New Air Conditioner idea

[Discovery]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zero-breeze-the-world-s-coolest-portable-ac-unit#/

A kick starter campaign for a small air conditioner. May be an idea for a C-Dory.

I have NO interest in this product.

[ssobol]

Not sure it would be sufficient. Depends on where you cruise. C-Dorys are not insulated. In No. VA summers my 5000BTU window unit is barely adequate on some days. 1100 BTUs probably would not cut it.

However, the Zero breeze unit is more portable. It could be directly wired into the boat DC electric system. With either the battery or direct wiring you could run it while the boat is cruising (which is difficult with a regular window AC unit). You'd have to sort out what to do with the exhaust hose and water drain line if you used it in the cabin though.

IMO, the night light is unnecessary and the Bluetooth speaker thing is just silly.

[thataway]

I agree with ssobol. The 1100 BTU is not a lot of cooling. But the BTU is not the whole story--we don't know what the cu. foot per min output is. you could use fans in the V berth area to circulate the air.

I suspect if you fully insulted the forward cabin, including a "door" (could be bubble foil or foil covered styrofoam "sheets", that you probably could get that area to 20* below outside ambient temp. You would have to have a bucket for the condensate (you could collect the water for washing dishes etc). Plus the "hose" has to go out an open window, to get rid of the heat removed from the air.

We used the 5,000 BTU window unit on our25, blowing into the cabin, where the outside was about 105, and got the cabin (with bubble mylar insulation on the windows) down to 85 degrees--certainly more comfortable. The 22, you can get a little lower.

There have been several boaters who have used the window units, with ducting to blow cold air under a jacket to cool their body when at the helm...

Some of the photos on the web site are ridiculous. Sitting out of doors, and blowing on a group of folks on a pontoon boat for example.

Living in Florida, we find the breeze is adequate during the day, but when in the 90's at night-sure nice to have AC.--or a really good breeze.

The 18650 battery is common enough--I use it in one of my portable radio receivers. (Tesla does use this battery in the current higher priced cars--The battery is 16mm diameter x 65 mm long. In the larger battery pack there are 7104 batteries, the smaller 5376 batteries. The new Series 3 is rumored to be using a new larger battery: 21mm diameter x 70 mm long).

[Aurelia]

Would be easier to add/carry something like this to a C-dory and even power it without a generator given the right combo of portable battery and large house battery. Still power hungry at 12.5 amps and the limited BTUs is a concern. I suppose if you positioned it to blow into the berth it would at least do much better than a fan alone. The weight would be very manageable for nearly anyone. The portable battery may provide enough run-time to get to bed and sleep until the cooler part of the morning but then how do you charge it back up for the next night.

If you were plugged into shore power it would be small to carry and likely adequate for the sleeping space.

I too found the outdoor use pictures silly at best. People are more excited about their gadgets than the activity they are supposed to be enjoying.

Greg

[rogerar]

And saved it, replaced w/ plywood and a window ac, also had a freezer in the v berth potty storage area.
Thanks
Roger

[Marco Flamingo]