Air conditioning on a boat, without running a generator all night?
I was Googling options for staying overnight on a boat and ended up looking into how you’d keep the cabin cool. Naturally, the HVAC side of things distracted me from actually finding somewhere to stay.
I came across a company called Blue-Airco, which makes marine air conditioners that run directly from 12, 24 or 48 V batteries. They use variable-speed compressors, so the cooling output can adjust to suit the load. With the right battery setup, you can run the air conditioning without having the generator going at the same time.
That caught my attention. Being anchored somewhere nice sounds great, but trying to sleep in a hot cabin or listening to a generator all night would take a bit away from it.
Obviously, the battery capacity is the big question. Cooling one bedroom overnight is different from cooling the whole boat, and you still need enough energy left for the fridge and everything else. The batteries also need recharging the next day.
I haven’t used one, so I can’t comment on how well they perform in practice, but it seems like it could also be a good option for a caravan when you only want spot cooling during the night. During the day in summer, it probably wouldn’t cool the whole van, but it could provide some welcome cool air where you need it rather than trying to cool the entire space. More information is available on the Blue-Airco website.
