Portable air conditioning unit

Sojourn

Sojourn

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Moving the boat to the med. So I need a portable air con unit for the saloon. Any recommendations for a decent unit? Thanks
 
Sojourn said:
Moving the boat to the med. So I need a portable air con unit for the saloon. Any recommendations for a decent unit? Thanks
Click to expand...
Unfortunately my experience with a portable air conditioner is that it’s not worth the trouble. I bought a fairly decent reasonably powerful domestic unit but it couldn’t lower the temperature of a small salon even by a small amount.
 
remember that the exhaust hose must go to the outside or indeed it won't cool.

Your half way option if you dont have a generator is to install a proper marine system and only run in port. Coastal Rides etc sell the units and they are not that expensive if you just want one.

The other BIG issue is that the portable ones are quite big and where does it go?
 
Agree with the above but we bought a domestic unit when we first had the boat in Barcelona. It actually worked well in the saloon of my S37. It only just got through the saloon door so check before you buy and buy as big as you can. As mentioned the exhaust is a problem.
After a year we bought a “proper” system for about 10x the cost of the domestic.
The domestic unit is now in our bedroom at home for those occasional hot summer nights.
 
Actually we have had a better experience. We bought one from the local supermarket in France for our old sail boat. It was left in the companion way at night and would drop the main cabin temp quite well. Storage was a pain, but we found somewhere we could wedge it so it stayed put when we sailed.

Cost was €150.

I praised it so much we convinced friends to do the same and they live theirs.

Current boat has proper marine aircon and it is much better, but the portable was better than nothing.
 
Thanks for your replies.
I haven’t got the time or money to install a proper one as the boat leaves in a couple of weeks!
The portable option has got to worth ago, as long as I can find somewhere to store it ?
 
If it is out of the water ( or even as they lift for transport ) put an inlet cock in the bottom of it and an outlet just above the waterline ( or below it ) and then the install is pretty simple as you have water in and out already done.
 
jrudge said:
If it is out of the water ( or even as they lift for transport ) put an inlet cock in the bottom of it and an outlet just above the waterline ( or below it ) and then the install is pretty simple as you have water in and out already done.
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Very good point because you will eventually have a/c
Re “or below it” we did this after annoying neighbours for many years with our outlet noise especially if they don’t have a/c and sweating it out with the windows wide open.
 
DavidJ said:
Very good point because you will eventually have a/c
Re “or below it” we did this after annoying neighbours for many years with our outlet noise especially if they don’t have a/c and sweating it out with the windows wide open.
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There was a long debate on here a while ago. Mine goes via exhaust. Dribbling ac is very annoying. One unit would be a simple and relatively cheap fit if the hull fittings are in
 
The big problem with the self contained portables is the very air you are cooling is then drawn into the condenser section and ejected through the vent hose, meaning fresh uncooled air has to be drawn in, so a losing battle. If you can find one that has an umbilical with flexible fridge pipes in and a separate condenser that hangs outside is a better bet.
 
Bouba said:
Unfortunately my experience with a portable air conditioner is that it’s not worth the trouble. I bought a fairly decent reasonably powerful domestic unit but it couldn’t lower the temperature of a small salon even by a small amount.
Click to expand...

They work very well if you read the instructions and use them properly...…… Did you use the duct and put the exhaust air to the outside ?
 
Bigplumbs said:
They work very well if you read the instructions and use them properly...…… Did you use the duct and put the exhaust air to the outside ?
Click to expand...

Of course!! I put the duct through a porthole it was a perfect fit and did not allow any outside air back in:)
 
In a previous life, many years ago, I was trained as an environmental engineer.
That means heating, ventilating and air conditioning.
With air conditioning, many people don't realise that you need sufficient power to handle two components.
In an air conditioning environment, there is sensible heat removal and latent heat removal required to lower the temperature.
The latent heat (removal of water) is a significant element and the temperature simply won't drop unless you can get the water (vapour) out of the environment that you are trying to cool.
Have a look at a psychrometric chart and you will see how latent and sensible heat are linked.

So, using these cheap domestic units - not only do you need to ensure that the exhaust air gets to outside but, because they are relatively low power, you should also seal the cabin to block any water vapour from entering the cabin. Something quite difficult in a marine environment.
IMO, the reason that a proper marine air conditioning unit works better than a domestic one is that the marine units are significantly more powerful.

BTW
Have you noticed that it takes a few days for any boat's air conditioning system to become fully effective after a long period of no use. This is because it takes time for water vapour and dampness to be taken out of the fabric of the boat (cushions, curtains, and below decks in the bilges).
 
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Pinnacle said:
If you have mains power (or a generator) you could try one of these;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Euromac-AC2400-Split-Conditioning-System-375-Watts/dp/B00SXK7H3M/ref=asc_df_B00SXK7H3M/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=256233737972&hvpos=1o9&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12506063931677396084&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045835&hvtargid=pla-473537458215&psc=1
Click to expand...

OK, P,
Lets look at this more technically.
But, rather than, getting into heat gain calcs, we can stick to some rules of thumb.
A good way to get a simple idea would be to use a cubic measurement and multiply by a factor.
After proper heat gain calcs, it seems that most systems come out as follows:-
Main living spaces during the day seem to come out at around 16 to 19 BTUs/hr per cubic foot.
And cabins used mainly at night would come out at around 10 to 12 BTUs/hr per cubic foot.

The OP doesn't say what size his saloon is so lets assume (say) 12 feet by 8 feet by 7 feet high.
That is 672 cubic feet.
Multiply that by (say) 18 BTUs/hr per cubic foot and you need an air conditioning unit capable of about 12,000 BTU's per hour.

The unit in your link above is only capable of one quarter of that at 2,400 BTUs/hr.

So, going back to my post above, the unit in your link above would be a complete waste of time for a saloon of 12 feet by 8 feet by 7 feet.
It is all about power.

I guess that you could work back from 2400 BTU's/hr and see how small the cabin would be but remember we are talking a marine environment where there is a lot of water (vapour/dampness) about and that latent component is very high.

Just my comments.
IMHO it isn't worth wasting money on something that just isn't going to do the job - not even close.
 
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