Cooling and Heating a tent using Vehicle A/C?

[jplblue]

I've been following this product that just launched on Kickstarter. It uses hoses to connect the vehicle's A/C to a tent. How effective do y'all think it'll be? Might be limited to hookup sites? I got one of the early bird pledges, but might cancel.

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[ohseedee]

Not sure I‘d want that jet engine sound while I sleep…

 

[Dark-Fx]

Way more energy efficient to have a dedicated unit running off the AC inverter.

 

[jplblue]

Way more energy effective to have a dedicated unit running off the AC inverter.

You seem pretty handy. Do you think DIYing something like this would be difficult or worthwhile?

 

[csharp]

Seems very inefficient to heat / cool the entire cab while also cooling / heating the tent. I would rath have something hooked directly up to the vents. It looks like it only hooks up to one vent on the inside. I guess you could turn off the rest of the vents.

 

[Dark-Fx]

You seem pretty handy. Do you think DIYing something like this would be difficult or worthwhile?

Using the vehicle air conditioning or a portable AC? Part of the problem with using the vehicle to do the cooling is your temperature regulation is inside the cab where you are more concerned about the temperature of the inside of the tent. Obviously putting a portable unit inside the tent means it's going to be louder, but it would be a lot easier to have a properly regulated temperature.

 

[jplblue]

Seems very inefficient to heat / cool the entire cab while also cooling / heating the tent. I would rath have something hooked directly up to the vents. It looks like it only hooks up to one vent on the inside. I guess you could turn off the rest of the vents.

Yeah, it hooks up to the vent inside. I haven't tested, but does camp mode allow you to only have one vent on, or would you need to keep the car "on"?

 

[jplblue]

Using the vehicle air conditioning or a portable AC? Part of the problem with using the vehicle to do the cooling is your temperature regulation is inside the cab where you are more concerned about the temperature of the inside of the tent. Obviously putting a portable unit inside the tent means it's going to be louder, but it would be a lot easier to have a properly regulated temperature.

Using the vehicle A/C similar to Campstream. I'm guessing rigging something with ducting, masking tape, and cardboard is simple enough, but would attract funny looks.

Temperature regulation would need to be manual, as you pointed out.

 

[jjswan33]

I know they are a bit more expensive than this but why not just get an EcoFlow Wave 2, looks like they can be had for around $999 and are a true heat pump for heating and cooling.

Seems like it would have a lot more utility and wouldn't take up much more space than this solution. I'd consider it myself if I could come up with a good way to vent it out of my camper.

Plus if you are one of those who thinks that the R1 AC is insufficient you can use it to assist on those warm days...

 

[Swilly]

You seem pretty handy. Do you think DIYing something like this would be difficult or worthwhile?

Not only would this be difficult, it would be inefficient and more costly than buying a portable unit. It will also take up more space than a portable unit. Just pricing it out quickly and probably missing some things, this project will run you at least $250 in materials and take 10 hours if you are mildly handy. If your time is worth more than $25/hr, the portable unit will be the same price or less.

Also, kickstarter project appears to be built for a Tesla window which won’t work for your Rivian, and it looks incredibly lame. I already laugh at folks camping out of teslas, this would probably kill me from laughing so hard if I saw this in the wild on any vehicle.

 

[mikehmb]

As others have said, it would be really inefficient to do this. Makes more sense to run a heated blanket if you’re cold, or get a small <1500W space heater. I haven’t looked at portable cooling, but similar solutions should exist.

 

[jplblue]

I know they are a bit more expensive than this but why not just get an EcoFlow Wave 2, looks like they can be had for around $999 and are a true heat pump for heating and cooling.

Seems like it would have a lot more utility and wouldn't take up much more space than this solution. I'd consider it myself if I could come up with a good way to vent it out of my camper.

Plus if you are one of those who thinks that the R1 AC is insufficient you can use it to assist on those warm days...

Good point. We've always used fans and heated blankets, and didn't really feel like the price/bulkiness of portable A/C was worth it -- but this thing isn't that much less pricey or bulky!

Not only would this be difficult, it would be inefficient and more costly than buying a portable unit. It will also take up more space than a portable unit. Just pricing it out quickly and probably missing some things, this project will run you at least $250 in materials and take 10 hours if you are mildly handy. If your time is worth more than $25/hr, the portable unit will be the same price or less.

Also, kickstarter project appears to be built for a Tesla window which won’t work for your Rivian, and it looks incredibly lame. I already laugh at folks camping out of teslas, this would probably kill me from laughing so hard if I saw this in the wild on any vehicle.

My time is definitely not worth more than $25/hr. Frustration, however... The project did specify that they're making one for R1S/R1T, although I'm not sure how much I trust Swedes with limited access to the vehicles to get it right.

Y'all convinced me -- I'll be canceling the pledge.

 

[docwhiz]

I've seen videos of a tent that goes over the Tesla Y hatchback and use the camp mode to heat and cool. Seems to work well.
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[moosetags]

One of our sons is a street Policeman. He has a specially designed vest that hooks to one of the a/c vents in the patrol vehicle. This works OK to give him some summer relief under his ballistic vest. He says that it works, but it's not great. I would guess that the results would be similar with the car-to-tent unit.

Brian

 

[Timothykf]

While not addressing cooling a tent, I did use the cab as a refrigerator from 2pm - 11a the next day on the 1st of July. It was awesome!

The back story, had a lunch meeting and tons (filled the back seat and passenger seat) of left overs. Lots of lunch meat, potato salads, coleslaw, etc. No room in the home refrigerator for all the food, plus I was hosting an evening cookout for 28 people (different menu). Parked the truck in the shade and set to the temperature to LO with fans on full. While I did have to wake the vehicle a couple of times, it wasn't an issue.

I didn't take note of the Charge when I got home, but in the morning it wasn't below 50%. It was a very humid nite and the truck had a wet ring around it on the ground from condensation. I did throw a memory thermometer in the truck just in case. Never went above 45 degrees.

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