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Air conditioning- buying 40-50’ motor yacht

Discussion in 'HVAC' started by Bcbbab, May 14, 2022.

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  1. Bcbbab

    Bcbbab New Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2022
    Messages:
    2
    Location:
    Houston
    I am in the market for a 40 to 50 foot motoryacht. It seems that all of the pictures have fans inside. Do the typical air conditioner is not keep up? Is there a certain brand or type I need to look for?
  2. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 29, 2008
    Messages:
    8,118
    Location:
    Miami, FL
    New or used? How old?

    you basically have three type of air con on boats

    self contained: condenser and evaporator all in one unit. Simple, easy to replace but you have the noisy compressor in the room and you have to run cooling sea water hose to each unit. Common on small boats under 50’

    Remote condenser aka split. The condenser incl the compressor are installed in the engine room and cold refrigerant is sent to the evaporator in each room. More complex and harder to maintain, but no compressor noise in the rooms and no need to send sea water thru out the boat. Often used in boats between 45 and 70’

    Chilled water system. Chillers are installed in the engine room, containing the conpressors and heat exchangers that cool a fresh water loop supplying the air handler in each room. Better redundancy, than splits but a little more expensive. The water loop hoses and insulations are pretty thick so it takes more planing. Typically used over 65/70’ although more builders seem to be installing chillers.

    in any case either system if properly designed and maintained should work fine.

    seeing fans is either a sign that there is an issue or simply that the owners of the boat anchor out and don’t run the generator when anchored to reduce noise.
  3. Bcbbab

    Bcbbab New Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2022
    Messages:
    2
    Location:
    Houston
    Not sure how old but as I look around I’m guessing between 1987-2003 ish. I’m hot blooded so I want max AC. I appreciate the feedback. So when at the marina there’s not much noise to worry about it sounds like. When anchored then the generator would be the noise. Ill research more. Thinking about using as a livaboard.
  4. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 29, 2008
    Messages:
    8,118
    Location:
    Miami, FL
    Well when docked and on shore power, self contained units will still be noisy since the unit is often installed under the bed…. Newer units have quieter compressors but I would not want an older model under my bed :)
  5. Fiammetta42

    Fiammetta42 Member

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2017
    Messages:
    130
    Location:
    Liguria Italy ( boat )
    Take a look @ Frigomar .
    They do smaller chillers and run brushless D.C. motors requiring very low amps and zero start spike .Almost silent as well .I had a 42 K BTU three chiller outlet fitted to my 14 M boat .Calcs came in 27/29 K BTU.
    Result
    -Silence when asleep .
    -Ice cooled - useful in hot marinas in the Med summer .
    - Lower power consumption- run’s nicely @ anchor with the geny .

    Plenty of you tube vids too “ Frigomar “