A/C Size for Shipping container?

[murphy1244]

I'm not sure what you hope to achieve. Cooling or dehumidification? I got a forty foot container a few years back and was really dismayed about the water dripping down from the ceiling when conditions were right. As it was, I built a drive shed and relegated the container to storage of things that should just be out of the sun, away from animals and pine needles. But, my thought at the time was just to install a dehumidifier.

That will cool your container too.

 

[Stuka]

I'm not sure what you hope to achieve. Cooling or dehumidification? I got a forty foot container a few years back and was really dismayed about the water dripping down from the ceiling when conditions were right. As it was, I built a drive shed and relegated the container to storage of things that should just be out of the sun, away from animals and pine needles. But, my thought at the time was just to install a dehumidifier.

What part of the country was it in? Ohio? Did you add any ventilation?

 

[Industrial Toys]

That is two hours north of Toronto, Ontario.

I added no ventilation. There appears to be some sort of vent system on the sides, but I don't quite understand it. I believe it is very limited. I was going to add roof vents, but then when the Dehumidifier idea was suggested, this was not necessary. Then the project became obsolete.

The dehumidifier is not set up to transfer heat, just to make a coil cold to condensate water. There is a net heat gain.

 

[Stuka]

Why do you need a door to get to the storage area from the living area? Why not just go through the existing doors and not have that door taking up wall space?

Or if you keep the door, why not put a bathroom there?

Eddie

Ah, some background info is needed: I am going to be driving trucks for the next year or two, where I expect to be living out of the truck 24 days a month, and home about 6. So, I will only be living in the bunker about 2~5 days a month. A bathroom would be great but a. I will have access to a bathroom near by (my folks) and b. I really don't think there will be any room left over. I've packed most of my stuff and I'm worried 30 feet of storage may not be enough. :ashamed: I do want a door inside, so I can access the storage section from the living quarters, will make it a lot easier if I can store clothes and households nearby without cluttering the living quarters.

Going from what I know about boats and campers I think 5000 btu ' s is too small for daytime use in you area. You need to double that.

Chris

Heat gain inside that all steel container is going to be very high. I don't think you can maintain 76* inside with 100* ambient with that 5 K unit. I would suggest at least 1 ton (12,000 BUT) of cooling

How many square feet are you considering when you say he needs more then a 5K unit? I'm thinking that it might be on the big side due to the small size of the room he is wanting to make a living area. But since it's so difficult to insulate a container without building additional walls and a ceiling, I figured to oversize it to make up for minimal insulation.

As for using a ceiling or RV unit, I've never found one that cooled all that well. My experience with RV's is that they are also poorly insulated and you rely more on the dash AC system to keep cool then the roof unit. The ones I've been in also had separate propane heaters near the floor.

The cost of an AC only window unit is just a couple hundred bucks. Add heat to that and it triples. I suggest a window unit and a separate, plug in space heater. I like the tall, ceramic ones, but there are too many out there to say for sure what is the best.

Eddie

Yeah, if we go with insulating the 8' x 11' living quarters section with Foam it Green and AC cooling that area only, well, that's 88 sq feet. How much AC do I need for 88 sq feet of moderately insulated area? The insulation should help reduce the heat gain. The rest of the storage area of the bunker will be uninsulated and rely on powered vents to keep the temp inside the same as outside and avoid condensation. You are certainly right, kenmac--currently, without insulation, when the outside temps get around 70 the walls are pretty warm and the inside is stuffy and hot. So, I will be adding 2" of closed cell foam insulation to the sides and 3" to the top sometime around April when it warms up.

That is two hours north of Toronto, Ontario.

I added no ventilation. There appears to be some sort of vent system on the sides, but I don't quite understand it. I believe it is very limited. I was going to add roof vents, but then when the Dehumidifier idea was suggested, this was not necessary. Then the project became obsolete.

The dehumidifier is not set up to transfer heat, just to make a coil cold to condensate water. There is a net heat gain.

Ok, thanks, I will try just getting some air circulating through the uninsulated storage section, see if that keeps the condensation away. I'm thinking it should, the condensation comes when the temp inside is hotter than the temp outside, right?

Condensation is a phenomena caused by a combination of internal and external temperature differentials together with high humidity levels reaching what is known as 泥ew Point which leads to condensation.

So, venting air in and through should make that a non issue. But, as with a lot of things I try, I learn which theories work and which don't.

Today was a busy one! We built a shelf in the storage section, about 16 x 4 and 4.5 feet high. You can only stack boxes so high, so this allows me to stack to the roof.

Also, got the interior wall done, Next-- an entry door.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I didn't understand that you intended to live in the unit. There are insulated reefer units available that I would have considered better for such an application.

 

[kenmac]

1 ton of a/c to 600 sq ft. 12,000 btu per ton as we were taught.

. If you want to guess at it you could use your method. load calculation is the correct way


http://www.loadcalc.net/

 

[rd_macgregor]

What color is the outside of the container? That might make a significant difference to heat gain.
I think in this situation I might have been tempted to track down a small (used) travel trailer to live in and use the whole storage container for storage.

 

[Stuka]

The sides are dark brown, top is silver/white.

 

[murphy1244]

. If you want to guess at it you could use your method. load calculation is the correct way


HVAC Load Calculation - Maunualj - Whole House Loadcalc

That guess is pretty close mostly.

 

[kenmac]

That guess is pretty close mostly.

The way state inspectors do here, is by load calculation. If the state is called out because of a customer complaint ( customers can file a complaint with the State HVAC board for any reason) The State comes out to investigate the complaint. They want to know/see how you came up with the size A/C/ heat size. If you can't show them a load calculation. You're in trouble.... BIG fines. This year.. We have to provide a print out of the duct blasting test