The cold truth

[adelaidem]

ok now we been through heating food,thanks for the replies, now im onto refrigeration, have remove the old ice box,cut and shut it and insulated it with 50mm closed cell foam, so any thoughts on how to keep it cold other than ice?????

 

[john_morris_uk]

Where is the boat going to be used? (Makes a difference to what refrigeration plant you should think of installing) Do you want ice? In other words, how cold do you want it to be? How big (in litres) is the ice box?

If you have some ideas for the answers to these, one then has to deal with the power requirements...

 

[adelaidem]

A warm climate , around 1 ltr square ice box , and yes icy cold beer is needed!

 

[kingfisher]

I have an ice box in my boat. Went to the caravan shop, and bought a Coleman cooler, which is electrically powered by the 12V plug of the car.
coleman cooler

The cooling system, via a peltier element, is fully integrated in the lid of the box. Through some creative woodworking I adopted the lid of the coleman coolbox to my boat's icebox. The lid of the coolbox was smaller then the lid of the boats ice-box, so I made a hole at the relevant points and siliconed the coolbox lid onto the icebox lid. I connected the 12V supply and presto: a refrigerated ice box. It won't freeze the beer, put it will keep it cool long enough. basically the beers don't last very long on my boat,so.

Best of all, the coleman cooler came with a regluar lid as well, so it still serves to transport the beers from the house to the boat.

 

[john_morris_uk]

IMHO a peltier unit will not be effective in a warm climate.

Depending on how warm you mean by warm climate, the options are:

Engine driven compressor (expensive to buy/fit and needs the engine to be running)

Electric compressor with air cooled evaporator. (Not very effective in very hot climates)

Electric compressor with water cooled evaporator.

This latter is the best way in tropical conditions. IMHO the better ones are those that do not have a separate pump for the water, but use a skin fitting for the water cooled part of the system.

These are not cheap to buy and fit! Expect to pay the best part of £1k for a complete system! (Plus fitting...)