COMFORTABLE BUSLIFE//Outdoor Mini-Split Unit for our Bus Conversion – S04E26

With Don’s 50th birthday around the corner and family coming to stay with us, we decided to move into the bus to free up some space in the house. There was just one thing we really needed to do to make our days in the bus more comfortable. We had to finish setting up our Mini-Split for air conditioning and heating.

We had installed the inside unit of our Pioneer WT012ILFI19HLD Ductless Mini Split Air Conditioner Heat Pump at the beginning of summer, now that we have our electrical system and solar panels working we were able to power this baby up! The outside unit we plan on mounting in the bay on the back right side under the engine.  There is a large hole which will allow ventilation. We do still need to remove the old compressor in here from the original bus air conditioning to make space for it, so in order to just get the air conditioning working ASAP, we set the outside unit up temporarily outside the bus and mounted onto 4 x 4’s to keep it stable.

It is probably recommended to use an HVAC professional for setting up the outside unit, but Don felt confident that he and his Dad could tackle this job safely.  

We bought a Vacuum Pump, Gauge Set and some adaptors to connect to our mini split and activate it. 

I don't recommend you do this yourself as a mistake could cost you a $500 call to a qualified HVAC professional to re-charge your coolant. We plan on installing a second Mini Split in the front of the bus so we wanted to do this ourselves . . plus we found this YouTube video and were feeling confident we could pull it off.

We were also in the beginning stages of building our kitchen. Our cousin who does a lot of woodworking came over and helped us mill an Ash Tree that has been dead for a few years now and dried out.

We will use these for our kitchen countertops, a fold down table and shelves in our bathroom. This was a fun experience, the wood grain is beautiful, we love that we were able to use wood right from our backyard and…...it’s free!  A win on so many levels.

Up Next
We pick up our kitchen cabinets!

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