Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board

Re: Bruce I need your opinion no this AC unit

Posted By: bruce
Date: Thursday, 17 February 2005, at 7:26 p.m.

In Response To: Bruce I need your opinion no this AC unit *NM* *LINK* (ZeroCavity)

What they are trying to do is take a stagnant marine AC market and hype up the current mold, mildew, good air crap that the tree huggers all holler for and sell units based on that.

Most here know how boats are made.
There is very little if zero insulation.
Cabin, salon and just about every other space is connected thru passages behind walls, beds, cabinets. Nothing is sealed off from each other let alone from the outside or engine rooms.

Hatteras with their modular style of building is the only one that comes close to production boat building that makes a good attempt at sealing everything off.
The trade off is two fold.
One repair and replacement of things is quite expensive.
Two, they drive like a motorized bathtub.

You can only control air quality if you have a well sealed area from outside contamination. A 31 does not provide that.

You can only control humidity levels if you have low heat loss. Again with no insulation, you don't have that on a 31 or most other boats.

Mutli speed compressors have been used in residential and commercial applications for years with success because for the most part houses are well insulated and when the house cools down, it remains cool so the compressor does not have to run full speed to maintain that cool. This saves electricity, saves fuel costs, keeps trees from being cut down and in turn owls continue to breed and will take over the world one day.

Try turning the AC on the boat off for 20 minutes and your back to outside air temp. With the severe heat loss, you don't have the fine control you would have in a home.

A good marketing concept, but until boat builders start sealing and insulating boats better, I don't see a practical application for it.

I'm sure the cost reflects the environmental aspects of the unit.

I have stopped pushing the main stay companies on AC unless someone wants one.

I have been using a very nice unit by Mermaid. The price is quite less than the big guys and they have stainless trays and use an expansion type valve on the heat cycle instead of a reversing valve that sticks quite often and is expensive to replace.
They come standard with digital controls.

The only draw back is they only make all in one units, no split systems.

Messages In This Thread

Bruce I need your opinion no this AC unit *NM* *LINK*
ZeroCavity -- Thursday, 17 February 2005, at 3:02 p.m.

Re: Bruce I need your opinion no this AC unit
bruce -- Thursday, 17 February 2005, at 7:26 p.m.