Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 06, 2025 ...

Why do you want to lower electric usage? Are you metered? And do you think that the cost of other units installed will make up for a higher electric cost? All Air conditioners draw large amounts of electricity.

Why do you want to lower electric usage? Are you metered? And do you think that the cost of other units installed will make up for a higher electric cost? All Air conditioners draw large amounts of electricity.

Thank you for asking. I am not metered where I am but I only have access to one 20 amp circuit and I've been tripping the breaker too often lately. I'm in Mohave Valley AZ where it has been over 120 the last week and there's no relief in sight. I don't know why I didn't think of this before but I switched my Norcold refrigerator from running on AC over to propane today and haven't tripped the breaker since so I may have solved the problem.
After doing some research and reading the replies on this topic, I don't think I have much to gain by replacing my existing Colemans.
I'm parked on a property that also has a house, garage and 3 stationary trailers besides my coach and I think the existing electric service coming in here is maxed out right now. I seem to be the only one who is tripping a breaker so maybe my breaker is going bad. All I know for sure is it's hot and the temperature in my coach goes up real fast when I lose power.

Plugged in a 20 Amp receptacle you are not off grid. How ever that thought opens up possibilities that you may be missing. 
Does your coach still have a working generator, Diesel or Propane?
So consider adding more solar, batteries, and a modern inverter that can do load sharing. Consider in inverter that manages the incoming power limiting consumption for both supported loads and battery charging. At night when the AC satisfies it can use the available power to charge the batteries. Adding solar will help some. The ultimate approach is to have high capacity charging off the generator. Start generator, run both AC to cool the unit down, put 300 A/H back into a 600 A/H battery bank in 2 hours. Turn off generator and let the load share get you through the rest of the day. Just some thoughts.

I can run my mini split on a 12/100 ft cord no problem. 4-7 amps.
The Coleman is around 10-14 amps.
One mini won't cool a larger bus than my old GV .
Wait a bit.  It looks like there are manufacturers trying to use the inverter technology on the rooftop units.  Half the power and 10% of the noise. 

Do you have a safe ? That's where I put my compressor box. 
The inside unit is over the mid door with the lines running through the cabinets. Werx perfect so far at 6 yrs. Solar will run it at around 2000watts
Any less won't keep up imho .

I had a similar experience when we first got our coach.  In my case, it "fried" my extension cord because the old CB did not trip.  I have since replaced all the CBs and then replaced the affected outlet with  10ga wire and 30A receptacle (once again upgraded to 50A when  I built the RV garage).  You can judge whether or not this is feasible.  Barry seemed to cover everything pretty well and I would add one thing:  If you are using an extension cord, get the shortest highest gauge one you can find.  Good luck, I don't envy you having to deal with that kind of heat.

Hey Slim, any chance you could use one of these to get by on until recovered? 
Amazon.com: GE Profile ClearView Inverter Window Air Conditioner Unit,...
Very quiet and will run on a 15 amp 120 volt service.  These little inverter units crank it out.

Houghton- quiet- 15,000- expensive-1400+ bucks, but worth it.

Don't know if you have solar or note but I discovered a trick when we were in Indio with 30 amp service. Our GV has separate unit for convertor and invertor. Turned off convertor ( 120 volt to 12 volt  ) and used solar panels to charge coach batteries. Ran everything in the coach ( TV, lights etc ) off the invertor and just used the 30 amp service for nothing but the 2 AC units. Worked like a champ.

My old Coleman roof AC's still work well but I think they are using too much electric. I thought about a mini split but don't feel comfortable installing one myself and none of the AC people around here want to install one in an RV.
I know at least some people on this forum have replaced their roof units. If so, what AC units did you use use and how do you like them? How do they compare to the Coleman Mach series? Are they more efficient?
Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Houghton- quiet- 15,000- expensive-1400+ bucks, but worth it.