Slight OT- AC in a boat.

Hey guys, One of my mates has a boat, a old fishing trawler with a concrete hull that he has converted to a live in boat. He is having trouble with the boat heating up alot during the day, outside air temp >32 degrees celcius and inside getting to like 35+. Humidity is very high, on the Gold coast in Australia.

Whats the best way to cool the boat down, the water temp is only 22-23 atm would it be worth it to mount a radiator in one of the windows with water from the bottom of the river pumped through it with a fan drawing air into the cabin? would dehumidify the air a little but would it be enough to take the temp down abit, like to 25C.

Hmm... something like that might work but I think the radiator part might need to be pretty thick to make a significant change in the air temperature depending on how fast the fan is blowing. Maybe two radiators stacked?

If the hull is in the water, it seems like there should be some direct conduction there. It might be more cost effective to try and make the upper structure more insulated and reflective. White paint works wonders, as does any kind of shading.

Evaporative cooling does not work well in humid areas, so probably rule that out.

It might not be too hard to try out the radiator thing. Most modern cars have electric fans already mounted to them. All you need then is a pump and some hoses. If the system is fully primed with water, it won't take much of a pump to get good circulation. Air leaks could be a problem especially if the radiatior part is very high above the water. The part above water will be generally under a vacuum, so any air leaks could cause loss of circulation. I think 3-4 meters would be the maximum if you want to use a centrifugal pump.

Pretty sure he already has the boat coated in white paint - cream paint atleast that he nicked from work.

I ll keep looking into it, shouldnt be too hard to setup something. Thanks for the reply

Yah. He needs to shade the boat with awnings... "Airflow" eg solar vents would be good too.
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