DC airconditioner

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Mar 5, 2008
58
Beneteau 43 Alameda
We're looking at putting air conditioning into our boat but since we don't have an inverter, we're thinking about a DC airconditioner. Anyone have feedback on advantages/disadvantages of DC vs AC with an inverter?

Appreciate any ideas or feedback on specific models or manufacturers.

Thanks
Mac
 
Sep 25, 2008
7,510
Alden 50 Sarasota, Florida
What DC powered A/C are you contemplating using?

I'd be interested to hear how practical it is given the power requirements.
The DC Breeze by Glacier Bay is a small unit (5000BTU) and likely too small for your boat and it requires 48 amp hrs to run. With a 400 amp bank and no other load, this would theoretically equate to a run time of 5 hours maximum.

However, for a 43 ft boat, you are going to find your need is more like 16,000 BTU if not more or 3 times the A/C load and at least 3 times the power requirement. This ignores inherent loss and inefficiency of the electrical system. The battery capacity required becomes the limiting factor.

As you increase battery capacity, you also increase charging requirements, larger alternator, solar power, genset capacity, etc. making the total system cost equal to or exceed that of the typical AC powered air conditioner.

Running a typical AC powered air conditioner off an inverter is impractical for a number of reasons including those mentioned above as well as the consequential additional inefficiency from inverter conversion loss and additional power demand above that previously stated.

Example:
my 16k BTU A/C which barely keeps my 40 ft boat cool in New England heat requires 14 amps at 110V or 150 amp hrs at 12 VDC. With my 440 amp hr battery bank, I could run it theoretically, with no other loads, for a bit over 1 hour before necessarily recharging the batteries and that assumes lots of things including a heavy duty cycle 3000+ W inverter capable of handling the load for a sustained period.
 
Mar 5, 2008
58
Beneteau 43 Alameda
All good points..

Don,

Excellent points and insight. Thank you. I had looked at DC Breeze and Marvair, but both are 5-6K BTU capacity. I realize that isn't much but we only needed to take the edge off the main salon during the day, evenings are generally cool in San Francisco. Fact is, the days are generally cool as well be we get the occassional days where a little "air" would be good to have.

I have a 400 amp bank with an 80 amp alternator but the BTU capacity of a DC conditioner does concern me now. Now I'm leaning more towards a larger AC unit and assume we'll be in the plugged into the slip when we need it.

Thanks again.
Fred
 
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