Air Conditioner Thermostat

[Happycampersrus]

Hey Nick or Anyone,

I bought my bus in 2000 and it came with one A/C in the living room. The A/C had the thermostat removed and the wires tied together (2 wires) so the compressor never kicks off. I guess they removed it to try and cool the whole coach, since then I have added another A/C in the back. Now I want to put a Thermostat back in the front one, but I can't find one.

The A/c is an Emerson Quiet Kool model # EQK 1350. I have searched high and low for one. It looks like it would be a simple replace.

My Question is can I substitute one from say a window unit or would you have something like that? It looks like the knob stem is about a 1 1/2" long with a 1/2" mounting hole.

Thanks,
Dale

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Dale,

Sure you can. If you have a United Refrigeration, Johnstone Supply or a R E Michael  in your area, Ask them for a " universal room air conditioning cold control "

It comes with alot of mounting options so you can fit it to anything.  It will be SPST with two connections on it.

Route the capilary tube into the return air, be careful not to break it.

Hope this helps
Nick-

[ChuckMC8]

Dale, here's what I did- I went to the local HVAC store and told the guy what I wanted to do.....control my RV with a wall mounted didital thermostat.He sold me a little 24V ac relay and matching transformer. I bought the thermostat at HDepot.
 How it works is that when the thermostat signals the relay, the relay closes and provides 120V to the AC unit. The relay is mounted in a plastic electrical box located right beside my 120V panel. All I had to do was disconnect the wire that ran from the panel box to the ac unit (at the breaker box) and then wire the air cond wire into the relay, and of course, a short peice of wire to supply the 120 volts to my new little box.
   I simply leave the air cond on hi cool (apparently what you have now) and set the thermostat just like I do in the house.
No modifications to the air conditioner are necessary. Mine works great. Total cost was about $60 or so.......I keep it set at 85 degrees when were not using the bus, it keeps the humidity down and mildew out.....I can send more photos if you like, heres the thermo......BTW, It also controlls my Duo therm furnace in the winter......

[DrivingMissLazy]

Chuck, does the circulating fan go off when the compressor is off?
Seems like I remember my circulation fan running continuously while the compressor cycles on and off.
Richard

Dale, here's what I did- I went to the local HVAC store and told the guy what I wanted to do.....control my RV with a wall mounted didital thermostat.He sold me a little 24V ac relay and matching transformer. I bought the thermostat at HDepot.
 How it works is that when the thermostat signals the relay, the relay closes and provides 120V to the AC unit. The relay is mounted in a plastic electrical box located right beside my 120V panel. All I had to do was disconnect the wire that ran from the panel box to the ac unit (at the breaker box) and then wire the air cond wire into the relay, and of course, a short peice of wire to supply the 120 volts to my new little box.
   I simply leave the air cond on hi cool (apparently what you have now) and set the thermostat just like I do in the house.
No modifications to the air conditioner are necessary. Mine works great. Total cost was about $60 or so.......I keep it set at 85 degrees when were not using the bus, it keeps the humidity down and mildew out.....I can send more photos if you like, heres the thermo......BTW, It also controlls my Duo therm furnace in the winter......

[ChuckMC8]

The AC turns  completely off, just like the central ac in our home. When we are using the furnace, it does as well. The Air Cond thermostat function is especilly nice at night, we just set it at 72 and go to bed...no more waking up freezing at 3am.....and when we dont need the cooling, it turns completely off (as opposed to the fan still running after the compressor shuts off) much quieter.....

[gumpy]

You should try to find a thermostat that does not use a mercury switch. It will be more stable in a moving environment like the bus going down the road. I've not yet found one I like that is all solid state. I've been looking for one for the rear bedroom area of the coach to control the heater, but can't find one that is heat only and solid state. I'd really like to find a small, manual, heat only thermostat that is solid state.

I've done something similar with the relay on my heater using the Coleman thermostat that came with my basement A/C. It has a heat setting, but I needed a relay in between to control the heater (Aquahot requires ground, thermostat provides 12v, or vice versa). So when the thermostat calls for heat, it activates the relay, which in turn activates the AquaHot system. Works well. Uses just a tiny bit of extra power.

craig

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Craig,

Have you looked at the Honeywell Vision Pro's. I have one in my bus. All toutch Screen

Nick-

[gumpy]

I had looked at several of the Honeywell units, but I really didn't want a programmable one. Seemed overkill to me. I basically just want one I can turn on and set a temp on and it'll hold it.

I'm not really ready for it so haven't really done an exhaustive search. I will end up going back to look at their stuff later on. For now, I'm just running everything off the single Coleman thermostat. It's basically all or nothing. I've tied both front and rear zones together. Works well for the most part, and may end up being the best solution, anyway. I'm not sure it makes sense to have two separate zones of heat in the small confines of the bus, anyway, since there's no definite separation (i.e. door) between the two zones. Might be different if the door in the hallway was going to end up in front of the bunkbeds, where all the sleeping was in the rear zone. Cant' really say for sure, though, until I get the partitions in place and try it out in the winter time.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Craig,

The model I have is a two stage, so I stage my two Basement HP's with 1 Stat. Works well!

Yes it's programable but, I don't use the programs either. Just like the large display and the toutch screen.

This stat is capable of any application, HP's, stright A/C, 2 stage, and gas heat. And very easy to program.

Nick-

[Frank @ TX]

Dale
We have a Dometic "Comfort Center". 
The thing I like about that unit is that it starts / runs the fan for about 10 seconds before it starts the compressor.  So I don't see the big spike in load as it was before.
It also controls the AquaHot for heating.
Lots of other nice features.
Frank

[ceieio]

Nick - I have a couple of those controls in my house... anyway to program them to turn off the backlight when not being poked? I like the idea of those in the bus but have not considered it because of the bright "night light" effect.

Thanks,
Craig - MC7 Oregon

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Craig,

The factory default for the back light is 3 seconds after toutching the screen. Maybe who ever set it up for ya, set it to be on all the time.

You will have to get out your manual to follow the steps to get to that feature. Or let me know what version it is and I'll tell you how.

Either way, It's changeable..

Nick-