With our current boat our concern has been all about staying warm in northern waters but we are now on our way south and wondering about staying cool. We have plenty of hatches and an air scoop but we have been wondering about fitting air conditioning. We have s 4kva 240 volt A/C diesel generator and also have ducts in place for heating and dehumidifying.

I was wondering about simple air conditioning solutions that would be easy to install and not too power hungry.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Simon

Hi Simon,
Re your Air Con question, I think Dick in his usual thoroughness, has covered much of what I would have written.
A couple of points though. We also use Hella Fans, and they are superb for shifting air about, and are really durable. After 11 years we have replaced a couple, but since 9 of those years were spent in the tropics not bad. We managed to get a couple of Oscillating ones as replacements which were on an offer by Hella at the same price as fixed ones so maybe if fans are on your shopping list bear that in mind.
We also obtained a couple of spare mounts, so we could have the facility to move the fans to a different position. We did not need one in the fore cabin, only when we had guests, and also on the passage berths, it was great to be able to have a fan on ones bunk during off watch times. So flexibility of the position is in my opinion a useful feature.
The other thing we found which I believe is a US product is called a Port Visor by Seaworthy Products.com These visors are superb and enable you to leave cabin windows open without any rain coming in the window. On really heavy tropical downpours as our windows are fairly close to the deck, we did get occasional bounce back of the rain hitting the decks by the window, but as long as you were on board no problem.
In Trinidad we rented an air con unit and put it over the saloon forward hatch and rigged up some 100mm ducting to spread the cool air around the boat. It worked well. In Venezuela we bought a unit, and again mounted it as in Trinidad. However well it worked, we started to question why we were sitting down below on a really hot day. This is when we came to the conclusion that it was time to land travel to other countries during the Hurricane / Cyclone Season. We did not want to be on the boat during those times.
We have lots of Canvas to protect us from the sun, and have over the years fine tuned our use of it so we can be shaded and comfortable not only at anchor but also whilst under sail.
Hope this helps. Maybe you can plan your return to work times during the wet humid season!
Cheers
Brian S/V Darramy