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Deleted User YDKXO
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On a previous thread http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306828&highlight=dockpower there was a discussion whether it would be possible to run the aircon on my boat from a single 16A supply. The reason for this is that in Croatia, most shorepower supplies on the kind of berths I get given are 16A and 32A or bigger are like hen's teeth.
I was put in contact with a guy called Karl who used to work for Victron in the UK and who is now living in Croatia and a few days ago he inspected my boat. The first thing he did was to accurately measure the current draw of my existing Condaria aircon chiller unit. During the initial cooling phase, the chiller was consuming 30A. After the temp in the boat stabilised, the chiller was consuming 12-13A when the compressor was not running but when the compressor cut in, the current draw went up to 23-24A. He reckons this is not untypical for the size of chiller unit fitted. From this info, it is obvious why my aircon blows a 16A supply.
Karl is proposing 2 different solutions and I've been thinking about a possible 3rd solution and it is really this 3rd solution which I need to kick about a bit
Solution no 1 is to fit a 5kW Multiplus inverter http://www.energy-solutions.co.uk/victron_multiplus.html to power the aircon. However because the aircon consumes so much power in the cooling phase, Karl is suggesting that the gennie runs the aircon until it has stabilised after which the Multiplus is left on the 16A shore supply. However and this is the killer, the charging side of the Multiplus is apparently only charging at 2-3A so there will be a large net drain on the batteries, even under charge and even with the aircon in stable mode. Karl is also suggesting that the existing batteries (new last year) are changed for high capacity gel or lithium ion batteries. Because of the battery drain issue and because of the necessity to run the gennie until the aircon has stabilised, I have dismissed this solution.
Solution no 2 is to fit a Dockpower dual shorepower transformer (as I believe admillington had fitted to his new Sq58) http://www.energy-solutions.co.uk/dock_power.html. The problem is that the smallest Dockpower model is for 2 x 32A supplies but Karl believes that the manufacturer could supply a 2 x 16A unit (at what cost, I don't know yet). The attraction of the Dockpower is that it checks the voltage and phase of the 2 incoming supplies before it combines them. The problem with this solution is that in many Croatian marinas, you have to fight to get 1 x 16A supply let alone 2 supplies but this solution is something I'm investigating further
Solution no3 is my idea and something I haven't yet bounced off Karl. The essence of my problem is that I'm happy to run a gennie in the evening to power the aircon but I don't want to run the gennie all night. We like to run the aircon in the sleeping cabins at minimum speed all night during the height of summer because we don't like to have loads of open windows (yes we have screens) because SWMBO is paranoid about mozzies and I'm not particularly fond of them either. So what I was thinking was whether to fit a 2nd small chiller unit which could definitely run off a 16A shore supply, to provide chilled water to the 3 sleeping cabin airhandlers only at night. The problem is how to integrate this unit with the main chiller unit. Would we have to have a completely separate system of chilled water pipes and controls? Could the output from both chiller units be pumped into the pipes simultaneously to increase the total cooling capacity available for the boat, an attractive option for me because the main chiller unit does take quite a while to cool the boat. Would I need a separate seawater feed and exhaust circuit?
Any advice or comments appreciated
I was put in contact with a guy called Karl who used to work for Victron in the UK and who is now living in Croatia and a few days ago he inspected my boat. The first thing he did was to accurately measure the current draw of my existing Condaria aircon chiller unit. During the initial cooling phase, the chiller was consuming 30A. After the temp in the boat stabilised, the chiller was consuming 12-13A when the compressor was not running but when the compressor cut in, the current draw went up to 23-24A. He reckons this is not untypical for the size of chiller unit fitted. From this info, it is obvious why my aircon blows a 16A supply.
Karl is proposing 2 different solutions and I've been thinking about a possible 3rd solution and it is really this 3rd solution which I need to kick about a bit
Solution no 1 is to fit a 5kW Multiplus inverter http://www.energy-solutions.co.uk/victron_multiplus.html to power the aircon. However because the aircon consumes so much power in the cooling phase, Karl is suggesting that the gennie runs the aircon until it has stabilised after which the Multiplus is left on the 16A shore supply. However and this is the killer, the charging side of the Multiplus is apparently only charging at 2-3A so there will be a large net drain on the batteries, even under charge and even with the aircon in stable mode. Karl is also suggesting that the existing batteries (new last year) are changed for high capacity gel or lithium ion batteries. Because of the battery drain issue and because of the necessity to run the gennie until the aircon has stabilised, I have dismissed this solution.
Solution no 2 is to fit a Dockpower dual shorepower transformer (as I believe admillington had fitted to his new Sq58) http://www.energy-solutions.co.uk/dock_power.html. The problem is that the smallest Dockpower model is for 2 x 32A supplies but Karl believes that the manufacturer could supply a 2 x 16A unit (at what cost, I don't know yet). The attraction of the Dockpower is that it checks the voltage and phase of the 2 incoming supplies before it combines them. The problem with this solution is that in many Croatian marinas, you have to fight to get 1 x 16A supply let alone 2 supplies but this solution is something I'm investigating further
Solution no3 is my idea and something I haven't yet bounced off Karl. The essence of my problem is that I'm happy to run a gennie in the evening to power the aircon but I don't want to run the gennie all night. We like to run the aircon in the sleeping cabins at minimum speed all night during the height of summer because we don't like to have loads of open windows (yes we have screens) because SWMBO is paranoid about mozzies and I'm not particularly fond of them either. So what I was thinking was whether to fit a 2nd small chiller unit which could definitely run off a 16A shore supply, to provide chilled water to the 3 sleeping cabin airhandlers only at night. The problem is how to integrate this unit with the main chiller unit. Would we have to have a completely separate system of chilled water pipes and controls? Could the output from both chiller units be pumped into the pipes simultaneously to increase the total cooling capacity available for the boat, an attractive option for me because the main chiller unit does take quite a while to cool the boat. Would I need a separate seawater feed and exhaust circuit?
Any advice or comments appreciated
He is lucky to get one 16A socket in Croatia, let alone two of the suckers. You need 2 sockets to deploy LBOK
