2016 Winnebago Sunstar LX 35B 2016 Winnebago Sunova 36Z 2017 Winnebago Sunstar LX 35F This gorgeous Winnebago Itasca Sunstar LX 35F Motorhome is available now!  This one highlight all of the quality and luxury that is Winnebago. Don't miss out on this 1 1/2 bath... RV Digital Thermostat Installation / Coleman and Suburban Note: This article is if you have a Coleman Roof Air and a Suburban Furnace. For Duo-Therm Roof Air and Suburban Furnace, see the RV Thermostat Guide Part 1. A lot of campers come with an old fashioned analog thermostat like the one pictured here. The problem with them is the temperature range before they cycle on or off. A digital thermostat has a tighter degree of control (+/- 1 degree of temperature change before it cycles "on" or "off"), a digital readout, and no guesswork about what temperature it is actually set at. Features we all like to have... Like many others before us, we decided to swap out our analog thermostat for a nice digital one.

Many digital thermostats that will run on batteries will work as a suitable replacement. We decided on a simple, inexpensive model... the Hunter 42999, but that model is now obsolete. You can use this Honeywell model instead. First we have to remove the old thermostat. For safety reasons, make sure everything is turned off and you are not connected to shore power. Also disconnect the negative cable from your main batteries. Pop the cover off of the thermostat and remove the screws that hold it in place. You'll see a set of colored wires connected to the thermostat. Using a small screwdriver, disconnect the wires from the thermostat and make sure they do not contact each other during this entire process. Tape off the blue and gray wires, they will not be used. Next, attach the remaining wires as per the picture below. Green wire to G, white wire to W, yellow wire to Y and red wire to Rh. Keep the jumper between Rh and Rc in place. Wiring in this manner will allow operation of the furnace and A/C with the fan on the "high" setting.

Since the Hunter thermostat doesn't have a Hi/Lo fan switch, you won't be able to switch anyway and if your unit is like ours, there is virtually no difference in airflow between the settings. Fasten the back plate to the wall using as many screws as you feel are necessary. We used 2 but you can use up to 4. Make sure it is level before you make holes in your wall. Once you are satisfied with the mounting of the back plate and all screws are tight, pop the main thermostat unit into place. Ours went in bottom first then the top snapped in. Open the little doors on the unit and make sure the switch is set to OFF, then install 2 alkaline AA batteries as shown. Reconnect the negative cable to your batteries and plug in to shore power again. Press and hold either the UP or DOWN arrow until the display blinks. Now tap an arrow to increase or decrease the temperature setting. Once it shows the temperature setting you want, stop pushing the buttons and after a second or two, the display will stop blinking.

Set the fan to AUTO and select either HEAT or COOL. You are now ready to go. Make sure you keep spare batteries with you at all times because if your batteries go dead, you cannot operate your furnace or air conditioner!goodman air conditioning unit manuals Note: There are multiple ways to do this upgrade, this page simply shows how we did it. lennox air conditioner parts kansas cityGoogle can help you find how others did this procedure.split ac unit home depot HAVE A COMMENT ABOUT THIS PAGE?   This is for comments only, please.   If you have a question, email us. Notify me about new comments on this page. Are you a human?   Please answer this question: What does 19 + 3 =We have your favorite brands covered!

Select your brand of RV below to get started:Our ultimate goal is to make the Airstream Off-Grid not relying on gas, propane or electrical hookups to meet our needs. During the warmer summer months the Airstream can get pretty warm inside – especially when in full sun! (Aluminum is a VERY good conductor!) With the weather heating up we began to look at different cooling options. Is it feasible to cool our trailer with an electric AC powered by the sun? What other cooling options are there? Read on for the answers to these questions. The Land Yacht was originally outfitted with a AC-powered roof-top air conditioner. It seemed to function well but it was large, heavy and in my opinion made the exterior look like dump. (Especially after gale-force winds across the Montana plains stole the plastic shroud.) Given these facts plus wanting an off-grid solution I decided to remove the roof top air conditioner. I added a roof vent to the opening where the old AC was installed so if we decided to upgrade to a newer, slimmer, unit we could easily remove the vent and install the new one.

Plus the vent adds some nice light and additional ventilation. I originally thought we would forgo an air conditioner altogether…the northwest summers are mild (with only a few short weeks of mildly uncomfortable heat) and the time we would spend in hotter zones would only be during mild winters. I installed two Fantastic-Fans (one in the front and the other in the rear) which can really move some air. I thought this would suffice… I quickly changed my mind as summer set in! Aluminum is a fairly good conductor of heat and when the Land Yacht is exposed to long periods of hot sun the interior is like an oven. Our dual set of fantastic-fans was no match for the sun radiating through the aluminum! Trying to have a toddler nap in an aluminum can in the sun is not a good idea. With this shift of thinking I began looking into various cooling options… I had seen on the Air-forums people tactfully installing window air conditioners. I liked this option given the Northwest summer climate…we could install / use the air conditioner in hot weather then remove it altogether when not needed.

My next question was, “Is there a good DC solar powered off-grid solution?” While there appears to be decent DC powered air conditioner technology it is expensive and I haven’t found a suitable non-permanent window solution. Until I find a fitting and affordable solution I purchased a small 6500btu window unit and I am going to run some tests to see if it would be feasible to power the air conditioner through an inverter with our future solar array. Update: After doing some math its not feasible to consistently cool the Airstream with our window unit. See the usage data below. We purchased a fairly cheap 6500 btu air conditioner for about $150 from Costco. If I was a little more patient I could have purchased a AC off of craigslist for about $75-$100 but we were going on a road trip and the weather was going to be HOT. I wanted our window air conditioner to be easy to install and easily stored when not in use. The brackets I made to hold the compressor are pretty basic…a piece of wood that that has notches router’d out to fit on the bottom of the window, a little support from the propane tanks via a threaded piece of steel plus a little foam and we are in business.

Can’t be more pleased with the setup! When we need the AC we simply throw it in the window, no bulky box on the roof and it does a good job cooling the trailer! The AC uses almost 5amps AC. Convert this to DC Amps and you get 45amps. This means the AC would draw 270ah to run 6hrs per day. To only run the AC for 6hrs per day you would need over 500 Watts of Solar Panels + 540ah of battery capacity. For our setup this isn’t feasible. In the future when we have more of a permanent setup an electric AC may be feasible with a larger solar setup. Meanwhile here’s our plan to cool the Airstream Off-Grid. When we purchased the Land Yacht it had a large Coleman AC unit on the roof that worked fairly well. But this unit was big, bulky and the plastic shroud that covers it blew off in HIGH Montana’s winds as we drove it across country. So the fact that the AC is big, ugly and to replace the AC shroud would not be cheap ($200+) we decided to remove it. Here is our plan to keep cool during the summers:

We installed 2 Fantastic fans (one at the front and one at the rear) in the trailer. These fans can be powered by our solar battery bank and can really move some air which will help us stay cool(er) and comfortable during the warmer months. (We plan to spend our summers in the NW which is very mild during the summers but the Aluminum can get pretty hot.) When off-grid we will likely be parked in the shade which can keep the inside temp 8-10 degrees less. For those times we have access to grid power and want to keep cooler we have a hand-me-down window AC unit that we will mount in the front window. This will take a bit of creativity and fabricating but I have seen other Airstream owners use this same solution. If we end up using our AC enough we may eventually get a newer roof-top unit with a built in heat-pump. Meanwhile do you have any off-grid cooling solutions/ideas for a house on wheels? Would love to hear your ideas! POWER: DIY Portable Solar System LIGHTING: Simple LED Hack for RV’s