a sleep or stand-by mode of some sort.
I understand newer models have a different brand inverter, so this may not apply to you.
About the a/c, like Tom said, putting it on low helps a lot with the noise factor. Also drawing the bedroom privacy curtain, leaving iit about 6" open helps a little too.
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Unfortunately, we don't have an "auto" on our ac. Not sure what year the air conditioners changed, but it sure would be a nice feature. Our little '06 travel trailer had one. Oh well.....
Judi, I'm the same way. I use one of those little sound machines (and sometimes earplugs too - although they drive me crazy!!). Ain't we special?? lol
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Trudy, on our thermostat the fan has a switch that reads on or auto and another switch below it that reads high or low for the speed. I would guess that you have the same thermostat because you have a 2010 PC just like me, unless you didn't get the conveniences package with the a/c upgrade.
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Lets ask Bob, did you ever figure a way to turn off the inverter? :help
Yes Billy, I turn off the inverter at night by turning off the breaker that supplies 110vac to the inverter. I too was bothered by the inverter cooling fan cycling during the night. I did some investigation because it seemed strange that the cooling fan would run when the inverter was not being used at night.
On the 2551, the inverter is located under the passenger side bed and is mounted forward of the converter/breaker panel on the same wood panel. First I had to determine if I was hearing the converter fan or the inverter fan. The converter fan will run if you are plugged into shore power and are using a lot of 12vdc or are charging the batteries at a high rate. You can feel the air flow in the grill on the converter/breaker panel when that fan runs which it turns out is not that often, and I have never heard it at night. If you hear a fan noise from under the bed and you don't feel or hear the converter fan running, then it is the inverter fan.
The inverter cooling fan should run when it gets warm from working to create 110vac from the 12vdc batteries, although I don't hear it often when running it to watch TV since the current draw is low. But I was hearing the inverter fan run when it was not in use. I replaced the inverter (thanks Kermit) and the new one behaved the same. So I contacted Xantrex a few times and finally found someone who explained that the inverter cooling fan is designed to come on periodically even when not in use to cool the internal switching relay that automatically switches from shore power to inverter power. I guess the relay is "on" and passing the ac supply through the inverter when the inverter is off.
So, at night, if you switch off the breaker that supplies the 110vac to the inverter (not the breaker that comes from the inverter), the fan will not run. You also have to turn the inverter control panel off or the inverter will now use the batteries to keep the TV and DVD player on standby.
Since I love a challenge, I decided to rewire the ac side of the inverter and installed a switch so that I manually put the inverter on line when needed. So now if I want to use the inverter, I have to press a switch that I installed on the wood panel under the bed in addition to the inverter wall control panel. I won't go into the details of that mod unless someone is interested.
Bob
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"Since I love a challenge, I decided to rewire the ac side of the inverter and installed a switch so that I manually put the inverter on line when needed. So now if I want to use the inverter, I have to press a switch that I installed on the wood panel under the bed in addition to the inverter wall control panel. I won't go into the details of that mod unless someone is interested."
I would be interested. 2o2
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Ok Billy, I will get the info together an post it.
Bob
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Ok. So at least I know it is not just me. I too ran the ac on auto with low fan speed. We have four people sleeping at night and the ac kicks on more often. I suppose it is much better than the days when I was a kid and there was no such thing as ac in a rv!!! roflol
I think I will also follow Bob's advice on the inverter too. That fan drives me bonkers too..
David
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How I modified the Inverter wiring to silence the fan.
In this schematic, I have shown the 120vac wiring only, not the 12vdc wiring to the batteries. There are two 12 ga Romex wires between the converter/breaker panel and the inverter, solid is hot and dashed is neutral. When on shore power, the 120vac goes through the inverter to the inverter powered circuits via a relay in the inverter, when there is no 120vac, the relay switches to allow the inverter to supply 120vac from the batteries. A fan in the inverter comes on periodically to cool the relay because it generates heat to hold in the pass through position.
I installed a DPDT 30A switch as shown so that the power to the inverter powered circuits is selectable either directly from the converter/breaker panel or the inverter. The automatic pass through relay in the inverter is no longer used and the fan does not come on when the inverter is not used, like at night. I know that there is now an extra step to use the inverter, but it is worth it me not to have to hear the fan and I don't have to turn off the breaker at night.
The neutral wires have to be switched along with the hot wires because the inverter circuit neutrals need to be isolated from the shore power neutrals when using the inverter, something to do with keeping GFIs from tripping. I didn't show the grounds in the Romex wires, they need to be tied together at the switch. There is plenty of extra wire length so that I could just cut into the existing Romex wires.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h_kp1WMgMgo/Ter6d8UZIyI/AAAAAAAAAGo/PUU0n1dQ_w8/s800/scan0001.jpg)
This is the switch I used, it is rated 30A @125vac and it is being used in a 20A circuit.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NKK-Switches/SW3822-RO/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtNT9UGfLL4ePZ3MDx9vMEG5CDDF4fxKH4%3d (http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NKK-Switches/SW3822-RO/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtNT9UGfLL4ePZ3MDx9vMEG5CDDF4fxKH4%3d)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--ucI1aBWZHY/Ter7xMNXEGI/AAAAAAAAAGs/2uJgMhEXg7U/nkk_sw3822-ro.jpg)
I cut out a blank cover to mount the switch and used a standard elec box with the toggle ears for mounting.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--GenKuMYEFo/Ter_HaBcUuI/AAAAAAAAAHY/WFpGo7ijpCY/s800/IMG_1344.JPG)
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Bob,
George would like to thank you for his latest project. "If the wife ain't happy, nobodys happy" or whatever that old saying is!!!
Judi
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Bob,
It looks like a great enhancement for the Xantrex.
The older Tripp-Lite has this feature sort-of built-in with very a little mod I did explained here.
http://forum.phoenixusarv.com/index.php?topic=73.0 (http://forum.phoenixusarv.com/index.php?topic=73.0)
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Trudy, on our thermostat the fan has a switch that reads on or auto and another switch below it that reads high or low for the speed. I would guess that you have the same thermostat because you have a 2010 PC just like me, unless you didn't get the conveniences package with the a/c upgrade.
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Tom, our PC is a 2006 and no matter how much I wish, it just wont turn into a 2010! For all the upgrades we've done, prob could have bought a new one! lol Anyway, all the thermostat has is a three speed fan - no "auto". Oh well, dat's the way it goes.
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david,
we had a 13500 low profile ac on our 09 2551,it was loud and did not cool very good past 90 deg. outside.we replaced it with a high porfile bisk air 15000 and it makes a big difference in cooling and noise.much better.might try that.
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THANKS BOB, Billy