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#1
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
I am told that some boat owners use a residential style of heat pump with
great success. Any thoughts? What brands are best for marine grade? Is this a project that the average boat owner can handle? The cost to go with a residential is much less but I am concerned that the marine products would be better. thanks for help, marshall |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
Almost all residential heat pumps are air cooled/heated. Marine units are
seawater cooled/heated. David |
#3
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
"MarshallE" wrote in
: I am told that some boat owners use a residential style of heat pump with great success. Any thoughts? Some of them use window air conditioners on the deck. Is that what you mean? What brands are best for marine grade? Is this a project that the average boat owner can handle? "Marine Grade" just means it came from a marine store at 10 times the price. Marine AC units use the same compressors and electrical connections as any other refridgeration units. It's mostly bull****, except marine installations INSIST on putting the hot electric fan motor and really hot compressor INSIDE the air conditioned space where it will make the most noise all the time, keeping you awake, and create the most inefficient air conditioning system in the process because the unit expends a LOT of its Btu capacity cooling ITSELF, pumping its OWN heat out of the boat before it can pump your heat out of the boat. Stupid, isn't it? Any boat owner who can do basic electrical wiring and rubber hose plumbing, which I figure is about 30% of the owners in any marina, maybe less where the lawyers park their big yachts, can accomplish. Testing is easy. Hand them a two cell flashlight, two D cell batteries and a flashlight bulb. Tell them to make it light. The only thing you really have to concern yourself with is: 1) Electrical wiring to the AC panel, preferably to the NEC would be nice, but not necessary. 2) Installation of a seawater electric pump, strainer, and hooking them up to an underwater through-hull source of seawater, preferably not shared with anything else in the boat, low enough so the damned thing will SELF PRIME without tearing the hoses apart to prime it under the V- berth every time you come home from sailing heeled over so that fitting comes out of the water and it all drains out letting air in....grrr...nuts. 3) Plumbing in flexible duct work INSULATED so it doesn't sweat inside the cabinets it passes through rotting all the wood inside the cabinets to hell a couple of years from now. The cabinet the AC unit sits in will be like a swamp because it constantly drips condensate water, just like at home only 5 times as much in the sea air. That cabinet is like a swamp as soon as you shut it down and the stagnant water in the drain pan that never drains right makes it like a swamp in there as the hot fan motor and hot, hot compressor raise the cabinet temperature after shutdown to 150F for a couple of hours....(c; The cost to go with a residential is much less but I am concerned that the marine products would be better. I have a terrible time convincing them, but the BEST solution I ever installed was a nice Coleman 18000 Btu RV rooftop HEAT PUMP over the main cabin hatch with the Coleman Easy Start Kit already installed. All the noise from the AC, the noisy compressor, the noisy fan motor, the condensate swamp water and everything except the small inside control panel and distribution outlets fore and aft that stick down in the cabin about 2 inches is OUTSIDE WHERE YOU'RE SLEEPING! Even the smallest RV unit will make a boat MUCH colder, MUCH quicker than a "marine grade" unit twice its capacity. You'll freeze your ass if you turn it wide open...(c; The "Easy Start Kit", not available on "marine grade" units I've ever seen, starts the compressor SLOWLY, without the 30A starting surge current every time the compressor comes on. This allows you to run the little rooftop unit with a PORTABLE or SMALL INBOARD generator! How cool that is anchored up a creek on a hot, sweltering night full of Florida mosquitoes the Manatees are afraid to surface under! One of our old neighbors had a 40' catamaran sloop. He nearly died while trying to figure out how and where to put a Marine Air that still left room for a few cans of food and a plate or two in one of his pontoons....er, ah, belay that, I'm supposed to call them "hulls", not pontoons. He asked me what I thought and I put the Coleman buzz in his ear over that really nice skylight hatch that was just sitting there cooking anyone in the sunlight that sat under its cheap, clear-plastic cover. He tried it. He like to froze to death the first night as he forgot to turn the thermostat down and woke up at 2AM to a boat only 47F internal temperature...(c; If you think it looks just awful sitting there on the deck, have your custom canvas shop make an anchor or ship's wheel logo cover for it that's padded on top. Ignoring the snobs' comments about it being a trailer air conditioner, after seeing them cursing those biting little centipedes that filled up their sea strainers causing THEIR professional "marine-grade" AC to overpressure and trip out 3 days ago, and tell them it's a "custom made deck seat" with ship's wheel upholstery....(c; Oh, get the model that you can control the airflow out each of the outlet ports individually. That way you can force more air one way where there's more heat and not into the V-berth freezing her you-know-what during sex...not a good thing. PERMANENTLY MOUNTED with the included hardware, that makes it MUCH better than those damned portable marine units you have to lug around every time the boat moves. Look on top of the tugboats and trawlers! They use them because they WORK. The whole thing costs just a little more than the seawater pump in the "marine grade" thing in the closet. So, when it finally rusts out...you just BUY A WHOLE NEW ONE. It takes YEARS on a shrimp boat with NO MAINTENANCE WHATSOEVER.... |
