Another boat project in the works: Air Conditioning on the cheap
Posted By RichC on March 25, 2014
While I should be spending a few more evening hours working on taxes, I’ve instead been tinkering around on another boat improvement. This time I’m working to re-shelve one of the hanging lockers in order to install a removable 10,000 BTU Air Conditioner/Heat pump on the cheap. After reviewing all the more robust and expensive marine units in the thousands of dollars, not to mention the installation cost, I’ve opted for an off the shelf portable AC unit for $309 with free shipping. This is a self-contained vented model that requires a 4 inch flexible duct pipe to exchange the hot or cold air (depending on mode) outside. The install will require a 4 in deck cap to be added to the cabin side that can be dogged down when sailing. The compact AC unit will “hopefully” have enough ventilation to operate efficiently, yet the hanging locker door can be closed when it is turned off (out of sight and out of the way). Obviously this is a work in progress and I’ll reserve my final conclusion until using it an doing some tweaking, but boats spending any amount of time in Florida marinas need AC.
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