The temporary AC - is now being tested

Let's hope tomorrow is 100+ degrees !

Remember only 1/2 of the insulation is installed & none of the interior stuff. Whatever the results they will be much better when done.

So let's all pray for 100 deg F .... Tomorrow so I can test the system.

Temp install of the ac unit in the door way.

 View from the inside.

First layer of insulation is almost done

        Stay tuned after some well deserved rest from the blazing 103 deg F California heat, the 2nd layer of insulation is still coming. As I stated the goal is to be able to cool trailer in 100 deg F with only a small 5,000 Btu window unit. That translates to about 600 watts for the small ac unit. This should be child's play for the 2,000+ watt solar system that is also coming.

        Heating should be so efficient that no heat is required down to 10 deg F. Much of the heat will be supplied by body heat & the interior appliances. The trailer can also be heated with the 180,000 Btu water heater and the almost 80 gallons of water that can be heated to 120 deg in about 20 minutes. That heat then would slowly filter into the inside to heat the trailer. Last time I tested this it took almost 3 days for the water to get back to 50 deg. Hydronic heat works great !!

Why the weatherman sucks !!

It's getting so desperate hot here in San Jose I was forced to install some foam insulation on top of my trailer roof - so the trailer would not melt !!!

The average temp in June is 75-79 this time of the year , if you don't believe in global warming - please don't read my blog , because your too STUPID !! nothing I do or say can help you !!
You need to watch FOX

Another scam by the incompent weather people is they always report the temp -10 deg of the actual. Now do you wanna believe the news or your own thermomitor ?? All weatherman must be republicans who watch FOX - and report that global warming is a scam , we are really in global cooling phase .... And YES the world is flat too !!

Insulation 101 is starting

         Here we go , the first 1.5" layer of Dow Blue Board is being installed. The big stack that you see below is about 1/2 of the insulation, there is a second stack even a little bigger. Together it seams like the insulation will take up 3/4 of the trailer interior , but don't worry there will still be some room left over for me, you will see.

This is not even 1/2 of the stack of insulation panels to be installed

the insulation is about 2 pick up truck beds full

Here are the panels cut into smaller strips to be fitted between the sections

A little progress, but its going slow as its 100 degrees today

Inside the trailer is like a pizza oven

The Jedi Plumbing Master strikes again

        I hate to boast a little, but I was able to find a super light weight 2" thick foam shower pan for $112 on sale. This time around I may go light weight materials vs heavy glass tiles.

Only one problem, the drain was right on-top of a 6" steel cross beam OUCH ! With some very creative plumbing tricks seen below I was able to install the drain and make it work. The standard shower would have a 2" drain, but in my case I can make it work with 1.5".

The above picture is the frame under the shower drain hole , 

here you can see how tricky it really was to install the drain.

Combination of drain parts to make this project work

Combination of drain parts to make this project work

View of the drain from under the trailer

Here it can be seen that the shower pan sits on-top of 1.5" of Dow blue board foam , the shower will also have 3" foam on the walls, so I will be ready for ice station zebra. The bottom of the pan has additional 2" of foam So that is 3.5" total foam under my shower. You won't find that in your standard RV.

Can you cool your trailer or RV - with cold water

           Here it is, my roof temp measured inside the R-19 attic space dropped from 136 deg F to 90 deg F in about 30+  minutes. It stayed down for almost 2 hours, so watering 2 x 3 times per day could really help to keep you cool.

Cheaper and faster then air conditioning if you need it.

In my case it works great because I have standing water between the ribs.

136 deg F to 90 deg F 

The horn & side blinker lights

          I installed a Marine horn under the trailer, so if you come a uninvited knocking - now I can give you a good loud blast to make you jump out of your skin, this may also become part of my onboard alarm system.

Here below I installed some side marker lights and then I could not decide should they be running lights or should they be right & left blinker lights.

So as is custom for Over The Top -

I wired them both ways blinker or running lights

Electric Bargain's from Lowes

       Wow this may be at all time first. Normally stores have a 80% close out sale of the junk that they are trying to get rid of. 

          Today I found the exact opposite an 80% off introduction blow off sale. Well not really, asking the people at Lowe's what they were doing, I really couldn't get a straight answer. It seams they may had some stuff left over from their west coast stores where these items did not fly off the shelf, so those items were on clearance ? VERY Bazaar !!!!

This really defies logic to me, but what the hell I can't walk away from a bargain like this.  

Here is the designer mirror plate, normally $49... It still has the plastic cover on only $6.10

The Outlet and 2 USB ports are not included, 

those are another $45....

ARE the people at Lowe's INSANE ??

I picked up 8 different bargains 

All the outlets are modular and can be configured any way you like it

Here is the rear view of the outlets.

Here is the front view with out the cover plate

Here is my whole jumbo box of 60+ electric outlets etc cost $260....

WORTH at regular retail  easy $1000+

Here is the product in the box

Sorry the big introduction sale lasted only 24 hours 

To learn more - click here

A few more LED FLOOD LIGHTS

          I added a few more exterior flood lights, these are from the boat industry and are rated water proof. Below you see a special water tight connector I used to connect them. They work from 9-36 volts DC. They use about 20 watts 1.75 amps and are equal to 200 watt floods.

These really work great, I paid $6 each, below they are $4 approx.

click here for Deck Seal

What's the real temperature ?

       Late today I purchased a wireless thermometer and as is normal for Over The Top ... I installed the wireless unit between the insulation and the silver metal roof. This was at 5:30 PM late today. Tomorrow it will be much colder so I will have to wait until it gets hot again for additional test results.

     My bet is, the silver roof will hit 130 deg F easy. Here again is where I tell you at this temperature your solar panels will loose 50% of their output. I will also experiment with spraying cold water on the roof to see how it brings the temperature down. I bet none of you have ever thought about cooling your RV or panels down by spraying water on the exterior, it is very effective because water absorbs heat very fast.

It's now 8 PM evening and both temps have equalized. Once fully insulated the opposite readings should happen at night. Maybe 60 under the skim outside & 75 inside. Time will tell, I plan to install more wired units. 

Late at night, now the exterior skin temp has fallen bellow the interior temp.
The alum temperature is 68 deg F  & inside its 74 deg F



 

Trailer roof insulation part 1

       On close observation you can see that I have reinforced the roof with 2" x 3"wood members. This serves a number of functions from adding strength to the roof for the solar panels, it also provides a thermal break from the aluminum frame and finally it allows enough space to add R-19 insulation.

NOW PLEASE REMEMBER .... I will also be doing the walls, the floor and the doors to get 100% coverage. So many people are only doing 1" on 3 sides and they forget the floor and doors, so what is the point of that ? You might as well leave a 3 x 6 ft window wide open.

Here is the Insulation purchased from Lowe's at about $40 and I used about 3 bags.

The on line forms will tell you that it is a PIA to cut.

Below is a sample of an open bay with a better view of the thickness

Here is the job almost done, I used plastic strapping to secure the material ever 6" approx.

Here are the blades I used to cut material, however it was still a PIA