It would probably be necessary to add a 12v mushroom air exhaust vent/fan on the roof ( adjacent to the vent for the holding tanks ) and a fresh air intake louvered vent on the rear fiberglass wall to exhaust the heat generated by the compressor.Always great to have alternatives, and the promise of being able to keep the cabinetry as-is is tempting. A couple of reasons why I will probably still go with the RTX 2000:
- smaller company compared to Dometic so spare parts could become a problem
- the need to work with an HVAC shop to get the lines filled
- if there is a leak you can't just return the unit
- concerns about heat development near the compressor. The refrigerant gets hot when compressed. How hot will the compressor get from that? The line going from compressor to condenser unit can/must be insulated, but not sure about the compressor itself.
Another advantage to this approach is that it free's up space on the roof for solar panels. In theory if you could get 200 watts of solar from the area where the Kerstner A/C was mounted, 200 watts from solar panels mounted on the 'nose cone' of the roof AND 200 watts of portable solar then this A/C could run off solar power alone. IE: 600 watts divided by 12 volts equals 50 amps... Obviously that's under an 'ideal' solar gain scenario!
Just thinking outside the box