Air Conditioner on a 33- Installed

[Jeff and Sarah]

I've finally completed the installation of a Reverse Cycle unit on my 33. It's taken a lot of spare time and even more money, but I'm happy with the decision and final outcome. I chose to go with fully installed unit rather than something like a Cruise-n-carry for a lot reasons, but people should carefully weigh their needs on their own. Even though I live aboard, I'll be away for a month or two at a time and I really needed a good dehumidifier on board due to my present climate and the former climate the boat lived in for 30 years. Their were several other reasons, but in the end, this was just the right way for me to go. Some of the arguments against a full installation like this are the cost of the unit, the cost of the install, the loss of storage, the necessary cuts in bulkheads, the time to install the unit, and more holes in the boat. If you can push through these inconveniences, feel free to take a look at my photos and ask questions if you have any.

I chose to go with the Cruisair Stowaway Turbo 12,000 btu unit. I also went with a single supply air grille in the cabin and a small single grille in the V-berth. The unit is in the larger hanging locker and the return air grille is located in the door to the cabinet.

The installation started with installing the through hulls. I took care of this in the spring prior to launching the boat. The intake is under the starboard settee and the discharge is in the boot stripe just above the waterline in the hanging locker. Obviously the intake has a ball valve, but I put one on the discharge as well since it is so low to the water line. If you put it higher you could get away without the valve, but I would have one either way- safety goes a long way. If I were to start over, I'd add a third through hull above the waterline for the condensation pump out, but I didn't think of it at the time and I might do it next time I'm out of the water (we'll see).

Next I needed to build a shelf. Since I'm living aboard and my most of my tools are at my house 1000 miles away, all these jobs were completed as best I could with the tools I had. I put a shelf as low as I could in the cabinet leaving sufficient clearance for the through hull and valve. I decided to epoxy and screw two wooden cleats into the bulkheads because I really didn't want to through bolt the shelfs and I've become pretty comfortable with the strength of epoxy over the years. I also dadoed out the two cleats so cross braces would drop in and I epoxied those in place as well, so the whole bracing system for the shelf is rather sturdy. I used posterboard and cardboard to make a template for the shelf and transferred the pattern to plywood that was later sealed with a waterproofing agent.

The next step was to install a raw water strainer as well as an access hatch to facilitate cleaning the filter screen. The cabinet under the starboard settee houses my depth and speed transducers as well as the intake through hull for the a/c unit. I had enough space to locate the strainer in there as well, though I later moved it an inch or two to squeeze an extra valve in line to help with cleaning the filter. Since the strainer is only an inch shorter than the cabinet, I put an inspection port above it in the settee plywood to provide access to the top of the strainer. Luckily the strainer still lined up well enough to provide access to it after I relocated it later for the valve. The valve was added on the output side of the strainer to prevent the water in the lines, pump, and a/c unit from back flowing out of the strainer during periodic cleaning.

I located the pump at the base of the hanging locker. The locker bottom was thick enough to just screw the pump down and be done with it.

More later, I'm tired typing for now.

Photos at (sorry I don't know how to just post the photos here):
http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view ... 9dbf2f35f7

[Jeff and Sarah]

http://acunit.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5