Czechia and Slovakia are two distinct countries since 1992.
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Touche.
And would you have known that those 2 are still smaller than “the Mojave Desert”?
Like I alluded to before it doesnt matter, its an air conditioned steel box in/near a large hot desert that just hit me funny.
That makes you statement even more explicit. It’s as big as those two countries. Almost as big as a 10th of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth!
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Woo!
I might have mentioned it was as big as Mississippi the state but thats pretty obscure. Ha.
I will not be on-site to do the installation so I am trying to containerize and simplify as much as possible
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Right I just don’t know how to quantify that in this situation.
Tests show reflective roof coatings have basically no effect on temperatures of structures that have even minimal insulation. And there absolutely are commercial options… Snow roof, Kool Seal, Henry’s Dura-Brite, etc.
Besides, he’s already said the structure will be shaded by the panels which is even better.
Since it’s an unmanned structure, the inside temperature should only need to be maintained under, say, 90F degrees, which reduces the temperature delta between indoor and outdoors, reducing the heat gain and cooling energy requirements.
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Remember that air conditioners have trouble reaching more than 20 degrees less than ambient temp, you actually want a heat pump. I have seen summers out there break 130 degrees at some rare times, and with global warming that is only going to become more common. I don’t think you will want something that struggles to keep things lower than 110 degrees during some weeks of summer, so definitely go heat pump. The Mohave Desert and specifically Needles, CA (southeast side of Mahave) is often the hottest place in the whole country.
I agree with what Matt_Parker said and see if you can bury the container after reinforcing it. Being underground will vastly reduce the temperature and cooling needs.
Burying the container is not an option unfortunately.
This had already crossed my mind.
Aren’t used 20ft containers only around $3000-4000? The solar and batteries are going to cost at least 3x that already. Putting some of that cost into owning the container and burring it to greatly reduce your cooling needs would save you money on solar needs as well so you most likely break even in cost owning vs renting and a larger system.
The container is already on site. It is being retrofitted.
The only heavy equipment onsite is the backhoe which obv is not big enough to move the container around.
The smallest typical 5000BTU window A/C should be just able to maintain reasonable operating temperatures (set it to the max, which is usually around 85F degrees), if you really only have 355W of load. That’s around what a human body can generate. I can’t imagine a 2000BTU cooler would possibly keep up. Though you’ll want a digital model with “Energy Saver” modes.
While it’s tempting to go for VDC units, you’re really going down a not well-trodden path and trusting some niche no-name equipment to run extremely reliably where it can’t be easily serviced, which is not a bet I’d make. I’d take a safer route of a FFRE053WAE and a small sine-wave inverter, instead.
Absolutely do NOT subdivide your container… A small insulated box with warm components inside is what you might call “an oven.” You’ll want as large a volume of air/structure as you can get, as thermal mass to even out temperature swings.
Here’s an A/C calculator where you can at least plug-in inside/outside temperatures:
You’ve got the panels for shade, which will help. The maximum ambient you’ll see on this planet is 130F but it’ll only stay there briefly. Indeed your A/C will not be running very long during the day, and even less at night. But the rub is, there are occasional humid and overcast weeks in the desert, where your solar power coming in will be low, and while the high temperatures will be moderated a bit, your A/C will need to run periodically through the night on your somewhat depleted batteries.
And for some context on daily temperatures in the desert, see “Daily Observations” here:
For the record, I’m also somewhere in the Mojave Desert, and have also set-up shipping containers to house networking equipment. Still operating after years.
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You are awesome man. This is why I reached out on the forums. If you don’t mind would you be open to discussing your setups with me either here or privately?
If you don’t do the paint thing you can also construct a “roof” to provide shade which is basically just plywood and legs
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Planning on doing that to mount the panels anyways so there will be shade on the container.
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I was more talking about stuff like this
19f bellow ambient paint
With this tutorial YouTube video
It is a process but I like passive systems.
Thanks for causing me to clarify!
Based on your suggestions and resources I redesigned the power configuration.
If anyone has input please make suggestions.
I sized the battery bank for 14hrs of continuous max load. Obv the A/C shouldn’t be running 24/7. In theory it should kick on and run for only ~20min per hour from what I have been reading. I added a second unit that will only act in a redundant capacity so they shouldn’t both be on at the same time. This is the unit I am looking at using:
It is network connected so it can be monitored and controlled remotely.
Power Diagram:
Network diagram as well.
What program are you using to come up with those graphs?
In my first reply, in between the wall of text 
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Hmmm, not loading for me.