Air conditioning on board

[temptress]

So I did the unthinkable thing today and ordered an AC unit to use in ToD. The thought of a couple of months in a marina 60 miles from the equator was just too much. I hear by apologise to those of you I have criticised in the past.

You know who you are....

 

[sailaboutvic]

So I did the unthinkable thing today and ordered an AC unit to use in ToD. The thought of a couple of months in a marina 60 miles from the equator was just too much. I hear by apologise to those of you I have criticised in the past.

You know who you are....

We have one and our plain this year is to steel it , your welcome to make us an offer

 

[temptress]

We have one and our plain this year is to steel it , your welcome to make us an offer

Vic might be a difficult to get yours to Singapore. We bought one locally here and it's working great as long as we have shore power. Toooooo much for the genny.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Ours work off our 4kv gen but we not found the need to use it , so we thinking of useing the space to build an water maker , if I every find out where to buy the stuff , the two UK who are well know for water maker at the moment done seen very help full only interested in sell new ones , which are well over water we want to pay .

 

[Monique]

Hi Vic,

We are in Guadeloupe since mid day 23rd... you need AC here if only to keep the green growth down. Keeps the boat smelling fresh... although with your cat aboard, you'll always have a challenge on this point.....

 

[geem]

Hi Vic,

We are in Guadeloupe since mid day 23rd... you need AC here if only to keep the green growth down. Keeps the boat smelling fresh... although with your cat aboard, you'll always have a challenge on this point.....

After several winters in the Caribbean I dont believe you need AC here. You do need lots of fans below and portlights/deck hatches but give it a couple of weeks and you acclimatise. We are currently in Martinique and have felt no need for AC even though we have a temporary stop in a Marina so we can ben near the hospital.mit ismisually much cooler at anchor than in a marina

 

[temptress]

After several winters in the Caribbean I dont believe you need AC here. You do need lots of fans below and portlights/deck hatches but give it a couple of weeks and you acclimatise. We are currently in Martinique and have felt no need for AC even though we have a temporary stop in a Marina so we can ben near the hospital.mit ismisually much cooler at anchor than in a marina

In the Caribbean, the Pacific and Australia we found no need for AC. Since arriving on the Equator in Se Asia I am glad I ate my hat and got AC. Too humid and zero wind most of the time. And i mean zero wind... Agree AC is not needed even in a marina in the Caribbean.

 

[KellysEye]

The temperatures in Venezuela, Bonaire and Curacao are well over 30 degrees in the summer. So we bought an air conditioner in Venezuela and fitted it half over a hatch over the saloon with cardboard taped to dividing part where the the cold comes in and hot goes out, it was bent 90 degree and hanged down into the cabin. It worked on shorepower and our Westerbeke generator.

 

[ccscott49]

Ours work off our 4kv gen but we not found the need to use it , so we thinking of useing the space to build an water maker , if I every find out where to buy the stuff , the two UK who are well know for water maker at the moment done seen very help full only interested in sell new ones , which are well over water we want to pay .

There is a place n UK who supply all the bits at very reasonable prices! Google Desal supplies, in Lancashire. Very helpful people.

 

[sailaboutvic]

There is a place n UK who supply all the bits at very reasonable prices! Google Desal supplies, in Lancashire. Very helpful people.

Supply part for what ?? Water maker ? If so we nearly finished ours just waiting on the last few parts . By the way Desal did supply our membrane.

 

[KellysEye]

>Agree AC is not needed even in a marina in the Caribbean.

It depends where you are in Trinidad, Venezeula, Curacao and Bonaire the temperature in summer is typically 35 C, we fitted an air condioner.

 

[Tradewinds]

>Agree AC is not needed even in a marina in the Caribbean.

It depends where you are in Trinidad, Venezeula, Curacao and Bonaire the temperature in summer is typically 35 C, we fitted an air condioner.

Never bothered with it when we were out there. Got used to it. Same elsewhere in the tropics. Fans & windscoops worked for us.

Two exceptions. On the hard at Power Boats Trinidad (I would have killed for an AC unit but was too stingy) and anchored at Fethiye, Turkey (this was only the second time I had to put the all over awning up - and we were tropics hardened!).