#4
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
I looked on the web and I can see that Coleman makes up to a 27KBTU
12/120v rooftop AC for rv's but I couldn't find a source. Any suggestions? Mike Larry wrote - in part: I have a terrible time convincing them, but the BEST solution I ever installed was a nice Coleman 18000 Btu RV rooftop HEAT PUMP over the main cabin hatch with the Coleman Easy Start Kit already installed. All the noise from the AC, the noisy compressor, the noisy fan motor, the condensate swamp water and everything except the small inside control panel and distribution outlets fore and aft that stick down in the cabin about 2 inches is OUTSIDE WHERE YOU'RE SLEEPING! Even the smallest RV unit will make a boat MUCH colder, MUCH quicker than a "marine grade" unit twice its capacity. You'll freeze your ass if you turn it wide open...(c; The "Easy Start Kit", not available on "marine grade" units I've ever seen, starts the compressor SLOWLY, without the 30A starting surge current every time the compressor comes on. This allows you to run the little rooftop unit with a PORTABLE or SMALL INBOARD generator! How cool that is anchored up a creek on a hot, sweltering night full of Florida mosquitoes the Manatees are afraid to surface under! ---------- Look on top of the tugboats and trawlers! They use them because they WORK. The whole thing costs just a little more than the seawater pump in the "marine grade" thing in the closet. So, when it finally rusts out...you just BUY A WHOLE NEW ONE. It takes YEARS on a shrimp boat with NO MAINTENANCE WHATSOEVER.... |
#5
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
"Roger Long" wrote in news:zovlg.18648$W97.2222
@twister.nyroc.rr.com: I put this post quite well up on my mental list of the ten best posts ever to the forum. It's not really my original idea. Every shrimp boat in Charleston has one on their pilot house....tugboats and pushboats, too. It just makes good economic sense and is much more efficient..... .....not to mention you DON'T LOSE STORAGE SPACE WHERE ALL THE DAMNED DUCTS GO! |
#6
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
"Mike" wrote in news:1150732613.625799.66240
@c74g2000cwc.googlegroups.com: I looked on the web and I can see that Coleman makes up to a 27KBTU 12/120v rooftop AC for rv's but I couldn't find a source. Any suggestions? Somewhere near you is a motorhome/travel trailer superstore. They all have them. Google search for "Coleman RV air conditioner" and find thousands. |
#7
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
I do find thousands of 110v AC's, but no 12 or 24v AC's.
Mike Larry wrote: "Mike" wrote in news:1150732613.625799.66240 @c74g2000cwc.googlegroups.com: I looked on the web and I can see that Coleman makes up to a 27KBTU 12/120v rooftop AC for rv's but I couldn't find a source. Any suggestions? Somewhere near you is a motorhome/travel trailer superstore. They all have them. Google search for "Coleman RV air conditioner" and find thousands. |
#8
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
Mike wrote:
I do find thousands of 110v AC's, but no 12 or 24v AC's. Mike Larry wrote: "Mike" wrote in news:1150732613.625799.66240 : I looked on the web and I can see that Coleman makes up to a 27KBTU 12/120v rooftop AC for rv's but I couldn't find a source. Any suggestions? Somewhere near you is a motorhome/travel trailer superstore. They all have them. Google search for "Coleman RV air conditioner" and find thousands. Do you realize how many amps a 6000 btu air conditioner would require at 12 volts? Hey Larry, they don't just take heaters to the boat. krj |
#9
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
krj wrote in news:lbVlg.506$Ju2.28
@bignews1.bellsouth.net: Do you realize how many amps a 6000 btu air conditioner would require at 12 volts? Hey Larry, they don't just take heaters to the boat. krj Yeah, but they're not smiling luggin' a 12V AC down the dock. Hmm....My 8000 window unit in the computer room runs about 800 watts..... 800 watts divided by 14 volts (to be fairer) still equals a CONSTANT DRAIN of over 57 amps! Man, we're back trying to figure out where to stow these 3 ton submarine cells, again, to run it all!.... Nope...A/C is NEVER gonna run off 12V! "But you sold me a 4,000 watt inverter, didn't you?"......(c; http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...oducte/10001/- 1/10001/139948/0/0/inverter/All_2/mode+matchallpartial/0/0 "Only $US3,299.99" at Waste Marine! |
#10
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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boat AC/heatpump
Larry wrote: Hmm....My 8000 window unit in the computer room runs about 800 watts..... 800 watts divided by 14 volts (to be fairer) still equals a CONSTANT DRAIN of over 57 amps! Man, we're back trying to figure out where to stow these 3 ton submarine cells, again, to run it all!.... Nope...A/C is NEVER gonna run off 12V! Hmm... 3 ton submarine cells. Too bad we couldn't talk the manufacturers into making my 8500 lb keel into one big lead acid battery ;-) Don W. |
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