NEW Affordable 12 Volt Air Conditioner for Vans, RVs, Overlanding - Velit Camping 

All 12V systems have one thing going for them: ease of use/install. All low-voltage (12-48) systems have one thing working against them: current, which translates to low(er) efficiency.

That is awesome! In South Florida as well and looking to hook up the same in my van build.

Hey Adventure Roadtrippers. What is the brand and model of the ac you installed?

What unit !!!!

Do you have a link to the AC unit you are referring to?

Hi what brand

happy to help!!!

1hr idling = Approx. 30 miles of driving on gas engine, is it the same for a diesel?

Heyy. Make a video on it please!! 🙏🥺 there is no reliable info on double alternator for campers... Thanks!

​@@henrye718that can depend on the diesel engine. The problem is at idle, oil pressure is lower and the metal parts aren't getting as much oil. Modern Diesel engines solve this with variable displacement oil pumps, at idle they can pump out more oil pressure.

@@MrClassifide I see, thank you.

This is not only untrue, it's outright laughable. Diesel engines now require Diesel Particulate Filters, which can't complete an incineration cycle while parked. Average cost to replace a DPF on a Sprinter was $6,000 in 2020. It's likely double that now. There are people on the Sprinter forums who turn their a/c and van off when waiting for a train to cross the tracks because they fear another DPF replacement job. Even with gas engines, manufacturers like Ford explicitly state in the Workshop Service Manual that idling does not reach the proper temperature for required clearances, so you get blowby, clogged ports, and other long-term engine damage.

Thanks Mate! Yea it’s been working good for us

Nice work, Alan!

​. Wrong on RV amp draw. Compressor alone pulls 9-10amps when in the 90's. BLOWER motor on high pulls another 2.75 amps

@@chrisgrob8812 Is this in response to me or @jeffreygman

An only for a steep price, $5,800.

@@opelwasp Unless they recently upped the price, it's closer to $3k, but that's still a lot more per watt than an AC powered one.

You got it David! I can’t wait to test this thing out in proper conditions!

Thanks Matt! Appreciate it

Thanks Matthew! I believe that have an inside unit as well, maybe reach out to them and see what they recommend? I think that unit is less powerful as the roof top unit though.

Thanks Bill!!! Bushwacker’s! Haha I may be sticking to Carib’s

Agree, my only real caveat to that is I think ur being generous with the amount of solar you can ever expect to harvest from flat mounted roof PV even if he had the realestate for it, I think he will need to upgrade the alternator & run the vehicle AC to help reduce the load on 12v AC while charging the batteries simultaneously, trouble with that is the engine heat adds a lot more load to the AC’s as it is running and blowing hot air all under & around the van, bit of a catch 22 effect.

Thanks John! We're excited to test it out and create some content for that.

Thanks Ryan!

@@MathersOnTheMap You're Welcome!

Thanks Dave! We're having a blast down in Saint Martin, we're super excited for this next chapter!

Thanks Adrian!

Thank you Steven!!!

I recently saw a 5k but Midea window unit at Walmart for

I'm going to install it in the window... or maybe I'll take the thing apart and put it throught the back window of my pickup. Only thing is I got to recharge it with freon once I cut the pipes.

Need warm weather to test!!! May take some time

@@MathersOnTheMap completely understand. Just bought my conversion truck & getting things in order for spring.

You got it guys!!!

That would be amazing!!! I’m sure that will be available soon

Probably because a propane furnace is about 1/10 the price and 5-10 times more efficient.

@@Handirifle reversing valves cost is very small & compressor based heat pumps are the most efficient way to move heat in or out of a room. Heat pumps are 2.5 to 4 times more efficient at heating a room than electric resistive elements, gas, oil & fuel based heating systems.

and dont forget the inexpensive chinese diesel heaters.

Thanks Jackie! I would definitely agree, I remember coming home from Baja, we were in the Florida Panhandle in mid may and it was getting too humid/hot for us.

How much solar and battery do you have to run the mini split 24/7?

@@vsp3c 1,200 watts of solar panels and 900 amp hours of lithium batteries. The mini split is run on the economy setting

What kind of mini split did you use j.g.?

