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AC Kit

Where do I locate the AC Unit?

Self contained marine air conditioning units should be located in the main cabin to be air conditioned.  If you want to use one air conditioning unit to cool more than one cabin you can do this using a splitter to divide the duct and give you an additional outlet for the second cabin.

Typical positions to install a marine AC unit would be under a settee, under a bunk, at the floor of a wardrobe or hanging locker or under the V berth.

You can install a marine AC unit in an engine room or lazarette, but it must be completely boxed in so the return air comes ONLY from the inside cabin or cabins of the vessel that you are air conditioning.

Marine air conditioning units must recirculate the air conditioned air of the boat, not hot/humid fresh air. The AC unit will draw in air from the compartment it is in (via the return grill) and discharge this air through the insulated duct to the outlet grill. Every pass of air over the evaporator will reduce the temperature by approx 10°C and will also reduce the moisture and humidity of the air.  It may take several passes of air through the unit to reduce the ambient in a cabin from 30°C+ to 19°C with 50% humidity which is why it is important that you are not introducing new air from outside.

Where should I position the air delivery grill?

The best location for the air delivery grill is high up, ideally on a bulkhead as close to the head lining of the boat as possible.  The cold air will bounce off the headliner and gently drop down into the room.  If placed high up the discharge air will normally travel about 3m so should be able to reach across most cabins OK, with a single outlet.

Where do I position the return air grill?

There is no need for return air ducting – A marine AC unit is a bit like a vacuum cleaner in reverse, sucking air in and blowing the cooled or heated air through the delivery ducts to the air distribution grills.

The blower motor and rotary compressors are air cooled and do get warm, therefore it’s good to have the return air travel over these components enroute to the evaporator. There is no need to have the evaporator up against the return air grill, in fact it’s better to have the opposite – make sure the evaporator has at least 50-75mm of space from any bulkhead.

How do I divide the air between cabins?

Marine AC Twin outlet

Self contained marine air conditioning units should be located in the main cabin to be air conditioned.  If you want to use one air conditioning unit to cool more than one cabin you can do this using a splitter to divide the duct and give you an additional outlet for the second cabin – see diagram above).

You also need to consider the return air from each cabin to ensure you get the correct amount back to the AC unit. If the AC unit is in the main (larger) cabin for example and you have a second outlet into a forward V berth you would need to put a louvered grill in the door of the V berth so that you are getting return air back to the saloon.  If you had the unit located in the V berth with an outlet to the saloon it will cause reduce the temperature in the V berth before the temperature in the saloon has reduced significantly – in this case you may need a larger grill in the door joining the two cabins or even look at ducting air from the saloon back to the sleeping cabin.

Typical positions to install a marine AC unit would be under a settee, under a bunk, at the floor of a wardrobe or hanging locker or under the V berth.

To set up your system with one marine AC unit to cool two cabins set the larger cabin as the master and the smaller cabin as slave on our configurator.

Have you thought about drawer fridges?

Take a look at the Vitrifrigo D20 and D30 drawer fridges. These are packed with features including the ability to run as freezers. For more information email us at [email protected] or call: 02392 453430