Summer Camping in Fish House

[YettiStyle]

How many of you use your fish house as a camper during the summer?  Do you lower it down straight to the ground, leave it up on the wheels, or set it down on some blocks to try and level it out?  I refuse to put a roof mount AC in so I'm trying to figure out a way to put a portable floor air conditioner in and route the intake/exhaust out my catch cover in the front closet. 

[LindellProStaf]

That's what I would do.  Make a shroud and have a flex hose hooked to the shroud and have it blow into a catch cover hole.  Make a cardboard or plywood plate so it is not open around the sides for the bugs to get in.  Have the ac unit sit on a box outside the camper fish house.  When done put the ac unit in the box to protect it when traveling.  Also the noise it outside the house and there is not water dripping issue neither.

[YettiStyle]

I actually already ordered the air conditioner (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028AYQDC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).  It will be a little louder than having an outside unit but it will be much easier to setup on the weekends and controlling the temp is easier.  The unit I got is really big (cools around 500sq ft) for an 8x16" so it shouldn't be running all the time anyways.  The plan is to utilize an extra catch cover and install a couple duct quick connects (like those for a clothes dryer).  When I get to the camping spot all I have to do is move the air conditioner into place, install the catch cover, connect the two hoses from the AC to the catch cover, and the turn on the unit. 

 

The main concern I have is the ducting underneath/outside the shack to get the hot exhaust away from the shack.  If I leave the shack up on its wheels it's not a problem at all but I have a feeling the shack would be pretty wobbly.  I can attach two 5' hoses to the underside of the catch cover and run them under the shack but the shack would need to be set on blocks for the hoses to have room.  I've used it a couple times last fall to camp in but I just set the shack right down onto the ground.

 

For those of you who have done it, how hard is it to set the shack down on blocks to level it?  Any tips/tricks?

 

[rossco1418]

I actually just finished rigging up my ac for the fish house. I will be blocking my house up otherwise the hot air has no where to go out the catch cover hole. I can't help you on the leveling as I haven't done it yet but I don't see it being a big problem. I will be using 4x4 blocks. I have the vent facing away from the fish house so I'm not blowing the hot air under the house. I used a piece of plywood and a dryer vent to vent it outside.

[YettiStyle]

Rossco, that's almost exactly what I'm thinking but I got a dual hose so I don't have to deal with negative pressure issues.  As long as the intake hose is ducted to the outside it shouldn't matter where it ends up, the only one that needs to get away from the shack is the hot exhaust hose. 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

we just did ours up at the lake, ground started mostly level but just threw it on some 2x4 and 4x4 blocks and it was solid.  If your going to eyeball it just make sure if any side is slightly higher its the side your head is going to be.  Sleeping that way wont hurt but if your head is slanted down you'll wake up with a headache.

[Japeloquin]

How about an intake/exhaust like what's used on a forced air suburban furnace out the side of house? Of course you would have to cut a hole in the house which I wouldn't be thrilled about. Just thinking out loud 

[YettiStyle]

13 hours ago, Japeloquin said:

How about an intake/exhaust like what's used on a forced air suburban furnace out the side of house? Of course you would have to cut a hole in the house which I wouldn't be thrilled about. Just thinking out loud 

I actually thought about this too but I'm not too thrilled about cutting two 5" holes in the side of my shack.  Having to cut the 2 2" holes for the furnace was nerve racking enough, these would be almost 7 times larger.  The main purpose of it is definitely still an ice shack so it looks like it just have to figure out some way to quickly/easily level it out on blocks when its being used in the summer. 

 

I don't know if I'm just overthinking it but I'm looking at possibly getting a rotary laser level to set up the blocks.  Essentially I'd use it the same way surveyors check grade.   Elevate the level on a couple boards and raise/lower the blocks based on the projected level line. 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

3 bucks for rv levels and just drop it.  A couple degrees wont hurt.  thought about just throwing a window unit in?

[YettiStyle]

46 minutes ago, Moon Lake Refuge said:

3 bucks for rv levels and just drop it.  A couple degrees wont hurt.  thought about just throwing a window unit in?

My window openings aren't big enough.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Just now, YettiStyle said:

My window openings aren't big enough.

Ahh bummer... Cut em out!  Little extra light never hurts!

[Japeloquin]

I have only camped in mine 3 times but to level it I have a handful of 4x4s,2x4s. I first just eyeball a fairly level spot or closet spot I can find I then lower the back down onto the 4x4s right behind the wheels. Then I go inside I have a level I got at menards that I put on the counter. If I'm level from side to side I then drop the front till I am level front to back I can usually do this in about 5 mins Just shim accordingly till level.

[Big Dave2]

If you don't want to crank it down I would just level it the same way I do with my travel trailer. Level it side to side with lynx leveler blocks or 2x4's and 1x4's then use the tongue jack to level it front to back. I would use some stabilizers if it were me.

