Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Making Phannie our Own–A/C Rules!

Mel, our salesman, blinked when we told him a third air conditioner would need to be added to Phannie.  Apparently,  he had not often heard that particular request, but it took only a couple of seconds to respond with, “Sure, we can do that!”  (His ‘customer is always right’ sales training must have been successful.)  And they did; the technicians dropped that puppy right into one of the roof openings formerly occupied by a vent fan and voila!  The need for a refrigerator in Phannie is now questionable!


Why a third air conditioner?  One word:  Texas.  As much as I love my state, I hate her summers.  There is no escape from the Hades-like heat.  We are virtual prisoners from June through September, hopelessly confined to whatever air conditioned space we can find.  We’re so looking forward to retirement, when we can simply escape in June and go north until October or November.


I suppose we could get a break somewhere out in the Davis Mountains in west Texas, but I don’t think even they are high enough to make much difference.  We have survived by air conditioning everything—perhaps even over-air conditioning.  Our SUV has a/c in the front and in the rear; our smallish house has six tons of air conditioning.  But when we crank the thermostat down to a daytime temperature of 73 degrees, where we’re comfortable, we expect 73 degrees and we expect it relatively quickly.  Such was not the case with Phannie (or with Homer, for that matter).  On the hottest days where there was no shade, the two a/c units would struggle, and we found that to be the case with virtually every large coach we’ve seen with only two air conditioners. 


So, dropping in an extra unit was a no-brainer, and the problem is forever solved.  Furthermore, if one of the units happens to fail, we can still be relatively comfortable with the other two.


Now, before you classify us as energy hogs, you should know that we spent quite a bit extra for foam insulation, double-pane windows and energy-efficient appliances when we built the house.  As a result, our energy cost is incredibly low—sometimes less than our water/sewer bill!  With this in mind, we don’t apologize for having a cool Phannie!  (Grin) 


The new a/c is toward the bottom of the photo.IMG_0654

8 comments:

  1. A third air conditioner sounds like a wonderful idea to me. Our fifth wheel struggles with the SC heat when we are at home (and in other places as well) and it takes forever for it to cool down after travel as well. We may consider this in the future.

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  2. If you have lots of sun beating down have you considered solar? I can sympathise with you because I hate hot weather, but I also hate A/C. I just have to find a shady place!

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  3. I'll just come park my butt inside your rig during the summer if we're anywhere close. You are ready for it. And I have to agree - in a big rig two airs really struggle to cool it down.

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  4. Retiring and going north doesn't always work :) It's been HOT in the north this year.
    Thanks for planting the 3rd A/C seed though. It never occurred to us that we could add one. Have only seen the 3 in a 42+ length. We are 40. If we have many more high 90 days this summer, we might look into it.

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  5. you are the first ones I have heard that has three air conditioners?..will this work on 50 amp or will it be too much to have all three going at once?
    have a great day..

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  6. Mike,

    You have hit on the very reason that we stay in more moderate climates seasonally. Great idea though!!

    By the way, it's 57 degrees on the Oregon coast today...almost shorts and tee shirt weather. :-)

    Have a great time outfitting Phannie....

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  7. Paul would love traveling with you two. I, on the other hand, think two air conditioners are too many.

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  8. Would you believe we have had our Motor Home over 4 years now & have only used one of our two A/C units one day in Borrego Springs California a couple years ago. Of course we are Snow Birds who are home for the summer & not living in the rig for 6 or 7 months of the year too. Sounds like a 'cool' idea you had there:))

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