Years ago, I bought a two stroke engine powered generator,
off Ebay. It was about 1,000 watts, and cost about $140 post
paid to my door. I havn't tried to run my AC with it, but
who can tell. Perhaps a two stroke generator would power
your AC? My ETQ is amazingly quiet. Being a two stroke,
might run on the same gas mix you feed your boat motor. My
small engine repair course, they taught us that water cooled
boat motors take a lower grade of mix oil than air cooled
(chainsaw, generator, etc.) Air cooled engines run hotter.
My ETQ generator weighs about 55 pounds.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Richard" wrote in message
news I've asked a few people about this personally, but I'd like
to throw it
open to the larger group as well.

I'm trying to cool the boat for a few days at a time...

A normal 5000 BUT marine air conditioner can pull up to 30
amps of 12
volt power. If my house battery were new and fully charged,
that's 4 or
5 hours. That won't get it for even for a weekend.

If we had a diesel engine (and ran it all day) we could use
an
automotive approach. But we don't - and can't.

So, quoting Kelly Johnston (one of my favorite heroes),
"Simplicate, and add lightness".

Statement of Problem:
I want to air condition the boat for up to 3 or maybe 4 days
at a time.
Independent of dock power.
With as low of a battery load as possible.

Proposed Solution:

A cooler type container with a load of dry ice and a way to
move large
amounts of air across the cooler.

A sketch at:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~cave-1/images/ac-3.jpg

I'm already thinking glycol for the fluid.

But what to make the rest of it from?
Cheap, off the shelf stuff preferred!
A pump that can handle antifreeze?
High torque low power 12 volt DC motors?
What to use for the heat exchangers?
Coils of tubing? Or auto parts?


Other than a drip pan (and a handful of brain cells),
what am I missing?


Thanks all,


Richard