@@ericcramer9858 a Pioneer 9,000 btu mini, it's a middle of the pack unit. A19.5 seer rating. Some are as high as 33 seer now.

Going to be testing soon, can’t wait!!!!

It doesn’t have a start up surge. It’s a rotary compressor. Before it starts they equalize the high and low side and it’s run buy a inverter drive or variable speed so it starts with no load and ramps up gradually and varies the load with the fan speed.

Yea that’s fair, we wouldn’t really use a generator though due to how loud they are and annoying to neighbors but it’s a fair point!

This is a very fair and practical suggestion. Thank you for sharing.👍

Thank you! Check out our build series which breaks down those questions in full detail!! Every product in the van is listed in the description of our videos. Check out the van tour video, great place to start ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nCYI0rJm8Gk.htmlsi=aci0_0N7XG4pD_WK

Hey Gerald, thanks for the comment! the 12v system you would need to run a window AC unit would be very high as well, this setup is for off-grid living not connected to shore power so power consumption is critical.

thanks. same thoughts.

@@MathersOnTheMap i feel i must correct you here. The small rooftop unit should use a bit over 600 watts of power with the compressor on. A 5000-6000 btu window unit AC will ALSO use 450-600 watts of power. Only way you save money is if you DO NOT have like, a 2000w inverter in your van. Then sure DC is the only option. But if you have AC power then paying an extra 2K for a 12V DC unit after you already invested in an DC/AC inverter seems a bit expensive imo. The install is much cleaner though, i will give it that.

@@kalef1234 right I thought I agreed by saying you would need a similar 12v system to run a window unit… so the point of saving money by getting a window unit would still require a big battery bank/inverter. Sure you would save money over an rv/roof ac but a window unit in a van isn’t really practical or aesthetically pleasing

@@MathersOnTheMap appreciate the answer. I saw the small unit is now like 1600, much better but still pricy. I also learned about inverter power factor, so TECHNICALLY the DC i think could be more efficient

There will be John! How’s the procedure go?

@@MathersOnTheMap procedure went great so far. Hospital staff was great and I am home recovering. Nurses were amazing! Thanks for asking!

@@jemjr1628 that’s great! Happy to hear, hope your recover fast!

I'd be concerned about that too. 8k is relatively low. I have a 13K on my trailer. Of course, we're in Florida where if there's no AC, there's no camping for the most part. But physics is physics. Maybe a small generator is in order.

Why? Is it more efficient to bypass the inverter at the cost of materials needed to run 12V appliances?

@@kalef1234 Currently if you're boondocking, running only on batteries & solar unless you have a MASSIVE panel & battery array, improved inverter, etc, you are not running AC or microwave. If only needing 12v, much smaller panel & battery setup needed.

@@silaslongshot941 I'm shooting for 1000 watts of solar and a 24V 280ah lithium bank. So about 7kWh nominal of storage with an efficient Victron inverter. Hoping that's enough for 500W ac unit in really hot days

Unfortunately, I do not have any experience with easy-start capacitors. Did your roof AC condenser have issues on the Fleetwood? I never really worried too much about it since I never heard of many complaints related to it. I'm also not too familiar with running generators but we're going to have 540 amp hours of lithium for ours and with 600 watts of solar on the roof, I'm hopeful we will be able to maintain battery life with the sun to keep us charged up to run it at night. How big is your inverter to run the window unit? Or would you only be able to run it off the generator?

