Envirocomfort AC unit by Dometic

[Paul and Judy]

I am in the process of purchasing the Envirocomfort 16K Air/heat unit and have the following question. As I do not want to add another thru hull fitting is it acceptable to draw seawater from the water intake for the engine cooling on my boat. My thought is to Tee off the through hull fitting, and add the shutoff valve, pump and strainer on the AC unit side of the Tee. Water would then be pumped to the AC unit and the normal flow of water to the engine would not be effected. Typically the engine and the AC unit would not be run at the same time. So if the engine was running, the valve to the AC unit would be shut off as well as power to the AC. Power to the AC unit when working would be either shore power or a generator.

 

[onecoolair]

Why not disconnect lavatory drain hose and use that through hull fitting as your raw water a/c pickup. Let lavatory drain hose go to shower sump. Then your option at next haul out if you wish you can change out through hull fitting for a scoop strainer model. Mine has been using the same lavatory sink drain non scoop through hull fitting for a number of years now and works just fine. I would keep the engine and or gen on there own separate raw water pick up.

 

[Sailgunner]

I would not come off the engine intake. On my old boat I was on a lake so I used the holding tank discharge for the A/C out flow. You can discharge below the water line. I might have used the toilet intake for the A/C intake but I can't remember.

 

[pfaffk]

Below is a link on this site where he T'ed off of the water intake from the Head. If I install A/C on my Hunter 290 I was planning on doing the same thing.

http://sbo.sailboatowners.com/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=7373&Itemid=257

 

[onecoolair]

I would not come off the engine intake. On my old boat I was on a lake so I used the holding tank discharge for the A/C out flow. You can discharge below the water line. I might have used the toilet intake for the A/C intake but I can't remember.

If you discharge your a/c raw water cooling below the water line then how can you tell if you have good water flow?