Anxiously waiting for your results! BTW, did you find room to mount it inside the control box? On mine, there was little space to put anything else there and would have had to mount it externally to the control box.
Here's a general pic of the process, solar panels pivoted upward and outer casing of the a/c removed to expose the guts. The red arrow points to where the EasyStart was placed, held on with the 2-sided 3M tape plus a couple of reinforcing screws. It's on the side that was facing away from me, so you can just see the top edge of it.
I was pleased to see that this a/c unit was fairly well-constructed. The coil is all aluminum and copper - no corrodable parts. (I just contracted for a whole-house replacement of our stick-and-brick a/c system a few weeks ago, so I now know more about a/c units than I'd prefer.)
LB_3 and I both independently detected, at least subjectively, that the a/c seems a little bit quieter now. Neither of us could understand why a start device would affect the running of the unit in any such way. Given that I'd made previous dB measurements, I went out again this morning and re-measured. I did not peek at the previous measurements, in an attempt to avoid bias. Note that I'm using an actual sound meter, not an iPhone app. The results turned out to be mixed - a bit quieter near the roof but perhaps a bit louder down below. It does seem to have changed the character and distribution of the noise. Even if it is a bit louder at some elevations, it feels easier to bear. Like maybe it's still a loud noise, but a less-raspy noise, or something like that.
We are still in the process of doing the repeated start-ups on shore power, as the instructions indicate (for initial programming purposes). After LB_3 gets out of bed, we'll proceed to the battery trials.
2016 Interstate Grand Tour Ext
Bellevue
, Washington
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 689
Thanks IB. That seems like a very different unit than ours. In ours there is a compact compartment where all the electronics and run capacitors sit. There is a bit of space left over but it was not near enough to actually put in a start capacitor. I would have had to put it outside that compartment which is not insulated and more subject to weather extremes.
And PLEASE, get a bucket of water and wake up LB to finish this testing for heaven's sake. The entire Internet is waiting.
1:50 pm in July is hot in Texas (94F) even if we're not setting records his week.
Here is the start up video for you, Amirm: https://youtu.be/KmV2sOHcXFU
" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350">
The alphanumeric link appears to work on desktop but not on mobile devices.
The embed works on my mobile device but not on my desktop.
YouTube may not work well, but this EasyStart device does. One more short-term option for me in near-future travel situations where I may be precluded from cranking up the generator to run the a/c for our dog. It's so rare to realize any kind of systemic redundancy in a Class B.
Do you still have your generator and can test to see if it can power it through the inverter?
We have the generator, we intend to keep it for at least the intermediate term (in part because the air suspension is delayed coming out of the UK), and we completed the replacement of all of our propane flex segments (more on that later).
However, the system is still profoundly empty of propane right now because we pulled everything apart. I'm not going to re-fill it until we decide if we can add an Extend-A-Stay. The tank does not *have* to be empty for that particular retrofit, but I feel better working on it when there’s nothing whatsoever in it.
We have the generator, we intend to keep it for at least the intermediate term (in part because the air suspension is delayed coming out of the UK), and we completed the replacement of all of our propane flex segments (more on that later).
However, the system is still profoundly empty of propane right now because we pulled everything apart. I'm not going to re-fill it until we decide if we can add an Extend-A-Stay. The tank does not *have* to be empty for that particular retrofit, but I feel better working on it when there’s nothing whatsoever in it.
So the generator testing phase is yet to come.
The shore power feeds through the inverter if that addresses the question.
2016 Interstate Grand Tour Ext
Bellevue
, Washington
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 689
Quote:
Originally Posted by LB_3
The shore power feeds through the inverter if that addresses the question.
It doesn't unfortunately. Here is the issue.
When using the generator, as soon as the compressor kicks in, there is a massive voltage drop until it recovers. The inverter detects the onset of that and immediately disconnects the incoming AC feed! It does this even when the Inverter function is disabled!! In my case, when I had the AC connected to the inverter, it disabled its functionality through the generator. It simply would not allow the generator to recover and power the AC.
Question is how much voltage drop there is on the generator with soft start. If it is below the threshold of the inverter, it may still disable the generator feed and attempt to power it by its own. This would work but would get into oscillation when it allows the generator to power the system. I think there is a 2 minute delay by the EMS so it would cycle that way, and suck that much battery power.
None of this happens with AC mains (I tested) because there is no voltage drop and inverter remains in pass-through mode.
For this reason, I had to put the AC upstream of the inverter. I would put it back the way it was if it didn't impact the generator feed.
We should hopefully know next weekend. We're thinking about installing an extend a stay valve on the propane so we won't be charging the system right away.
The shore power feeds through the inverter if that addresses the question.
General comment:
Speaking car is logistically no different from speaking French. I was born in Canada into an English mother tongue family but I worked in French-speaking areas for a time, before I moved to the U.S. We conducted daily work in French and I learned that, no matter how many imprecisions I might generate verbally, I had to just keep talking, or else I would not advance toward true functional bilinguality. Routinely when I speak car, I answer questions but I don't nail them and it requires my husband, who is a native speaker of car, to issue a clarification such as this one above.
Anyone who desires to learn more about the workings of their Interstates - speak it! Speak car! Even if you don't get it right the first time, you can't stop making the attempts or you'll never learn! It's a variant on the theme of fake it till you make it.
2016 Interstate Grand Tour Ext
Bellevue
, Washington
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 689
That's great news. Can you check to be sure the Inverter is not taking over and continuing to power it? You can force the inverter to stay off and then see if it works. That is the scenario that did not work for me. Appreciate it .
This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Airstream, Inc. or any of its affiliates. Airstream is a registered trademark of Airstream Inc. All rights reserved. Airstream trademark used under license to Social Knowledge LLC.
.
Linear Mode
