Cool Customers ?
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uOW long will it be before refrigera
ted forced ventilation becomes accepted as part of the normal equipment of a coach? Not very long, perhaps, at any rate so far as vehicles intended for Continental touring are concerned. This conclusion is based on impressions formed during the course of a brief demonstration of one of the first two coaches so fitted to enter service with a British operator, and discussion with two of the engineers responsible for developing the system, writes A. A. Townsin.
The vehicle was the Bedford SB5 with Duple Bella Vega 41-seater bodywork which was exhibited on the bodybuilder's stand at the Commercial Motor Show last September. Last week it was handed over to Hastings Coachways, to whom it was supplied through the Southern Light Coach Centre Ltd., Battle. Sussex. The refrigerated ventilation equipment is the Smiths "Spot Cooling" system. Cooled air is directed to the passengers through overhead ducts and Jetvent nozzles, this part of the system being similar to that now widely used by British builders of coach bodywork.
Applying the refrigeration in this way means that the quantities of air to be cooled are less than would be required for full saloon air-conditioning and the refrigeration plant can be smaller, cheaper and easier to install than one designed to lower the entire vehicle int er io r. The vapour-compression system of refrigeration is used with a compressor driven by the vehicle engine. Two evaporators mounted in the ducting cool air drawn through an 'intake above the windscreen before it is passed to the Jetvent nozzles under the luggage racks.
Each passenger seat has a Jetvent unit above it, capable of supplying up to 10-cu.-ft. of air cooled to 11°C. (20'F.) below the ambient temperature.
The driver's controls for the system are very simple to use, consisting merely of two switches; the system works on An automatic cycle. The power requirement is normally in the region of 3 h.p., rising to 6 h.p. under maximum load conditions. Servicing can be carried out by recognized refrigetation engineers using their normal procedure for air conditioners and large commercial refrigeration systems. This particular coach weighed about 4 cwt. more than standard, but part of this may have been due to special seating.
At present the cost is still comparatively high, because of the " one-off " nature of the installation, but no longer anywhere near the prohibitive level of earlier more complex installations. Much work is at present being done to find simpler and cheaper ,rneans of producing plant of this kind. One of the targets is to produce equipment suitable for medium-sized private cars at a price comparable with that of other optional extras often specified at the time of purchase and the Smiths engineers were confident that this could be achieved before long. Some of this work will be of obvious benefit to coach installations, but even now the idea of providing refrigerated ventilation is out of the pipe-dream stage
The day of the demonstration, although not as warm as might be expected in mid-Summer, was rather muggy; yet distinct benefit was noticeable within a mile after the coach was started from rest. The principle of the system is such that its efficiency tends to increase as the ambient temperature rises, and the potential benefit on a tour to the Mediterranean, say, was obvious. It seems very probable that Mr. Hirst, the proprietor of Hastings Coachways, will find himself in the vanguard of a new trend.