|
Well I may have hit one of the first design flaws in the current floor
plan...
I spent most of the morning looking up the venting requirements for the
Dometic fridge. I know that I have seen coaches with the fridge mounted in
the center of the coach, but I have not been able to find a design for the
venting system that lends itself for anything other than outer wall
installation. I am pretty sure that I should not draw the fresh air for
the bottom vent from the inside of the bus. If I remember correctly, the
gas that powers it is heavier than air and in the case of a leak the gas would
find the lowest point to dissipate, which would be inside the bus. I can't
imagine that being a good thing... On the other hand, the stove and oven
combination is only vented to the outside air at the top of the unit. So I
am not sure how critical that is.
One of the things we liked about the current plan was having the fridge in a
position where it would not obstruct our view between the kitchen and the living
area. One thing I didn't take into consideration was the venting for the
gas and heat that builds up in the back. I also didn't realize that there
were things that needed to be serviced from the back of the fridge... In
the current plan, the shower backs up to the fridge and there is no outside air
source other than from underneath the bus. Unfortunately all of the vent
designs that I have seen have the vent from the back of the unit and the heat
exhaust vent on the roof or also on the back of the unit. I have not seen
a vent design that brings in fresh air from underneath.
One of the better vent design articles that I was able to find on the
internet was at http://rvmobile.com/Tech/Trouble/vent.htm.
It's also possible that at some point I would like to use the area under the
area where the fridge will be for storage. If that happens, I will need to
extend the vent to the very bottom of the coach and I wonder if the increased
wind will cause too much airflow up the vent and blow out the flame or work as a
venturi and pull air out the bottom of the bus. Either way, not a very desirable.
Of course, I guess the vent cover could be mounted on the bottom of the bus to
minimize the effect of the increased airflow...
I am still looking for answers to both of these problems, but at this point
it looks like we may have to move the fridge to the same wall as the stove work
around the problem. That puts everything along the outside wall or I may
end up moving the sink toward the middle of the coach.
If I find an answer that seems reasonable, I will still have to deal with the
lack of access to the back of the fridge. Moving the shower to the
opposite wall (still keeping toward the middle of the bus) would allow me to
move the door to the hallway and grant me both access to the back of the fridge
(via a panel) and an additional 6 inches of clearance to run the vent...
Well, that is about as far as I have been able to think this through.
I'll keep looking and see what else I can come up with. At this point I
think I will just move the fridge to the location of the stove, move the stove
over near the corner and move the sink to the wall where the fridge is
now. In the mean time,
if anyone has any other ideas, drop
me an e-mail and let me know.
|
