Topic: Putting a Window AC unit in the back seat, how can this fail?
Since selling the Duff car, I needed another track beater for non-Lemons non-race track stuff, so I dragged an old Civic out of the weeds and put some tires on it. I share the tow rig with another team member who also has a track beater, so I'd like to be able to drive my track beater to and from events, but it's too hot for me to drive it a few hundred miles in the summer, especially after a long weekend at the track. I tried it last month at an HPDE at CMP and it was miserable. At some point it was gutted to be a race car, so there's nothing left of the original ventilation system. It's just an empty shell inside.
I have a relatively low-hours small window unit AC sitting around from my air-conditioned tent project. I made a duct box out of rigid foam board and metal duct tape and taped it to the unit. Using a couple of thermometers to measure the temperature differential, it looks like it is happy with two 4" ducts on each side of the condenser. Any less ducting and it heat soaks the condenser.
My current plan is to build a metal shelf where the back seat used to be, right behind the roll bar, put the window unit on the shelf, secure it with a metal bracket, and route two sets of 4" semi-rigid ducting out the back of the car through the floor on either side of the spare tire well.
The AC unit uses 455 watts, and the factory alternator makes 840 watts. I can get an aftermarket alternator that makes 1560 watts relatively cheaply, so I figure that should cover the differential. A 2000/1000 watts power inverter is $85 and is very compact.
I won't drive this on track with the AC on, just on the highway to and from the track.
Is there something that I'm not thinking of here?