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[jonrarit]

out of interest, which unit did you go for Temptress?

 

[temptress]

out of interest, which unit did you go for Temptress?

We bought a portable unit designed for use in the HDB (Council) flats in Singapore. It's a SONA. Sitting here with it running. It's 35deg and very humid outside - nice, cool and not humid inside. Produces 1200BTU and consumes 1.9KW startup and 1.2 KW running on high power and about 1KW on low power.

Work very well. Cost me SG$499 about GBP280 (last year that would have been $499 and GBP 220)

 

[dk]

Saw a neat unit at the London Boat Show. Transcool, a portable 12/24/240V evaporative cooler with built-in water tank. Draws 0.7A/1.3A/1.7A (12Vdc) on Lo/Med/hi power. Output felt quite cool at the show, but not sure if it would drop the ambient temp many degrees in a tropical climate. Cost £299, www.transcoolgb.com

 

[temptress]

Saw a neat unit at the London Boat Show. Transcool, a portable 12/24/240V evaporative cooler with built-in water tank. Draws 0.7A/1.3A/1.7A (12Vdc) on Lo/Med/hi power. Output felt quite cool at the show, but not sure if it would drop the ambient temp many degrees in a tropical climate. Cost £299, www.transcoolgb.com

Dbout it will work ..."Can deliver air up to 50% cooler (at the vent) than ambient air temperature (when using ice water)"

Ice? Where do you get ice? The power consumption is way too low to actually cool anything....WATTS is what you need and AC uses a lot of WATTS! W=VxA. and you need about 1 about 1 watt of power to produce approximately 1 BTU.

To cool even a small boat cabin you would need say 500BTU approx 500 watts of cooling plus some wastage so say consume 600watts at 12v thats 50 amps..... where is the cooling power coming form in this unit? Me thinks it is the ICE WATER cooling the air as it passes over it then the fan blowing stuff around. May be OK in a temperate climate whereyou don't need AC anyway the fan will make it feel cool but in the tropics? - I'd say forget it.

 

[sailaboutvic]

We using our to heat up the boat , and it doesn't that very well as well as dry it , we tryed it once in the summer but it was much to cold .
I personally wouldn't buy one if I didn't have one .

 

[BrianH]

Saw a neat unit at the London Boat Show. Transcool, a portable 12/24/240V evaporative cooler with built-in water tank. Draws 0.7A/1.3A/1.7A (12Vdc) on Lo/Med/hi power. Output felt quite cool at the show, but not sure if it would drop the ambient temp many degrees in a tropical climate. Cost £299, www.transcoolgb.com

With the cost and practicable difficulties of fitting true air conditioning to my 31' boat I wondered if an evaporative cooler would alleviate my summer cabin temperatures while marina bound in the Adriatic within a lagoon complex, which is 5nm inland from the open sea. In my berth, late afternoon cabin temperatures from June on can be nudging 40°C, invariably above 35°C. and not much less during the early night hours. This makes it hard to sleep in windless conditions, which are the norm, especially as those are when the mosquitoes are particularly active, needing all ports and companionway to have netting that reduces any incoming air-draught that the fan could induce.

Local Italian stores told me they did not stock evaporative coolers as they are ineffective in the area and that they are only suitable with low humidity climates such as desert regions, not our lagoon one. I had already known they are popular in the dry, higher altitude US states where they are known as 'Swamp Coolers'. Then a local Swiss retailer had a special offer for an evaporative cooler that would fit under the table opposite to the companionway, which was cheap enough to take a chance on - and much cheaper than the Transcool's £299. It was a well-made unit with remote control and different fan speeds ... I had high hopes and travelled down to Italy in the early summer to install it.

It fitted neatly into the boat and seemed to work as intended, but did not help at all. By comparative testing I found the cooling unit would indeed lower the >30°C cabin temperatures .... by an average of 2°C. However, on balance, the extra humidity it generated made the discomfort level more, not less. After a week's trial the unit was placed next to the nearest marina rubbish bin - indicative of free for all - and it disappeared within an hour.