It's' my personal belief that a bunk heater is the best bang for the buck for getting heat in the winter so let's not revisit that debate.

My questions are about summer.

1. How well will they work in a northeast summer providing AC?
2. How much fuel do they burn.
3. Will the truck engine need to run in order to generate enough power to tun the AC?
4. How much will one cost if I get it with AC?

I don't think I would use AC 30 nights a year x 10 hours a pop. That's approx 300 gallons. That's about $900/year in idling for AC less whatever the APU burns.

 

I have been curious on this ever since the Bunk heat thread....the bunk heat sounds far and away the way to go for winter...but then what do you do for summertime if you spend most of you time in the hot areas....do you just go back to idiling or are you just tough enough to do with out? Do you save enough fuel during winter with the bunk heater to offset idling in the summer if you have nothing else....thats the one thing i was curious about...whats the story when you need AC?

 

Personally, I think they're more a matter of convenience than necessity. If I only used an apu during the times I would normally be idling, it would never pay for itself. However, if I had one, I would use it much more than I would ever idle.

 

no_worries points out something I think a lot of people do: use it more if you have it. IMHO, I suggest thinking about where your summer lanes might take you and just how comfortable you want to be. If you're not going to spend a lot of time in the SW or SE, a 12V fan may be all you need. Opt for a motel when a really hot night comes along.

Or if you need 72 degrees to get any restful sleep, you might want an APU with underbunk A/C plus a small window A/C unit. I saw one post on here that someone installed an A/C unit thru their back wall, just over the dinette table in a Volvo 770. Put in a 6KW APU and you'd be able to power a honkin A/C like that, cool the sleeper right down. It'd probably suck a gal/hr or more to keep the APU going tho. There's always Idleaire(sp?).

The tough part is deciding the comfort level you want. Once that's done there's multiple ways to achieve the desired outcome. I'm interested to see the results Doghouse achieves with his solar panels this summer!

 

I am also looking at a good quality apu i only have 24 inches of frame space that I could free up and i dont want one that is built into the headache rack like idle buster has because i pull different trailers with different gaps anything from a stepdeck to a van that is right tight to the headache rack like 24 inches or so anyone have any good ideas on which apu will work with my limited space? i really dont want to go to a smaller tool box i went from a 72 in long tool box and i am putting a 48 in tool box in its place so i could free up rail space and drivers side is the battery box with a 36 in tool box so no room there

 

This has been interesting. I have one and there isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't use it but I try not to use it unnecessarily. Last night I didn't even turn it on til I woke up cold (I'm in Georgia so the weather is nice). I only have a thin blanket and with a thicker one probably would have been fine. But I think it only kicked on for about 15 minutes. I never put it on and just leave it on.

It is definitely not good for heating in the winter and I could just bulk on the blankets but I draw my line with certain things.

I was in Ecuador and it is cold in the capital and nobody has central heating and there I was sitting there looking at everyone else sitting there having a nice discussion and they are all wearing jackets. I was thinking "man is this depressing". And I'm not talking about sitting in some hut, these were nice places and educated people.

Actually the last time I went, where we stayed I forget what the parents do, I think the father was a professor, but my wife's friend is a software engineer with her own company and her brother is in med school and they are all sitting around in jackets. Not this Gringo! They gave me a small portable heater which I kept near to me.

So cost be damned, I'm in America and I'm not bundling up.

Rank to answer you question about if the truck has to be running to have the a/c going, the answer is no. This APU may not heat so well, but the a/c does work well.

 

I will be getting one, when I can decide on the optimum setup, but it will be purely for comfort. I have no expectations that it will pay for itself.

 

Soft American

 

Even though I maybe called a hillbilly like the lady in another thread. I have looked into different apu configurations and just couldn't justify spending 8 to 10 thousand dollars. So I found a 6500 watt, diesel generator for $1500.00 I am mounting on my truck. In the winter I will plug the block heater and oil pan heater in to keep the engine warm and use a ceramic heater in the bunk. In the summer I hope to use a same window air conditioner. I haven't finished the project yet but testing it powering just the block heater on the truck this generator uses around 3 gallons in 10 hours. I am hoping over christmas to complete the project.