"Vic Smith" wrote in message
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wrote in message
...

If you have a small cabin on a boat can you get a small heat exchanger
that heats in winter and cools in summer that runs on 12 volts? What
kind of system would you use?

Propane heat and maybe something like this for 12V A/C.
http://www.arcticbreeze-truckac.com/...eezeintro.html

But you're still going to need a genset for the A/C unless you have
120v service and an inverter.
Might be better/cheaper then to go with cheap 120v home window unit.
Larry has recommended these kind of setups and you can google his
solutions.

The Mac 26 forum had a number of guys installing A/C, and they all
went the shore power/genset 120v window unit route.
See what the ice-fishing guys uses to heat their ice shacks.
I know nothing about heat pumps, except the temp differentials often
make them non-cost effective.

--Vic

I installed a residential, 10,000 BTU window AC unit in the
rear hatch of the Grand Banks we had. Kept the aft cabin nice and
comfortable for sleeping on hot, humid nights. Roughly 200 bucks,
including the marine plywood I bought to mount it in.
A marine AC unit, mounted in the engine room and ducted to the cabins was
quoted at about $6k to $8K by the guys at the marina. For the number of
times we needed AC up here, it wasn't worth the expense. Obviously, it was
used only when docked and when plugged into shore power, although I could
have run it while underway off the generator.

My current boat has two reverse cycle AC/heat units. The Navigator had
four of them. Marine types exchange using water rather than ambient air and
surprisingly, there is still enough heat in the ocean water up here during
the winter for them to produce enough heat to keep the boat nice and warm.
I usually shut them down and winterized them before the deep cold set in.
If I had stayed on the boat all winter, like some others do at our marina,
I'd would have used them throughout the entire winter. I know a few people
that live on their boats year-round at the marina and they have told me that
there is only about a 2 week period in the middle of the winter when they
have to supplement the heat pumps with some electric space heaters.

Eisboch