 

[FishinFools]

Here is what we ended up with for our summer fish house camping experience.  Works great.  We have a plywood cover over a catch cover with two openings for a short in take duct and a long exhaust duct.  We don't lower our house, winter or summer.  So no worries with that.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

On June 9, 2016 at 9:02 AM, rossco1418 said:

I actually just finished rigging up my ac for the fish house. I will be blocking my house up otherwise the hot air has no where to go out the catch cover hole. I can't help you on the leveling as I haven't done it yet but I don't see it being a big problem. I will be using 4x4 blocks. I have the vent facing away from the fish house so I'm not blowing the hot air under the house. I used a piece of plywood and a dryer vent to vent it outside.

Leave the house on its wheels get three jacks two in back one in front. Then you can stabilize it.

[kudu63]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 8:31 PM, rl_sd said:

Well, finally got mine done now that the summer is almost over! Used a 4" ID 45 degree fitting. It is 5.25" OD at the flange and fit the hose well. I was able to get a cover cheap and use a hole saw to get the fitting to fit snugly

 

 

rl_sd,  It appears that your AC unit is a single hose type - have you tried this setup yet ?.   This summer I tried a 8K and 10K BTU single hose AC unit and I could not get my house to cool down more that 3 or 4 degrees.   This single hose types have to pull in outside air so they just don't catch up.   From what I heard you really need a dual hose AC unit and then I would recommend that you insulate the output hose to keep the heat from coming off of it.  So with summer almost over I decided to wait till next year to tackle it again.

[Hawg]

An 11,000 BTU unit only does 300 sq ft? No wonder my son's 8,000 didn't do squat in a small apartment, I just thought he bought a cheapie. It almost seemed to heat the apartment instead of cool it like KUDU said.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Hawg

[YettiStyle]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 8:08 AM, rl_sd said:

Kudo,

Yes I have ran it. I brought the house from 77 degrees down to 65 degrees in 15 minutes. Some things to keep in mind is that this is a 11k BTU AC designed to cool a 300 sq foot area... My house is only 100 sq ft. Also, I have 2" of spray foam top to bottom, so it is very tightly sealed and well insulated. The difference between a dual hose vs. a single is that with a dual setup you are bringing in external air and conditioning it versus using the internal air. Online reviews say that they cool better with this setup. Primarily because the single hose units create a negative pressure / vacuum environment which then pulls hot outside air in from and cracks and leaks that you may have. The spray foam in my hose creates a very good seal, which is why i haven't had any issues

 I am sure that you could insulate the hose, but in my application it cools well enough not to need to.

 

Have you actually used it for a whole weekend yet or did you just test it out for a little bit?  The only reason I ask is because the longer you run it the more you will notice the effects of the single hose system.  Sure, spray foam is really good at insulating and sealing but you will still have places where it leaks (doors, windows, hole covers).  Actually, it doesn't even matter if you have little leakage, the real issue is the fact that you need leakage for the single hose system to operate. 

All portable air conditioners need air to move the heat from one place to another (inside to outside).  Once you start cutting off the amount of air it can move on the inside it starts to lose it efficiency until the point where it doesn't work at all and actually starts heating your room.  For example, imagine your air conditioner as a shop-vac sucking in air (like moving air from inside to the outside).  Now put your hand over the hose and notice how well it works at moving air.  You will also notice the whine from it's motor as it's under the stress of doing more work, stress that AC's aren't designed for and will make them wear out faster. 

[YettiStyle]

23 minutes ago, rl_sd said:

I get where you are coming from, but haven't used it yet to whether or not is sucks (pun intended). Guess time will tell. The nice part is that I am only out a $7 fitting if it doesn't work.

Can anyone else chime in on whether the area is too small for a single hose unit?

If I was in your position I'd definitely try it out, specially for $7.  I actually think that a smaller area would be worse off because you have less air already inside to consume and exhaust.  It would cool down really fast but once it consumes all the available air inside you will start to heat back up. 

 

Just as reference with my 14k BTU dual hose.  I finally got it installed a couple weeks ago and went camping for the weekend.  Outside temp was 80 degrees and the AC kept it a brisk 61 degrees all weekend.  It took about 45 minutes before it cycled off for the first time but it was comfortable inside within 20 minutes. 

 

[kudu63]

3 hours ago, rl_sd said:

Can anyone else chime in on whether the area is too small for a single hose unit?

Correction - I tried a 8k and returned it for a 12k BTU AC unit and ran both for about 3 to 4 hours with very little temp change (less and 4 degrees).  The outside temp was in high 80s with higher humidity.  Both units I tried blew out a lot of cold air but just didn't compensate for the warm/humid air it was sucking in.   My conclusion is just what Yetti is saying that I don't think the single hose portable AC units will work.  My house is 8x16' with blown in insulation in walls and insulated floor.