@@MathersOnTheMap Morning, standard type RV roof top AC have a vertical condenser, that's what you see when looking at the back of them, on your unit the condenser is horizontal and the fan blows up from underneath it to cool it, or is mounted on top and draws the air up through it and that's why it's a lower profile than the standard Dometic AC unit so I'm a little concerned that area would be open for stuff to fall into it. My Fleetwood didn't have the AC unit on it, it had been removed by the previous owner before I bought it. The stock Dometic AC unit is a real beast when it comes to electrical consumption, and the BTU's they create have to be excessive to compensate for their inefficiency. The energy spike when the compressor engages is the high amp reading on your spread sheet, 60amps, then they run at about 15amps, and the blower fan that moves the cool air in is about 5amps. The East Start softens the indicial start up 60amp spike to a stepped rise until the compressor starts moving the Freon, To produce cold air the Freon is forced through a small orifice which in turn changes the Freon from a liquid to a gas, that conversion creates a cold gas which in turn draws the heat out of the air and cools it. Now when the gas needs to be turned back into a liquid is where the compressor & condenser come into play because the gas needs to compressed in excess of 200psi for R-12 Freon or 400psi for R-134A Freon, this equates to heavy start up amp draw of the compressor and heat from the compression is cooled off in the condenser, that's why your cars AC condenser is in front of the radiator, to see what I mean next time you run your cars AC touch the AC condenser, The Easy Start steps the compressor into action instead of a sudden instant surge,,,,,,, Did all that make since? That high amp surge is why the wires to your AC unit are so large and also that surge is a heavy draw on the battery, reducing that helps stretch out the batteries overall life. I would need at least a 2000 watt inverter to cover the amp draw of the start up surge, even with an Easy Start, and it gets kind of complex to run 110v and 12volt at the same time, most of the time a component will suffer damage, like if I were to try and run the AC on the inverter while trying to recharge my battery, somethings gotta give and it's usually the most expensive component that fries. With an inverter I can run my AC unit for 5hrs from my 300mAh battery, I would have to turn off my inverter when I charge my battery back up and I can do that and run the AC on the 110v from my generator while charging my battery back up but they have to be on separate circuits, I can't drive the inverter and charge the battery on the same 12v circuit, that would require at least 100amps of 12v charging and I only have 55amps for recharging my battery. Now with solar you have to understand that the panel will only produce 85% of what its rated at and that's if the panel is perpendicular to the Sun, the Sun moves and as it does you lose, even just a few degrees is lost effeminacy, so figure about 60% of the panels rating is going to get to your battery 4hrs of every day then it drops off significantly. Solar panels are rated in ideal mathematical conditions, not real life conditions, also in every single connection and component in line to the battery is lost wattage, keep that in mind when you figure what you'll yield from your system. And all of this is why I want to keep it as simple as possible because there's a lot less that can go wrong. I just reread this post and some of it goes around in a circle, it would take a complete rewrite to get it to the point where you might not have any questions so If you have questions please ask and I'll try and clarify it best I can cause I'm not going to write it all again,,,,,, ;-)

I’m not too familiar with it, but based on a quick google search it looks like it has 20k BTU’s and a bit too much overkill for a van, could be good for an RV though if you have a big enough battery bank looks like it draws a lot of amps! Thanks!

It's not bad, we're creating a test video, and ill see if I can test the sound.

decibels is just 'dB', never dBs because any suffix after dB then specifies a reference.

Thanks!!! I wouldn’t do that but I’d be curious if it works!

Hey Bill! We’re hoping to keep the van build cost similar to the first but are also working with brands on this one more than we did with our first. This van is also a 170 wheelbase!

Hey there!! Yea I use it all the time still building the van, here’s the review video the van wasn’t insulated at that time though. Velit 12V Air Conditioner Efficient Enough For Van Life?! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9Ifhc6g2j08.html

Code(código para ahorrar $50dolares...MOTM50..espero te sirva,

Hey Mitchell - heres what we used (it's an affiliate link) www.amazon.com/dp/B0080626L2/ref=cm_sw_r_as_gl_api_gl_i_M5R9BF40Y0TJR7FKWF85?linkCode=ml2&tag=krfo-20

You’re not wrong, but these days pre-install inspection comes down to this: Is the box banged up? No: Install it. If it looks sketchy? Maybe bench testing is a good idea. In any case, whatever roof AC you install is going to use that same 14” square hole.

you would need to be able to fish the thicker wires to your battery bank, swapping the maxair for the ac would be the easy part i'd think.

A unit - be it an AC, a fridge, a TV etc will draw as much current as it needs. The bigger the motor and the load on it, the more current it draws.

Not yet! Kev just got back from a snowboarding trip so we are hoping to get back into the van build this week or next 👍🏼👍🏼

This chart is from the manufacturers of each, based on my tests so far I haven't really seen higher than 40 but I'm guessing its on the start up?