We Got A/C! New Inverter. Visitors

 

In my last blog it looked like we could not replace our Motorhome A/C due to parts not being available.  Yes, there were A/C units...but not the parts to convert our older thermostat to work with it...and the brand new thermostats required a special circuit board, which was not available.  Well, on Monday June 6th Arny and I went back down to McColloch’s RV repair and storage to drop off some donuts since he never charged me for the hour or two that he put in researching a work around for the Air Conditioner.  While there, Nick had a surprise for us...the previous Friday he had found a way to do it!  He had a Class A motorhome in his yard which needed two A/C's.  This time Nick found someone to talk to at Dometic who said that if he put in a thermostat which was not the most up-to-date thermostat, but one that was newer than the thermostat that we had (my motorhome and the Class A he had in the yard), that there was a circuit board which would talk to this thermostat and both the A/C and the Furnace.

  

Above is the new thermostat which needed to be put in.  The first picture in this post is what the new A/C unit looks like.  This new thermostat has an "inside temp" so that we now can know how hot or cold it is back by the thermostat.  It also has a clock, and it can be programed to turn on at certain times of the day.  This 'might' be good for those cold mornings when we are using our portable heater, that the furnace can come on automatically at 7 am so that the motorhome is nice and toasty when we get up.  

So we committed to the new A/C right then, and three days later (Thursday) we took it down at 10 am, by 2 pm we were on our way to pick it up.  Just can't say enough about the professionalism and the work that McColloch’s RV repair and storage has done for us over the years.  Cost: $2,300, includes the AC Unit (about $1,650), Thermostat (about $200), Circuit Board (about $125), Labor (about $225) and Tax (about $135).  By-the-way, Friday it was 105 degrees, followed by 102 on Saturday, so it was just in time!

 

Ever since we got this motorhome back in 2014, I always wondered what the 400W inverter, which is under the bed, did...it did not seem to operate any outlets.  I only used it 4 or 5 times, and each time I plugged an extension cord directly into it for a short time in order to make coffee, or run a vacuum cleaner.  Twice I blew its internal circuit breaker (both times running the vacuum).  Well, I lost the use of two outlets, both up by the driver's area, one on each side.  When I got the portable AC, I used one of those outlets, and it immediately lost all power.  It took a bit of trial and error, and found that both these outlets were being served by the inverter, and when plugged into a 110V system, the 110V power bypassed through the inverter to these two outlets.  When I plugged in the portable A/C, the Inverters internal circuit breaker broke...it could not be reset.  So I found this 1000W inverter (pictured above) which is also a pass through for those outlets, and it ALSO has a remote on/off so that I can turn it on and off without having to raise the bed, move things around, to get to the inverter to turn on and off.  So "IF" we need 110V while not plugged into 110V, I can turn the inverter on and use one of these two outlets.  Cost:  $175.00, no labor since I did it myself.

Kathryn (my niece) and her fireman husband Dallas came out to visit, and also to attend a few Baseball Games in the bay area where their hometown Royals are playing both SF and then Oakland.  Kathryn arrived on Wednesday (a week ago) while Dallas went fishing at Lake Erie with a dozen or so friends (it is a yearly thing he has done for years now).  He flew in Monday morning, and we had a family dinner Monday night (Arny's famous Tri-Tip).  Tuesday they took Amtrak to San Francisco where they attended Tuesday night's game (SF won 4-2) and today's game (KC won 3-2).  They will also attend a Oakland vs Kansas City game Friday before heading home.  Kathryn is a die-hard fan of both SF and KC, and you can tell by the picture above (stolen from her Facebook page) that Dallas has a KC hat, and she has a SF hat.  Kathryn wins no matter who wins...unless Oakland wins and then they both lose.  But the big winner was her Grandmother (my mom) who enjoyed many hours visiting Kathryn, and also seeing Dallas on Monday.  We almost had to drag her out of Sandy's house to return her to the Independent Living Facility after Monday's dinner!

It has been a busy month and included a visit down to Aunt Florence's house with Mom and Marcia, a visit with Michael (son) and Anna (pregnant wife), a Walmart Day for Mom and Marcia followed by a lunch at Black Bear Restaurant, many visits over to Mom's, some minor work on the motorhome, another grooming for Indy, and some other odds and ends to help Sandy and Arny and even Patti out.  It has been a busy and productive month, and now we don't have to worry about the summer heat!