Rooftop Air Conditioner--Albin 27

[cork]

I am considering a rooftop ac for Albin 27 Aft Cabin.
Place on the roof of cockpit. Add siding to enclose entire cockpit and aft cabin.
Questions:
Has anyone done this?
D/C or A/C current?
Use of Honda 2000 generator?
Small fans to blow cool air into fore and aft cabins?

Open to y'all thoughts and ideas. Thanks.

[Vic K]

Cork,

Good seeing you today.
I just bought a Dometic heatpump rooftop that I'm in the process of installing. I'm getting help from an electronically talented friend as this thing includes a thermostat. He thinks that the Honda 1000 will operate this unit if nothing else is on the generator.
I'll keep you up dated.

Vic

[cork]

Vic,
Keep me posted on how the Domenic works.

Great to see you and your boat on Galveston Bay.

The boat looks better in person. My wife said, it looks like it just came from the boat show floor. You did a find remodel.

Cork

[cork]

Vic,

Which Dometic model?

I am trying to find info. On amps needed.

Are you adding a hard start capacitor?

[Vic K]

Cork,

I recently had a computer crash and lost all me email addresses. If you still have mine on file I would appreciate having yours again.
Thank your wife for the compliment. You have to admire from a distance. That was to second run using the engine blanket for noise. I'm happy to say it's working better than expected. Hope to make an over nighter Galveston soon.

A friend got this unit for me as I didn't want a unit with a heat strip. Since I can now enclose the back 'salon' I wanted good heat for our three cold days in February. I'll get the model number for you. I believe it's called a penguin 16,000 BTU's. This comes with a remote thermostat and some other jigjads that my guru/friend going to custom wire to fit the boat. What I understand a Honda 1000 is suppose to be enough. We'll see. Right now I'm in the process of making the mounting frame and getting the 110 wire to the right location.

Since cold air falls there shouldn't be a big problem getting cold to the forward cabin. You would still have to feed your aft cabin. I'll keep you in touch with the progress. Hope to have it in before the end of May.

Vic

[don123]

I am 99 44/100's percent sure you're not going to run any 16K Btu A/C on a Honda Eu1000 - It's a tough start to get a 5,000 Btu unit going with a 1Kw generator. You may even find it a bit of a challenge to run it on a Honda EU 2000i - Maybe if you install a 'soft start kit' on the Dometic. Who knows, since it's an RV A/C unit, it could possible have a soft start kit already installed. The soft start allows for only the compressor to start up first, since it draws 3/4ths of the current, then 2 or 3 seconds later, it starts the blower fan
http://themarineinstallersrant.blogspot ... oftly.html

Don

[Mark Deeser]

Cork, we have two boats on our dock that have tried to run ac off a 2000 Honda, they were unable to do it. A soft start might help but it would seem you would be running the Honda at it's limits all the time.

[don123]

Actually, if a generator can manage to just *start* an air conditioner, then once it's running it will probably be using less than half of the generators rated capacity, so there's no need to worry about long term damage to the generator caused by constant running with a load too high for it. The start-up current draw can be 3X or 4X the running current draw

Don

[cork]

Vic,

I emailed you via this forum with my contact info. as I did not have your.

On the AC. Vic using a heat pump made me wonder if it used less amps to start.

From reading it appears some 9000 btu air conditioners will start and run with honda 2000.

I am interested in roof top as they seem cheaper and less work to install. Just wonder if they will do the job of cooling. I would think power requirements are the same. The heat pump approach made me question, maybe less power.

If Vic has it installed by the end of May, we will have many answers.

[Vic K]

Need to make a correction about this roof top AC. It's a 13,500 btu and not a 16000 btu heat pump by Dometic. The generator is a Honda 2000 and not the Honda 1000. My error, sorry for the confusion. I'm leaving the electrics to someone that knows what they are doing. For myself I'm at the 'lick and stick' level when it comes to electrical and electronics. My electric guy will be using something called an 'easy start'. I'm moving forward with building the support for the roof installation and getting the wire to where it's suppose to be.

Vic

[cork]

Vic,

Are you using a Dometic model 57915.
Compressor needs 12.1 amps,
Fan needs 2.5 amps
Weight 94 pounds

Honda generator rated 13.7 amps max.

Here is a comment saying with this hard start, a Honda 2000 will start 13,500.
http://www.amazon.com/Dometic-Therm-Con ... 9913925460

So, I am thinking this might just work.

I will wait til Vic installs and see if it is enough cooling.

Now, I need to think about one hundred pound ac on the roof.

Still open to thoughts and suggestions.

[Vic K]

Got the AC on the roof. Not hooked up as of yet but getting close. Doesn't look bad if I say so myself. I had to take the hand rails off to put the unit on so when they go back it should cover the unit profile a little. With luck it should cool the salon as well as the cabin. The electrics guru still believes, with a Hard Start capacitor, a Honda 2000 should run the AC. It would be nice to run the ICW during the Texas heat in comfort. The older I get the harder it is to tolerate the Gulf Coast heat and humidity. A cool AC and a 12 volt fridge to keep the drinks cold....now that's roughing it.

[cork]

Vic, looks good.

Where will you place your generator as you cruise the ditch?

Anxious to see if it also cools forward cabin.

[Vic K]

Cork,

I see no reason why it wouldn't cool the cabin. The down vent points that way. Worst case might need a fan in the doorway. I sent you other photos to your email address. Did you get those? No idea where for the Honda generator will go. Will figure that out when I get there.

Vic

[sail149]

So how did it work? Does look nice install
I'd wondered about installing on the cabin roof behind the hatch or instead of the hatch.
Not sure it would look that bad or interfere with visibility fwd.
Warren