Placing Inverter and/or A/C in Engine Room

[bilofsky]

It's almost spring, and the sap is starting to stir.

That is, the sap is reading marine catalogs and his fingers are stirring and twitching in the direction of his credit cards.

I'm thinking about replacing my 40 amp charger with an inverter/charger, and maybe adding a small marine reverse cycle air conditioner to my CD 30 powerboat.

I was leaning toward putting in a genset, until a liveaboard friend (40' trawler, no generator) pooh-pooed the idea. Why have another engine to maintain, another seacock, more weight, and the substantial expense?

Most of the time, everything is running off shorepower - and the Admiral prefers being tied to a dock as she gets less seasick there.

For the rare instances that we anchor out, there are many alternatives:
<ul><li>Run the microwave off the inverter (400 Ah of house batteries), and maybe a touch of the air conditioner on hot days.
<li>Put a high-output alternator on one of the engines and use it sparingly to recharge the house bank as needed; allows a little more use of the A/C. Not the best use of a 200 hp diesel engine, but how much harm can there be from the few hours I'd do it?
<li>Get a little portable gas generator and take it aboard when anchoring out. It'll double as a backup when the power goes out at home.</ul>All these alternatives are way cheaper than a genset.

So. All I need is room for these goodies. And by far the most spacious, and sound-insulated, place on the boat (other than the cabin) is the engine room. Which leads to my question.

Is it safe to put an air conditioner and/or an inverter/charger in the engine room of a diesel boat?

Comments, questions, envy, scorn will all be welcomed (by bored snowed-in boaters if not always by me).

- Walt

[Parfait's Provider]

Walt,

I am not sure about the A/C, but Parfait carried a charger in the engine room for years. It was one of those old-style highly reliable machines with lots of iron and isolation from the grid. After installing a modern switching-type charger we had some electrolysis problems, so now we stay disconnected from the grid most of the time and hope the bilge pump never tries to drain the batteries. I think an isolation transformer would be a good idea.

The new charger is in the stbd. locker, so I can't speak to how it might respond to engine room temperatures.

Our A/C is in the hanging locker opposite the head, so I can't give you any clues about how that might work either.

[bilofsky]

I am not sure about the A/C, but Parfait carried a charger in the engine room for years.

Not worried about the charger part. I have a charger in the engine room. Issues are: (1) heat affecting the inverter, and (2) sparking from AC relays, if any.

Our A/C is in the hanging locker opposite the head, so I can't give you any clues about how that might work either.

How's the noise? There's a dead space under the queen berth that would hold something substantial but I'm not sure I feature sleeping on either the inverter or the A/C.

- Walt

[Marc Theriault]

Walt,

"That is, the sap is reading marine catalogs and his fingers are stirring and twitching in the direction of his credit cards. "

I have the same problem with my fingers... Someone on the board convert dollar to Boat Unit Currency(BUC), i think the idea is fantastic, i just don't know how i will be able to pay my credit card bill with them?.

For the gaz generator, my father bought a Honda 600W. It worked perfectly, small light unit, easy start, quiet, not much maintenance the only problem was not enough power.

Marc

[Parfait's Provider]

The main reason I moved the new charger to the locker was heat, but there is no inverter, so we aren't likely to be running it when the engine is running anyway. If we had an inverter, I think I would be concerned about the ambient temp of the engine room. The iron monster charger was mounted on the access panel between the port locker and the engine compartment. PO should have shot the installer if it was an after-market job. If CD did it, I have no comment.

The A/C is noisy, but it isn't so bad that we don't turn it on when we need it. I think the installation could be improved with some isolation and sound barriers. Sleeping on top of it could be an issue, but how much more than having it 5 ft. from your head? It certainly makes for a simply installation with everything in one place. There are no ducts to run, just water inlet and outlet, electrical power, air intake, and a couple of outlets. With the exception of the water pump, which must be below the water line, it fits rather neatly in the upper half of the hanging locker. Once the boat is cooled off, it doesn't cycle much at night.

[Ron Turner]

Walt,

I have installed two inverter,chargers on OPBs. I do not recommend an engine room location for todays high tech units. The heat and crummy air environment, not to mention vibration would rule it out for me.