Portable AC for the Mac?

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dlandersson
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Portable AC for the Mac?

Post by dlandersson »

Portable AC for the Mac? Charges with AC/battery/solar. Aledgedly lasts for 8 hours on a single battery charge. 8)

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Highlander
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Re: Portable AC for the Mac?

Post by Highlander »

buy on amazon prime day now & save $ 500.00 , 2 boat bucks with battery ! :o , up here in Vic BC 1st July summer weather is finally here :x

for that price I,ll just Fan it out :D :D :D

J 8)
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Re: Portable AC for the Mac?

Post by 1st Sail »

Uses dual hose for intake and exhaust for the heat exchanger. Very effecient. Not like the inefficient single hose AC's.
:macm:
OverEasy
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Re: Portable AC for the Mac?

Post by OverEasy »

Wow! :o :o
Battery A/C as an engineered package!

Interesting to note that this is actually a 115VAC powered A/C unit with what appears to be a Lithium battery pack and an integral inverter.
That means one could potentially “hack” it to provide 115 VAC power for other applications.

The 4000 BTU rating means it will peak start draw about 1000 watts when starting and at peak capacity.
The intermittent compressor modulation timer (means it’s coming on/off) so each time it turns on the compressor there would be a peak current draw. Steady state running is typically gonna be about 80 to 100% of peak draw for Air Conditioners.

All up weight for the configuration shown looks to be about 55 lbs which isn’t bad at all.
The dual hose system is great in that it doesn’t use cabin air to cool the compressor heat exchanger.
Too bad it doesn’t also include a ‘just dehumidify’ option which would be a nice benefit for those days when the humidity is high but the temperature would otherwise be tolerable. A larger battery bank, such as some have made on their Macs, could by-pass the integral battery bank and use their own set via an appropriate inverter.

Looks to be a nice compact package able to adapt to changing power availability.

The price is a bit of a set-back at about $1200 w/o battery pack and about $1700 w/ battery pack.
So those (with deeper pockets than I) who can this could be a viable option to viably cool down a cabin for the evening or longer with a minimum of fuss (although one would still need to provide for getting the two compressor cooling/exhaust hoses routed outside.

While this isn’t the only way to get real A/C on board it would appear to be a valid approach.
Not bad at all!!!
:) :)

Thanks for posting this article DiAndersson!

Best Regards
Over Easy 😎😎🐩🐈
OverEasy
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Re: Portable AC for the Mac?

Post by OverEasy »

Just an aside note…..

We utilize a portable single hose unit on Over Easy at 8000 BTU.
It has three functions - fan, A/C and dehumidify.
It is a 115 VAC unit that draws about 1500 watts at peak current for full A/C, less for dehumidify and at lower fan settings.
Currently it is a single hose set up to exhaust the hot compressor cooling air (which means it uses some cabin air to cool the compressor heat exchanger).
It has worked pretty well for us giving about a 10 to 15 drop from exterior ambient temperatures or better.

We’re going to eventually convert this unit to a dual hose set-up in the future so the compressor cooling is only done with outside the cabin air. This will virtually eliminate the current outside air infiltration currently experienced.

(While we had originally wanted to get a dual hose type unit they were just not available at the time we did our A/C Mod.)

In doing our cost benefit analysis we looked at various battery bank options and inverters to see what it would take to get 8 hours of A/C.
To pull that off way well into $3 or $4 K with batteries (Lithium) and inverter plus’s a whole lotta weight and internal space.
Lead-Acid batteries were a non-starter purely from a weight and volume perspective.
Then there was getting them charged which was a whole ‘ other can of worms :D :D ……

What did work from a functional perspective was a small 2000 peat wattage inverter generator that could sit under the helm seat of our Mac26X for when planning on extended cruising away from a marina in hot weather.
Vibration and noise are the trade-off factors with the generator but weight, space and cost were much more manageable than the requisite battery solution was.

Also looked at a swamp cooler approach which is only a small 12 VDC pump to bring up water and a 12VDC fan to blow through the water mat. Draw back is a swamp cooler only provides only about a 5 to 8 degree drop on temp and a pretty hefty airflow capacity. Up-side is the relative light weight when empty of water. But these do raise the humidity of the cabin which can be a problem.

We also looked into a submerged water siphon approach as deeper water is generally cooler than ambient air.
Siphon the water up from depth then through a heat exchanger core and back under the water. A fan blows air through the heat exchanger.
The advantage of this approach is it doesn’t raise the cabin humidity.
Draw back is it is dependent on water temp at depth… the farther south one goes the warmer the air and the water but the cooling need goes up… :| :|

At this time it would still appear that using a marina shore power at night is the simplistic option followed by the small generator
But this Interesting A/C unit with integral battery presented is an interesting alternative to consider if there is a means to recharge is viable. (Two of the battery pack shown in the video could possibly get to about 6 hours of air conditioning … three would get to about 9 hours… estimated A/C and battery cost would be about $3k in round numbers… not counting the means or method of recharging)

Best Regards
Over Easy 😎😎🐩🐈
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